Biloxi Blows

The American Spectator ^ | 9/1/2005 | By Jay D. Homnick

[stan_25]

Please have plenty of tissuses or a hankie nearby when you read this

These are the times that try men's souls. But trying is not good enough. You have to get it right: people's lives are on the line.

It's still early in the process of assessing the full extent of the damage to life and property wrought by the wrath of Katrina. Louisiana and Mississippi have had the faces of their states altered. Entire neighborhoods are gone or ruined. Bridges have been disabled. Long stretches of highway are now primitive walkways, while others have simply broken off and fallen into the sea. The entire city of New Orleans may be unlivable for months. Where television has been accused in the past of magnifying small events by zooming in with camera shots, it has now proven inadequate to convey the extent of devastation so widespread.

Here is a poignant vignette that tells it all. This was recounted by Tampa resident Jim Preston over the airwaves on the Todd Schnitt Show. Schnitt is a talented talk-show host whose Tampa-based show is broadcast in Miami as well. The following is Mr. Preston's story.

He hails from the Biloxi, Mississippi area and much of his family continued to reside there until early this week. His sister lives there with her four children; they were able to be safely evacuated on Monday to a nearby town that was bypassed by the storm. However, his mother was a hospital nurse and she had to work a shift until 7 p.m. on Monday. The family was not so concerned because they lived in a two-story brick structure that had been standing for many years, surviving even the legendary Hurricane Camille of 1969, which killed 262 people in that region.

[Billthedrill]

"If they tell you to go, go."

[tallhappy]

Thanks for posting this, stan.

It's sad. Also amazing.

[IncPen]

This is a must-read