Riding Waves, Taking Pictures, Picking Up Debris

Hurricane Isaac may not have hit Panama City Beach directly but our beaches definitely felt the impact.  As 15 foot waves crashed along the rocks, the beaches were lined with debris washed up onshore.  Not expecting what lay before me, I was completely unprepared to perform a trash cleanup.  However, I could not just walk over it and pretend the trash did not exist.  I found a tire washed up on the beach.  I started collecting the hundreds of plastic bottles using the tire as a barrier.  I also found a bucket which I used to haul bits of trash from the beach to the garbage cans under the building at the park.  I made over twenty trips with my bucket as hundreds of people stood watching.  A couple of young girls helped for a few minutes which warmed my heart.  A few others thanked me as I made my rounds, but most just took pictures of the waves pounding the shore.  

Some of my family members hurried home to retrieve trash bags.   Once the bags arrived, we all went to work gathering everything we could find.  An umbrella, lunch box and hundreds of bottles later we decided to call it a day.  

I would like to say thank you to my wonderful family who helped clean up what others walked over.  There may be more out there but we will get it piece by piece.