What about MS??????

[MBismyPlayground]

We have heard for 5 days all about New Orleans. (no offense to NO at all)
But what about the survivors in MS???
The focus has been on LA. and we hardly hear a thing about MS.
Based on The post here by JAX, he is delivering supplies and needs help.
WHY??? Where are the people who are supposed to be there???
A friend of mine here has spoke to her family. They are pretty much cut off........thank God their cell is working off and on. But they said today they have seen NO ONE. They are living in "part" of their home. The part that still has a roof. To keep the elements at bay.

[southerngale]

Fox News was just reporting from Pascagoula. We have quite a few members in Mississippi we're still waiting to hear from, many in Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs. I have some numbers through the Severe Weather Check-in Policy but no luck with them so far.

[greeng13]

i believe i saw on CNN or FOXNEWS that they have disrib. ceneters set up to give out MRE's, H2O, and Ice. They showed a reporter there in the center with a never-ending line of those who need help.

They showed footage in Pass-Christian of bulldozers still having to move debris off the road, etc.

I think the governor of MS at least seems to have a better handle on the situation vs the gov. of LA. Those people do need help and are not being forgotten. but the flood waters have at least receded there.

i wish i had more to offer on your post. the media seems to stop and take a look over there and AL about every 1/2 hour or so.

i wish i knew more... this thing is a giant cluster #$%^ or so it seems. does your friend's family have any neighbors around or have they sought info of any kind?

[GalvestonDuck]

I don't think the media is quite covering MS/AL as much as they are NOLA, but Linda said there was NG and Blackhawks down there when I spoke to her yesterday.

[KG4HPN]

I've seen reports of distribution centers in MS too, there's just one problem. How many people have vehicles that didn't get swept away or ruined in the surge and of those, how many have gasoline. It seems to me (and granted, only from what I have seen, which is no where near the big picture) the delivery of supplies in MS has been as dismal, if not more so as there is smaller excuse, than that in NOLA.

[JQ Public]

The thing about MS is that most people could get there by truck/convoy if they had to to help with the relief. I heard about church and civic organizations providing food and relief down in MS all week. Since the waters have virtually receded there its easier. From an information perspective I think MS should be talked about just as much as NO though. But NO does have more people and more of a national "interest" b/c its a big city. And we know how money talks. Sad but true.

[MBismyPlayground]

I guess they just assume that people have cars to get to the distribution center, or travelable roads. Hopefully by now they have seen someone to help them.

[greeng13]

I guess they just assume that people have cars to get to the distribution center, or travelable roads. Hopefully by now they have seen someone to help them.

i hope so. the fortunate thing in MS is that it seems like a lot of the infrastructure is still useable...they don't have power, etc..but i haven't heard anything saying that a whole power grid was knocked out, etc. and except for the bridges that have been knocked out it seems like most roads are still passable...the problem being no electricity for gas stations, hence no gas if you run out.

albeit that does not deal with the issue of shelter. but like i said people have not forgotten those areas.

damn i wish i had a week i could take off of work to go down there myself for whatever i could do...just can't make it happen

[LSU2001]

Southern Mississippi is a disaster area but they are coping. I went to pascagoula thursday to bring supplies to my family and they are cut off but most people in that area prepare well for storms. My family was in very good shape but was in need of water, fuel, ice etc. The one comment that all of my family members kept repeating is that they really did not know where to go and did not have gas to drive around and find out. AS of thursday most of the usual distribution centers were not staffed and had no supplies. The national Guard was distributing Ice in Lucedale Thursday evening but several of the other aid centers had no one there. I assume that the disaster supplies were converging on NOLA and areas around there because the need was greater in that area. During my day in Southern Mississippi I only saw one red cross truck but on the trip across the state on HWY 26 I witnessed at least 100 red cross disaster trucks west bound towards La. I guess they go where they are needed the most and I can't blame them.
Tim

[MomH]

Why isn't information being broadcast via the Emergency Broadcast Network to those in outlying areas. Seems to me that is what it was designed for and why it is supported now. Most people who prepare for a cane have a battery powered radio.

[jpigott]

I guess they just assume that people have cars to get to the distribution center, or travelable roads. Hopefully by now they have seen someone to help them.

i hope so. the fortunate thing in MS is that it seems like a lot of the infrastructure is still useable...they don't have power, etc..but i haven't heard anything saying that a whole power grid was knocked out, etc. and except for the bridges that have been knocked out it seems like most roads are still passable...the problem being no electricity for gas stations, hence no gas if you run out.

albeit that does not deal with the issue of shelter. but like i said people have not forgotten those areas.

damn i wish i had a week i could take off of work to go down there myself for whatever i could do...just can't make it happen

yeah, mississippi still has plenty of infrastructure, that is unless you live south of Hwy 90 where there is nothing left but concrete slabs. Essentially 70-80 miles of Mississippi coast line has been decimated

[LSU2001]

Why isn't information being broadcast via the Emergency Broadcast Network to those in outlying areas. Seems to me that is what it was designed for and why it is supported now. Most people who prepare for a cane have a battery powered radio.

No Power, the only AM or FM station I could pick up was WWL out of NOLA.
And they were only talking about NOLA.
Tim

[MSRobi911]

WLOX is simulcasting with WOSM the Christian Station 102.3 or 103.2 I can't remember and Kickker 99.1 is doing the same thing. So there is radio info out there.

Mary

[cancunkid]

This from the Sun-Herald this morning.

