Posted on 12/17/2006 7:17:34 AM PST by mcg2000
You're assuming good folks don't work at the resorts?
Here too, is the link to Beavoir's website:
It's good to see that work has begun on reconstruction and preservation.
I think the gambling industry is dissipative, not constructive. It'll do more harm than good for a city that becomes dependent on it.
P.S. There's also a link to other before and after damage photos of Beauvoir, at the bottom of the Beauvoir webpage.
Last May I spent a day driving all over New Orleans. I was appalled at the destruction. I was amazed that so little had been done in the eight months since Katrina hit. Hundreds and hundreds of homes and businesses, damaged and not touched since Katrina. Just sitting and rotting.
This past September I spent a day driving around the Mississippi coast, including Biloxie, Pascagoula and Gulfport. I was amazed at (compared to NOLA) how little damage could be seen. People I spoke with graphically described what the area had been like after Katrina. Like night and day.
Heartened by what I saw in Mississippi, I drove over to New Orleans. Wow, what a disappointment. Many damaged buildings and homes I saw last May looked exactly the same in September. The big difference I saw was that there seemed to be MORE FEMA trailers. Naive me, I figured there would be less :)
IMHO, large parts of NOLA have been a snakepit for a long, long time. But there was no publicity. Until Katrina hit.
Kudos to Mississippi and shame on NOLA.
Fair point.
You can easily look at casino cities and their lack of balanced economies -> Atlantic City, Reno, Tunica, Northern Indiana.
Biloxi's attractive climate, low crime rate and conservative policies tend to counter-balance other towns. That's why the social comparisons to Vegas are so very much off the point imop.
The military presence and their retiree population tend to keep the extremes at a minimum.
I'll have to pay a visit some day.
The NE quadrant was a cat-5 when it came ahore in Mississippi.
Biloxi-We have been set back but we are on track to become better than we were pre-Katrina.
I wonder what created such a difference in mindset between the two?
Unaffectionately known also as "The Great Blunder".
Yes and no. The full brunt of the storm hit the Mississippi coast, NOLA only got the wind and part of the tidal surge. Had it not been for the levies breaking, NOLA would not be in the shape it's in.
I live East of Biloxi, in the Florida panhandle. I went with a team just after the hurricane assisting Keesler AFB to get their communications back on-line. I spent 12 hours on base and whatever I could off base helping the locals.
What was very telling about their situation was when we stopped to help someone clean/repair what was left of their homes, they would thank us and tell us to go help someone else who was worse off then they were. It was an attitude of "I'm OK, but someone else needs help more". It was fantastic! Nobody was whining for government help, they all stepped up to help each other.
One sad note. Of all the beautiful old mansions along US Highway 98, none of them survived. Some of the most wonderful houses all on one road -- gone. And what's going up in their place is a bunch of "pseudo-mansions" that just destroy the whole experience.
Traveler
Back when they were know as reporters and newscasters before the day's of "journalists".
Or
You dropped the ball and now we are suffering vs. We are holding on to our ball and refuse to pass it to you.
New Orleans has long been a $hithole. Hard to believe that people here on FR actually defend the sankepit that is NOLA. Used to go there a lot in 1980-1981 when I was a student at USM in Hattiesburg, MS. It was a Shithole then also.
Is it possible for Mississippi to claim St. Tammany and Washington Parishes? I know it would make both the states look awkward but I really would like to live in a sane state.
Kudos to Mississippi and shame on NOLA.
Indeed, much of New Orleans had become a festering sore caused by the welfare state. Many other large cities have similar problems; they're just not as vulnerable to having the depths of the problems suddenly laid bare for the evening news.
As for the difference between NOLA and the Mississippi coast, I've seen recovery efforts in both areas. Katrina smashed so much of the MS coastal housing and businesses to splinters that there was no arguing over which homes to bulldoze - they were simply *gone*. In New Orleans, where the flooding was slow and the water stayed for weeks, there was a huge cleanup to plan and get to work on before any rebuilding could commence. The storm impacted each area quite differently.
There's something else that's not been mentioned: Biloxi has a military base that has helped their local economy. Indeed, Keesler AFB played a large role in keeping that towm from fading away after Camille hit in '69. It is true, though, that Misissippi is rebuilding a lot more quickly this time. There were no deep-pockets corporations on the coast to really sink the spurs in after Camille.
Yup, and it was pushing a cat-5 surge all the way in, too. By the time the winds dropped, the surge was already in the Mississippi Sound.
Have you read the recent book about Camille, titled "Roar of the Heavens"? Interesting stuff.
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