In Mississippi, Time Stands Still: Recovery Stagnant In Post-Katrina Towns

[Thom Little]

By Michael Powell
Washington Post
Friday, Nov. 25, 2005


PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. -- Three months ago, Katrina all but scoured this old beach town of 8,000 off the face of the Earth. To walk its streets today is to see acres of wreckage almost as untouched as the day the hurricane passed.

No new houses are framed out. No lots cleared. There is just devastation and a lingering stench and a tent city in which hundreds of residents huddle against the first chill of winter and wonder where they'll find the money to rebuild their lives.

.......

This is the other land laid low by Katrina's fury. Like New Orleans to the west, hundreds of square miles of Mississippi coastland look little better than they did in early September, and many people here harbor anger that the federal government has fallen short and that the nation's attention has turned away. At least 200,000 Mississippians remain displaced, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is short at least 13,000 trailers to house them.

Fifty thousand homeowners lack federal flood insurance and cannot rebuild. The casinos, which employed 17,000 people, won't begin to reopen until next year, and the unemployment rate has quadrupled, now topping 23 percent in the coastal counties.

.......

"FEMA continues to be able to mess up a one-car funeral -- we don't begin to have enough money for major reconstruction," said Rep. Gene Taylor (D), who lost his own home in Bay St. Louis. "We're going to have a lot of defaults and bankruptcies. The federal response, from highways to housing to trailers, is completely unacceptable."



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/24/AR2005112400796.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Gee, where's Haley Barbour now?

I thought he had an in with the WH and that everything was going great?

[Toots]

6. He is over in Iraq dishing up turkey

He has whole towns completely decimated in his state and he is traipsing around in Iraq to bolster his image. It is all about image with these people...

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. That is so disgusting

He should have been down on the MS coast dishing out T-Day dinner. I guess he feels safer in Iraq at this point.

[Westpark1]

22. Barbour

He's probably sitting in a nice heated office in Washington raising money with his corporate and lobbyist buddies for the RNC instead of taking care of the victims.

[unhappycamper]

2. Thom Little:

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs and must include a link to the original source.

In the future, please insure your posts adhere to this standard.

TIA,

unhappycamper
DU Moderator

[wakeme2008]

3. Gee a Repug sent me part of an email from her White Repug

friend that lives in a 86% white coastal town,,, and FEMA was GREAT and he got tons of stuff.....

[pitohui]

7. pass christian IS that 85 percent white coastal town

or maybe she means its next door neighbor long beach

obviously different people can have different opinions of "great" but i wouldn't be happy w. $2K plus a generator and a chainsaw where i used to have a million dollar home -- esp. since flood insurance is capped at $250K!

progress is fits and starts, and people have a right to keep attention on this issue so the towns can be rebuilt


in defense of yr friend, some people are keeping up a brave front, they know others have much less & they don't want to get contributions or aid that could go to others, so they assure friends and family that they have all they need thru FEMA, insurance, etc. -- i would respect their pride but not necessarily take such boasts at full face value

[wakeme2008]

20. long beach

from Sept 6 email

Len said that things continue to improve. The goal is to have power on
in Long Beach in three days and the entire Gulf Coast by Sept. 11th.
There is more cellphone coverage available too but still wait for him to
call you.

..cut..

Len continues to repeat, do not believe all you hear or see on TV. There
are 30 plus distribution sites in his area. All he has to do is drive
up, and tell them what he needs. If you can't drive, they bring it to
you. Mississippi guard troops and others and volunteers are doing this
work.

[pitohui]

23. my friend in mid-city, new orleans, reports the same

also some good effort in western st. tammany from FEMA, red cross, nat'l guard

i sure don't want to crap on all the people who are doing a fine job

but please keep in mind, some of these areas got the distribution and even too many distributions because it was impossible at first and still difficult to get into the hardest hit areas

thus, my mid-city friend complaining abt an over-supply of MREs (meals ready to eat) that he doesn't need now that stores have opened, while people in lakeview (another white area, so we are comparing oranges to oranges) are still having trouble getting ANYTHING

[Westpark1]

24. I went down there several weeks back to help as a volunteer.....

I couldn't believe the devastation. EVERYTHING is wiped out. Restaurants are offering almost 10 dollars an hour to flip burgers plus benefits and these aren't even union jobs. So many people have moved away that it will be years before they are even close to rebuilding everything - assuming they ever will in the first place.

[wakeme2008]

25. Same will be true of NOLA

A lot of the low wage relocated NOLA workers will find jobs in Houston and other cities. Once they move into an apartment and have a job, why would they moved to NOLA.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[area51]

5. This is so sickening.

We're obviously a third-world nation now, thanks to GW Hoover.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pitohui]

9. people just don't get it

venice, louisiana:





near fort jackson, louisiana:



buras, louisiana:




entire towns, not just one town, but i don't even have a count of the number of TOWNS wiped off the map by these storms, much less a proper count of the dead human beings

the media sat downtown new orleans and filmed the superdome over and over and so the world outside thinks this disaster is abt one smallish city by world standards

absolutely no comprehension that towns have been wiped off the map from cameron, louisiana to long beach, mississippi

if people think the FEMA response in rural mississippi & louisiana is adequate, i invite them to come down here themselves & photograph evidence for their argument, but bring a tent, there is NO housing

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. A few years ago when we went to New Orleans

we drove down into the delta area and cajun country. It was so beautiful. The people were warm and friendly. We were so glad we took that day trip.

