Gulf Coast - 2 years later

A few weeks ago we travelled to Gulfport-Biloxi to check out their recovery from Katrina. We hadn't been there since July 2005 and heard about the devastation that the storm visited upon them. Here are some pictures to document their efforts.

(Click on pictures for full-sized versions)


Besides the casinos, not much else is open.









Inside the gutted Mississippi Sound Historical Museux are life jackets probably last used two years ago.


Outside the building sits the steeple to the Gulfport Presbytarian Church, waiting to be placed upon the rebuilt church.


Edgewater Mall made it thru the storm despite its proximity to the Gulf.


The S.S. Camille. In April I posted about the the fate of this old boat requiring it to be moved but it's still where Katrina left it.
Here's a link to the Camille in better days


Here's the Olive Garden we'd visit every time we came to the coast. All that's left is the sign.


Along the beaches in Waveland/Bay St. Louis are these signs


Bay St. Louis constructed this pier and ferry landing before the Bay Bridge reopened.

The Bay Bridge is still under construction, but it's open to traffic.


These new condos are on Hwy 90 at the foot of the Bay Bridge.

We stopped for a late lunch in Bay St. Louis.
If you ever get hungry while travelling thru Bay St. Louis, I recommend Rickey's Restaurant. The food is delicious and they portions are generous.

The last leg of our trip brought us thru picturesque Pass Christian, Mississippi, where there seems to be a lot going on.


The Blue Rose has been repaired and is for sale.


Another beautiful home restored.



I think this little building was once part of Bourdin Construction.

Here's a link to photos taken in Pass Christian on September 5, 2005.

A friend told me that it would take a good five years for things to be back to where they were before the storm. By the looks of things on the coast, she's right.

MeMaw is "inspiring"

SELF magazine honors Gov. Blanco as an "inspiring woman".

The article spotlights an array of women from all walks of life, from Oprah Winfrey to Sandra Bullock. Gov. Blanco shares a spot on the list with the nation's eight other female governors "for showing the country and the world that women are cut out to lead."

I'm sorry, I just don't get it. The following examples of her work leave me just the opposite of "inspired".


from NBC , some examples of the real "leader":
She and the mayor waited until Sunday [Aug. 28] , only 20 hours before Katrina came ashore, to order a mandatory evacuation, the first of what disaster experts and Louisiana insiders say were serious mistakes by the governor."

Blanco's lateness in getting the Louisiana National Guard, which she commands, on the streets to try to establish security.

The governor would not say whether she made the decision not to use these troops, and tells NBC News that her state's response to Katrina was, quote, 'very well-planned' and 'executed with great precision and effectiveness

uh, huh...

Road Home Program

 Bush told Blanco that he was ready to move with troops and relief immediately, but Blanco requested a delay of 24 hours

From Time magazine
When it mattered most, Blanco appeared "dazed and confused," says Bernie Pinsonat, a bipartisan political consultant in Baton Rouge, La. When NBC's Matt Lauer asked her whether it was hard to find words to reassure the public, she tried to muster optimism, then circled back to despair. "You know, our people out here are so fearful. They're so worried ... It's a nightmare."
Blanco waited seven weeks to appoint a recovery commission. She was slow to call the legislature back into session to deal with a nearly $1 billion decline in tax revenue. Her suggested cuts--to education and health care--came under fire last week as unrealistic. In 21 years in state politics, Blanco, a Democrat, was always cautious and deliberative. But those qualities have turned into liabilities.

SELF magazine seems geared towards vacuous young women, as shown by some of their choices for "inspiring" women.

SI article on NOLA

An article in S.I. by Alexander Wolff grabbed my attention. It isn't dissing NOLA as we usually expect. It's worth the read.

The last two lines

Sorry, USA Today. Love your multicolored weather map, but ever since I got back from New Orleans, it reminds me of mold.

Besides, it's the weather page of the Times-Picayune -- and the fate it foretells -- that America should care about most.

Thanks, Mr. Wolff

Dean

Local bloggers are talking about the storm heading for the Gulf named Dean


Swampwoman gives her views on the available weather information services available. I agree with her on the sensationalist Weather Channel clowns.

Slate lets her loved ones know that they're staying put.

Ray has a link to a much different path for Hurricane Dean then others that I've seen.

From b.rox blog, a link to a blogger in Dominica expressing her fear of Dean

md filter is concerned on this Saturday morning about Dean slowing down

Suspect device mirrors my feelings about the whole world of our August weather.

Craig over at Metroblogging talks about the various forecast models and wonders if Harrah's should be taking bets on them.

