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Recently Robert Varner with the Mississippi Ready Mix Association inquired about decorative concrete training in his state to increase awareness of the industry for local consumers as well as local contractors. Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi teaching stamped concrete, stamped overlays and acid staining at the association's facility.

Although attendance was down - probably due to the great weather most contractors were taking advantage of to make money - the training was good with some nice in-place permanent displays. We were fortunate to have one of the local decorative concrete contractors, Elliot Davis, and some of his employees from Decorative Concrete Designs, Inc. in attendance to offer a helping hand. We had prescribed our mix design for the class not realizing how fast the concrete would set up (we finished stamping this 5-yd. pad exactly one hour after the concrete was placed). Thanks to Elliot and crew, it came out nicely.

While driving to and from the training site each day, we observed the region's rebuilding process as well as much of the untouched debris left behind from the storm. The true devastation and economic impact this region had experienced really sunk in, and we wondered if the state, as well as local concrete contractors, would recover from this horrific freak of nature called Katrina.

So many of us "concrete junkies" take for granted our daily routine of being able to get up each and every day doing what we love while at the end of a hard day's work, coming home to our families and comfortable homes. Conversely, think about a once-thriving market producing your livelihood that no longer existed for years after the storm, let alone driving back to a now vacant lot with the only visible structure being a concrete foundation that you once called home!

That evening we went to a local restaurant and while waiting for Robert and Elliot to join us we were enjoying a cold beverage and asked the bartender what the painted line on the wall and ceiling represented. He informed us this was the water line from the storm surge - and oh, by the way, it was 13 ft. above their finished floor!