Used to be my playground

The final stop in our tour of damage

and recovery areas were the old

school grounds. The original Cameron

schools plot had multiple buildings,

including the auditorium where the

Fur queen was crowned each year.

Rita wiped all that out, leaving only a

cement footprint, where you can still

see the outline of the aisles once

walked by audiences for school

plays and concerts. After the

schools were rebuilt in one building

a few miles away, the old school

grounds became the festival site—

until Ike roared through this year,

not only blasting the festival site

but leveling the new school.

With board members homeless and

the town struggling to rebuild, the

festival has been cancelled until 2010.