The anniversary passed rather quietly Monday.

There was no fanfare, no big productions no major events.

Monday was the 11th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Unless you lived on the Gulf Coast or were survivors of that storm, as are my family and I, you probably didn’t give it a passing thought. There were a few special programs on public television and the Weather Channel last weekend and there were memorial services on the Coast for those who died in the storm, but other than that, no major events like last year’s 10th anniversary observance.

This is the second, maybe my third, column I’ve written on the anniversary of Katrina. It’s an event I can never forget and will never erase from my mind. I still remember watching the tidal surge cover downtown Pascagoula and every vehicle in the parking lots of the Jackson County Courthouse and the county’s Emergency Operations Center. I still remember how my house looked the day after the storm and how I tried hard not to tell my wife what had happened.

Those images were vividly brought back recently as I watched Baton Rouge and the rest of South Louisiana succumb to the ravages of flooding.

This week’s breakdown at the water treatment plant that knocked out water pressure to the whole town brought back another memory of Katrina, one that was quite pleasant and may have been a good example of how people on the Coast adjusted after the storm.

And maybe a lesson.

I stayed at a hotel with some co-workers in Pascagoula after the storm. The power being out, there was no way to flush the toilets in the rooms, so people went to the hotel swimming pool daily with their ice buckets to get water from the pool to fill the toilet tanks so they would flush. The ritual served another purpose. It provided a place to find out how your neighbor’s recovery was going and to pick up on the latest gossip; get word on when FEMA was coming, or where to find a reputable contractor.

Katrina was a great equalizer. It made everyone, regardless of wealth or color, equal, and everyone contributed in one way or another to the reconstruction. We all got along. We had the same problems and plenty of ears to listen and shoulders to cry on. As one friend put it, “I don’t mind telling someone about my problems, because I know he’s got the same problems.”

That is one of the bright spots when I remember that storm and its aftermath. People on the Coast came together, they worked together; they helped each other out. They made Mississippi look good. People in South Louisiana are applying that same cooperation now.

I just wish we were able to apply that same cooperation and sense of togetherness all the time, and not just when a disaster happens and we’re forced to come together.