oops ---"interested"
And here's an additional update by Keith Burton:
General News Update
By Perry Hicks- Filed 9/1/05
Updated 9/3/05 Keith Burton
Keith Burton reports from Biloxi that a massive relief effort is underway to arrive in Coast are by this weekend.
Highway 49- open
Pass Road- Open
Highway 90- impassible at any point in Harrison and Hancock Counties. Open in Jackson County.
Interstate 110 bridge- open
Travel Note: Due to the high number of debris along the Coast's roads, tire failures are very possible. All travel to the beach and areas south of the railroad tracks is restricted or prohibited. I-10 is open east to Mobile. Highway 49 is open to areas north.
Utilities - Power is out coastwide and telephones service is intermittent or non-existent to many homes due to trees on lines. Phone service is improving daily but calling into the Coast area is expected to be difficult, calling out sometimes works. Service for cell phones is also improving since the storm but calls within the area and long distance are inconsistent. Water service is at a bare minimum and the is not drinkable anywhere on the Coast. The pressure is very low due to the open pipes from destroyed homes and businesses. Sewage facilities non-functioning due to low water pressure, no power and proximity to the heavily damaged shoreline. Raw sewage is entering the surrounding Coast waters. Lift stations to pump sewage is offline due to flooding damages and lack of electrical power.
Local area gasoline currently not available.
Biloxi/Gulfport - Catastrophic damages to entire beachfront. Entire Point Cadet area from around Lee Street east leveled. Back Bay shoreline homes and businesses destroyed or severely damaged on both the Biloxi peninsula and along Back Bay. Numerous buildings well inland destroyed or severely damaged. Gulfport port leveled. All casinos severely damaged. Numerous apartments damaged from wind. Neighborhoods throughout the Coast that didn't suffer from the storm surge experienced very heavy damages from wind and falling trees. Beachfront hotels, restaurants, shops, homes...gone. Highway 90, the beachfront highway. Severely washed out and unpassable. Popps Ferry Bridge in Biloxi unusable. Highway 90 Bridge from Biloxi to Ocean Springs destroyed. I-110 bridge ok.
D'Iberville - Homes and businesses immediately along the Back Bay destroyed by storm surge. The destruction follows a line east and west from the I-110 exit to D'Iberville.
Long Beach- Beachfront and business district through Jefferson Davis Avenue largely destroyed. K-Mart destroyed.
Bay Saint Louis- Old town and beach front homes heavily damaged or destroyed from storm surge and high winds. Interior neighborhoods severely damaged from high winds and fallen tree. Highway 90 Bay St. Louis Bridge from Pass Christian destroyed.
Picayune- Heavy wind and tree damage
Popularville- Heavy wind and tree damage
Pascagoula- Interior in pretty good shape and city trying to restore services. Coastal areas heavily damaged by storm surge. Downtown was flooded, but waters have receded.
Gautier - Destruction of homes and businesses south of Highway 90 near a large section of low-lying land along the shore. Heavy wind and tree damage.
Ocean Springs - Destruction of beachfront and bayou area homes and apartments, heavy wind damages,
Pass Christian - Severe damages from storm surge and winds. Beachfront homes destroyed or severely damaged. Downtown area in ruins. Homes along bayous floods and severely damaged or destroyed.
Wiggins - Heavy wind and tree damages. Power failure from winds and fallen trees.
Hattiesburg - Heavy wind and tree damages.
GCN will update as information is available.
I thought only New Orleans was hit...(s)
Despite what criticism it may get the issue of living right up on the beach etc in areas prone to hurricanes has to be examined
It will only get worse with passing time if they keep building and expanding in these areas
And that's total BS on the part of the "officials". During the tsunami we received a running estimate of the death toll: 20,000 - 50,000 - 85,000 - 110,000 - and finally 250,000, which helped to bring home the true scale of the disaster. There are still a lot of Americans who think: Katrina weakened before landfall - New Orleans "dodged a bullet", though there is a lot of water in the suburbs - some place in Mississippi got hit, too - but only about 110 people are dead.
Tell the truth. Always. The government and the media don't help matters when they treat the public like children that need to be sheltered from bad news. In the case of the media, it's partly understandable - an accurate death toll estimate might shock the nation into wondering why they are wasting so much time bashing Bush.
Thanks! I have been looking for updated information about MS.
Thank you Mr. Burton for giving this problem some perspective!!
They didn't want to have hundreds of thousands of worried people driving down to check on their relatives
Prayers for Mississippians.
Tom "Gator" Seefeldt, Davis' brother, lives in Biloxi, Mississippi. He is a 25 year veteran of the Navy, where he served as a SEAL, he is a veteran of Vietnam, has served in Somalia and Africa and has even spent time hunting alligators (hence the nickname) for the government. And although he's seen active combat and the terrible side of the human condition through his many years of work as a SEAL, when he got a call out to his sister two days ago, he said the devastation to his area was the worst he has ever seen."My brother is in Biloxi, right where it hit the hardest. My brother has been in service since straight out of high school; He's a Navy Seal and he's trained for survival. I know he's going to bring them all home, I know he is," she said.
Gator's land was spared in the hurricane - the only home in a five-block radius still standing, the only home with fresh, uncontaminated water and food. He even has a generator and a four wheeler that runs. He was able to call his sister thanks to having On Star in his car. Davis said Gator has been busy rescuing as many people as he can; when she spoke to him last, he had taken over 50 people into his home to give them food and shelter. He has pulled almost that many dead bodies out of the water and taken them to I-90, where he told Davis there were about 800 corpses lined up along the road for rescue workers to retrieve. It was 102 degrees when Davis got to speak to her brother and the mosquitoes and flies were eating the survivors alive.
Lt. Rusty Pittman of the Mississippi Bureau of Marine Resources, involved in the search effort, said he worries the death toll "could reach 4,000, maybe 5,000, if not more." The official number of confirmed dead in Mississippi remained at 170, but Biloxi spokesman Vincent Creel said Monday he thinks there will be several hundred dead just in Biloxi.My personal opinion, that I've stated previously, is that they deliberately downplayed MS because they didn't want hundreds of thousands of worried relatives clogging all the roads. There is no longer any point, because people who haven't heard from their relatives/friends are now going to get on the roads to find out what happened