These pictures are so sad.

[Kashka-Kat]

16. is there anyone doing anything--??

Local churches or organizations? Anything we can do from here in Wis.-- I mean it seems pointless to donate to Red Cross---? Phone calls? agitation? If I feel this helpless frustrated and angry I can only imagine what people living thru this must be going thru.

I was thinking about helping w/ animal rescue over Xmas holidays but now rethinking-- shocked to hear that people are still struggling so much w/ bare survival TV here just shows the "feel good" stuff-- people being served thanksgiving dinners and such.

[pitohui]

19. we're getting aid from freakin hiv patients in uganda

i can't make this stuff up, read this story from nola.com, the web site of the new orleans, newspaper, it will break yr heart

http://www.nola.com/archives/t-p/index.ssf?/base/library-90/1132819252317290.xml&coll=1


quote -- Impoverished women from war-torn Uganda, many of them with HIV, perform arduous labor for weeks to raise nearly $900 for local hurricane victims


you know, individuals are doing so much, it just breaks yr heart

giving to red cross and salvation army does help, there is waste and imperfections in any program, and these programs and even church programs are a way to get help to people who don't have family or friends outside the region

a big issue is that many from the coast have lived for generations on the coast, thus, don't have the resources to fall back on of people who have relatives or friends in distant locations who can provide even a few day's lodging or a couple of bucks or even just a phone call and shoulder to cry on

so organization are v. important, i am meeting people from st. bernard relocated to my parish whose entire extended families have lost their homes, businesses, etc, you see

so don't feel bad abt the red cross

you can also review nola.com for suggestions for other organizations and activities to raise funds

just buying from a displaced or recovering louisiana or mississippi artist can be a big help

another thing i would ask you to do is to fax/phone/whatever yr senators and congresscritter and tell them that rebuilding the coast, including the rural regions, is important to you

let them know that it isn't just two senators from louisiana and two senators from mississippi who are worried abt this issue

[earth mom]

10. Meanwhile, Americans stampede each other for cheap goods for Christmas.

Meanwhile, Billions of US tax dollars are spent in Iraq killing US Soldiers and Iraqi Citizens.

Meanwhile, Congress votes NO on getting the US of Iraq immediately.

Meanwhile, the BFEE eat turkey dinner in the warmth and comfort of their ill gotten luxury homes.

Meanwhile, The Media Whores reap billions in Christmas Advertising while slanting the so called "news".

Meanwhile, FEMA and the Red Cross figure out how to continue to screw over the victims of Katrina so that they can hang on to as much money as possible since the Katrina victims were disposable anyway.

And so on and so forth in the corrupt and unethical United States of America.

:puke:

[ninkasi]

11. The government is failing it's people

I say we roll back the tax cuts for the wealthy, and start rebuilding the areas that were devastated by the hurricanes. I also believe we should petition Congress to donate the hefty pay raises they so generously awarded themselves to the rebuilding effort.

Of course, I'm for getting out of Iraq now, because it was wrong to invade, the war is illegal, and too many innocent Iraqis and Coalition troops are being killed. Even if we could afford the war, we should still leave. We can't afford it, though, so we get out, then use some of the money spent fighting it on repairing the damage we've done in Iraq, and some to help the citizens in this country who are in need.

The truth is, we DO have the money, but it's all concentrated in the hands of an elite few, who buy members of Congress, pay to steal elections, and control the media. They must begin paying a fair share of taxes to keep our country from settling permanently into Third World status, which is what much of our Gulf Coast has become.

[gulfcoastliberal]

12. Paging Merh! How's it going in Gulfport?

My grandmom is never going back to Waveland. :(

But she will have a really nice condo my mom has to live in and hopefully find some new bridge playing buddies.

Merh, hope you & family are doing OK!

[pitohui]

21. she's around, i saw her post just a day or so ago

i'm so sorry about waveland, quite a lot of history lost there

bay st. louis is actually picking up the pieces, i'm amazed, i thought they were hit abt as bad as waveland but they've got trailors to open the school for the kids and it sounds like the people are determined to fix this

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. And how is Trent Lott's house coming along?

Ready for company yet? dubya was so sure he would be able to once again sit on the porch with Trent. :eyes:

[knitter4democracy]

17. We need a new government.

The problem is too big for all of us to take care of it individually. I mean, I send money to a family I know down there for help ($800+ electric bill last month with four families living in the one good house), but my money isn't enough.

When's the revolution again?

[DaveColorado]

18. Welcome to Amerikkka

"There is just devastation and a lingering stench and a tent city in which hundreds of residents huddle against the first chill of winter and wonder where they'll find the money to rebuild their lives."