Matt over at Blogging New Orleans provides a link to "a website that offers a constantly updated satellite stream of the Atlantic, and shows with great clarity the development of Dean from a cloud system off the coast of Africa to the bruiser it has become."

Nope, I don't like the fact that there's a storm coming towards the Gulf, but that's part of living here. I accept that threat as I accept the killer humidity that comes with August.

Our hurricane provisions are amassed and we've got the cat carriers for the five cats ready. I'll make a decision to make hotel reservations by Monday if Dean heads this way. But let's hope we can stay put and pray for whomever is destined to experience the wrath of nature.

Pearlington - August 2007

Not quite two years post Katrina, Pearlington, Mississippi is beginning to feel the effects of recovery. Hard hit by the storm, this small town sat stunned by the storm for almost a year due to the fact that it is an unincorporated community. As such, there is no government to advocate for these citizens. Thanks to the thousands of volunteers, Pearlington is coming alive again.

Last week, my husband and I drove through parts of Pearlington to record her come back.
Click on pictures for full-sized versions


The Recovery Center is still open





Utility lines are being reworked and strengthened




New homes are being built



But there is still a lot of cleanup to be done.

A few miles south of Pearlington on Hwy 90 is the White Kitchen Preserve.


Named after a restaurant famous decades ago this sign is all that's
left.


The preserve took a beating from the storm, but it retained some of its beauty as shown from this picture, taken from Hwy. 190.


A few miles down the road we spotted this Katrina-era sign which reflects the feelings felt by those that wanted to deter the scumbag looters.

Still not OKAY

For the next few weeks I'll be posting pictures that depict where some of the Gulf South is coming up on Katrina plus two years. Because the city of New Orleans gets plenty of coverage via the New Orleans bloggers , I'll concentrate on lesser known areas.

Today I've got pictures taken on August 10, 2007 in the Venetian Isles and Lake Catherine areas just east of New Orleans. This may be a first of several posts of this area, as hubby and I are voracious photographers.
(click on pictures for full-sized versions)

We took LA434 into Lake Catherine to witness the status of the new Rigolets Bridge.


A lot wider than the current span, I look forward to its opening!

After nearly two years, the debris pickup in Lake Catherine is in full swing.


I've been seeing this boat along side Hwy 90 forever.





The construction activity in this area is on the upswing, too.



Other places sit silently, awaiting insurance settlements or new buyers.


This boat has caught our eye for some time now, so we decided to check it out


We saw the name "Mary W" in the rusted metal.

All of the properties surrounding this lonely boat look like this


What's left of the home of the Mary W's owners. Pretty sad, huh?


Further down Hwy 90, closer to Venetian Isles is the church where Father Ginart, better known as Father Red lost his life.


Over the Chef Pass Bridge is Ft. Macomb and the newly demolished boat launch.

Quite a difference from what we saw in March of this year.
The Lake Catherine Community Center still sits silently by the bridge.


They're FINALLY demolishing the firehouse in Venetian Isles, which looked like this for the longest time



So there's a little piece of the "progress" made in this area in two years Post K.
Contrary to popular belief, people down here are not sitting around whining with their hands out. They're living in FEMA trailers and working their fingers to the bone trying to find some sort of normalcy.

Art from Destruction

In March I ran a post about artists in Gulfport-Biloxi making lemonade from the lemons given to them by Hurricane Katrina.

This weekend hubby & I took a road trip to survey the coast almost two years since
that master storm. Among the hundreds of pictures we took are the following updates to the awesome work by these gifted artists.

We found several more examples of "art from destruction" along Highway 90. Here they are:
(click on each picture for full-sized versions)



Here are the original items shown in March. They have been stained and sealed.
































Each carving bore the name of "Dayton". Dayton Scoggins is "the chainsaw artist and he's given a little bit of happiness and awe to all who traverse Highway 90 in Mississippi where - less than two years ago - the only emotion known was sorrow.



These dolphins show the little bit of elation that will be felt in the years to come over here.
And I like to think that they give hope to all who can experience them first hand.

Thanks, Dayton!

The madness never ends in NOLA city Gov't

The Wall Street Journal ran this multimedia page that accompanies an article about the rampant ineptitude of Ray Nagin's administration.
(You can't read the whole article unless you're a WSJ subscriber, but Kim has the article here.)

City officials, trying to step up the struggling city’s comeback, have said they plan to flatten 10,000 hurricane-ravaged properties this year.

But the bulging list of doomed buildings includes some that weren’t damaged much by Katrina or that have already been significantly repaired — with building permits to prove it. Often, these property owners don’t even know they’re on the demolition list, because warning letters that are supposed to be mailed to them never arrive.

Thanks to the Library Chronicles for the heads up.

