Katrina aid -- Roll Tide!

Actually, yes. I attended practice, interviewed two players and two coaches, wrote a story. Wrote two other stories for the preps stuff and now I'm working a desk shift.

And I slept five hours last night.

But at least I only have to write two stories tomorrow before going to the amusement park with the munchkins as an end of summer getaway.

Have a happy Lynard Skynard listening party day!

 

Fuck it. I'd buy one if I lived down there and made that kind of money.

 

Great work by the AP reporter, Reeves.
Excellent story.

 

Nothing personal, but this post provides more proof America has largely forgotten South Mississippi, South Alabama and areas of Louisiana outside NOLA beat to shit by Katrina.

 

While the storm tide wrecks Mobile, you can watch the Crimson Tide wreck Monroe!

 

I keep hearing that Gulfcoast Mississippi is doing well, Del. True? False?

 

and Rita.

 

Heckuva job there, Brownie...

 

It all depends on what barometer you use to measure it. Casinos? They're back, more of them and bigger. Condos? Still being built. Folks in FEMA trailers? Tens of thousands still in 'em, including two very dear to my heart. My folks have been busting ass for two years trying to get back into their house, but still aren't there. (Just looked up the stats: 16,000 FEMA trailers still occupied in Mississippi.) Schools? Thousands of kids in portable classrooms, very little rebuilding even started. Infrastructure? Gulfport has repaved very few of the streets south of the railroad tracks about four blocks off the street. They were chewed to hell, along with the water and sewage systems beneath, and worse conditions exist in Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis and Waveland. A major U.S. highway bridge over Biloxi Bay won't be ready for traffic until November. Insurance? What a disaster. Examples: One business in Bay St. Louis saw its annual insurance costs rise from $8,000 to $30,000 after the storm; two reporters in our newsroom pay more in insurance per month than their pre-Katrina mortgage and insurance put together.

Is the Coast doing better than NOLA? God, I hope so. Are we doing well? Only in comparison. It'll be a decade before you see the coastline rebuilt and things return to "normal", and only if the insurance situation gets fixed.

 

And their premiums won't go down anytime soon.

 

So much for what little optimism I had about this country's ability to do anything right by these people.
Be well, Del.