Scuzzbuckets of the Week

From the Times Picayune (8/9/07)
Under fire for how it spent millions of dollars in donations earmarked for rescuing and caring for animals in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a California animal rescue organization has agreed to relinquish the $4 million that remains to help the storm's animal victims, particularly those in hard-hit Slidell.

Noah's Wish, which spent several weeks in Slidell after the storm and received more than $8 million in donations from around the country, reached the settlement last month after the California attorney general's office investigated spending practices by the organization that included a mammoth pay raise and the purchase of new vehicles for the organization's executive director.

As part of the settlement, Noah’s Wish must hand over the $4 million to the attorney general’s office. The money will be placed in a special account and distributed to beneficiaries that assist animal victims of Hurricane Katrina. Of the $4 million, $1 million was contractually agreed to go to the City of Slidell, La., to construct a shelter to replace one that was destroyed in the hurricane. Money will be reserved specifically for that purpose to fulfill the agreement. In addition, approximately $125,000 will be used to reimburse the attorney general’s office for costs incurred during the investigation.

The settlement also states that Terri Crisp, board member and founder of the nonprofit, may not be employed or attached to Noah’s Wish in any manner. Crisp also is forbidden from serving as a director, officer or trustee with any other nonprofit for the next five years.


While I don't fault all of the wonderful volunteers for this organization and the awesome job they did for months after Katrina, I am pretty disgusted with the higher ups that made the decision to embezzle monies from donations for the relief of these lost and abandoned pets.

FEMA's Formaldehyde Cover-up

From the July 31, 2007 edition of Gambit Weekly, an article on the FEMA cover-up of
the impacts of the presence of formaldehyde in the thousands of FEMA trailers issued Katrina victims in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.


The article reports on the decisions made by FEMA attorneys to keep a lid on any talk of formaldehyde problems in the trailers.

FEMA knew about the formaldehyde problem a year and a half ago and engaged in a concerted effort to hide it from Congress, trailer residents, other federal agencies -- even its own field staff, which consistently raised the issue to higher ups. Fearing litigation, FEMA attorneys in Washington stopped the agency's field staff from admitting the problem, from testing trailers, even from relocating sick individuals who asked to be moved.

I certainly hope your fear of litigation turns into your worst nightmare. But knowing the track record of this dysfuctional appendage of George Bush's domestic policy, you'll probably walk away scott free.

Warning to the victims of future national tragedies: beware of presidents making empty promises and FEMA.

Update August 8th, 2007 FEMA suspends use, sales of ‘toxic’ trailers... From MSNBC dot com:
Residents can get refund, new housing while agency tests for formaldehyde....
“Nothing is as important to FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security as ensuring that disaster victims have a safe and healthy place to reside during their recovery,” the agency said in a statement.

bullshit, you just got caught.

Bridge Ratings

Louisiana Bridge Ratings
in the aftermath
of the Minnesota bridge tragedy, the T.P. has put together an article on the health of SE Louisiana bridges
It's not good news for commuters from Slidell and Mississippi and beyond.

Update 8-8-07: MSNBC has a link to bridge ratings by parish

From the Times Picayune article:

The National Bridge Inspection System requires states to collect inspection reports at least once every two years on all public bridges longer than 20 feet. States use a scale of 1 to 9, with 6 meaning satisfactory, 5 fair, 4 poor, 3 serious, 2 critical and 1 forcing immediate closure.



The U.S. 11 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain,



the Interstate 310 Mississippi River bridge at Luling (aka the Hale Boggs Bridge),



and both of the Interstate 10 twin spans over Lake Pontchartrain were rated either "serious" or "critical," although the twin spans appear to be a special case, having been reconstructed since crumbling in Hurricane Katrina and inspected on a daily basis.

In December, inspectors found deteriorated and cracked girders, joints, diaphragms and caps in the 79-year-old U.S. 11 drawbridge, as well as exposed rebar, earning the bridge a "serious" rating. The Interstate 310 bridge is only 24 years old, but corrosion on girders above the roadway also earned it a "serious" rating, even though the structure below the roadway had few problems.


I commute over the 11 bridge daily. Have been for 25 years. It's always been in crappy condition and
I'm sure Katrina did a number on it based on the dips in the roadway and missing guardrails.

I stay away from the I10 Twin Spans due to crazy drivers who brake at the top of the hump. Gives me the
creeps.

I use the Hale Boggs bridge every time I take the trip to Thibodaux to see my daughter at Nicholls State.

Living in this part of the state we're surrounded by water. On my daily ride to and from work, its possible
to cross ten bridges on a roundtrip. I don't think of myself as a gambler, but I guess I'm always
playing the odds when I venture out from home, don't I?