Posted on Sun, Sep. 04, 2005
M O R E N E W S F R O M topix.net
• Hurricane

Mississippians' suffering overshadowed

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi hurricane survivors looked around Saturday and wondered just how long it would take to get food, clean water and shelter. And they were more than angry at the federal government and the national news media.

Richard Gibbs was disgusted by reports of looting in New Orleans and upset at the lack of attention hurricane victims in his state were getting.

"I say burn the bridges and let 'em all rot there," he said. "We're suffering over here too, but we're not killing each other. We've got to help each other. We need gas and food and water and medical supplies."

Gibbs and his wife, Holly, have been stuck at their flooded home in Gulfport just off the Biloxi River. Water comes up to the second floor, they are out of gasoline, and food supplies are running perilously low.

Until recently, they also had Holly's 75-year-old father, who has a pacemaker and severe diabetes, with them. Finally they got an ambulance to take him to the airport so he could be airlifted to Lafayette, La., for medical help.

In poverty-stricken north Gulfport, Grover Chapman was angry at the lack of aid.

"Something should've been on this corner three days ago," Chapman, 60, said Saturday as he whipped up dinner for his neighbors.

He used wood from his demolished produce stand to cook fish, rabbit, okra and butter beans he'd been keeping in his freezer. Although many houses here, about five miles inland, are still standing, they are severely damaged. Corrugated tin roofs lie scattered on the ground.

"I'm just doing what I can do," Chapman said. "These people support me with my produce stand every day. Now it's time to pay them back."

One neighbor, 78-year-old Georgia Smylie, knew little about what's happening elsewhere. She was too worried about her own situation.

"My medicine is running out. I need high blood pressure medicine, medicine for my heart," she said.

Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, said he's been watching hours of Katrina coverage every day and most of the national media attention has focused on the devastation and looting in New Orleans.

"Mississippi needs more coverage," Sabato said. "Until people see it on TV, they don't think it's real."

Along the battered Mississippi Gulf Coast, crews started searching boats for corpses on Saturday. Several shrimpers are believed to have died as they tried to ride out the storm aboard their boats on the Intracoastal Waterway.

President Bush toured ravaged areas of the Mississippi coast on Friday with Gov. Haley Barbour and other state officials. They also flew over flooded New Orleans.

"I'm going to tell you, Mississippi got hit much harder than they did, but what happened in the aftermath - it makes your stomach hurt to go miles and miles and miles and the houses are all under water up to the roof," Barbour said.

Keisha Moran has been living in a tent in a department store parking lot in Bay St. Louis with her boyfriend and three young children since the hurricane struck. She said National Guardsmen have brought her water but no other aid so far, and she was furious that it took Bush several days before he came to see the damage in Mississippi.

"It's how many days later? How many people are dead?" Moran said.

Mississippi's death toll from Hurricane Katrina stood at 144 on Saturday, according to confirmed reports from coroners and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Barbour had said Friday the total was 147, but he didn't provide a county-by-county breakdown.

In a strongly worded editorial, The Sun Herald of Biloxi-Gulfport pleaded for help and questioned why a massive National Guard presence wasn't already visible.

"We understand that New Orleans also was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but surely this nation has the resources to rescue both that metropolitan (area) and ours," the newspaper editorialized, saying survival basics like ice, gasoline and medicine have been too slow to arrive.

"We are not calling on the nation and the state to make life more comfortable in South Mississippi, we are calling on the nation and the state to make life here possible," the paper wrote.

---_

Associated Press reporter David Royse and Brian Skoloff in Gulfport and Jay Reeves in Bay St. Louis contributed to this report.

[beachbum_al]

Mississpi and Alabama have been forgotten. I know New Orleans is bad but so is the coastal areas of Mississppi and Alabama. In Bayou la Batre the shrimping industry has been hurt badly. Pascaqoula is hit hard and is not getting aide fast enough. (I have a friend of my husband who works at the shipyard there and he said it is unbelieveable. The people there have lost everything but they have the most strongest human spirit you can imagine. He said the devastation done down there is unbelievable to the point he can't put it into words. And he is from the Coast in Alabama)

Then there are little towns like Gautier that no one has heard unless they live here and they are pretty wiped out. Bay St. Louis and Gulfport are beyound comprehension.

And even though Alabama doesn't have complete devastion and deaths communities in Fairhope and Mobile along the Bay were hit hard. I have many friends and my daughters' friends have lost their house and their belongings. They do have relatives and friend's nearby that are letting them live with them but the children are just sad. How do you explain to a child that their favorite toys are gone in the Bay? And I am talking about young children who don't comprehend what has happen. Fort Morgan is badly hit along with Dauphin Island and Mobile. Then you have small little towns like Bayou laBatre that no one has heard of except if you eat Shrimp you have.

I know NO is suffering and I ache for them. I have friends there too. Friends that I have not heard from but know they got out. But I am sure their places are gone.

But we can't forget the smaller towns in LA, Mississippi, and Alabama that also need help and someone to listen to their stories. They were also hit just has hard too.

I will say that I amazed by the people from all over the United States and the world that are sending help to everyone. To me it shows that there are good people in this world when it comes to disaster like this!

I am sorry that I have been on a Soap Box this morning. But I have heard several survivor stories this weekend by friend's relatives that are from the MS Gulf Coast and have lost everything. What is amazing is that their first goal is to find place for their children to go to school and rebuild their homes where they used to stand.

[ChaserUK]

there does seem to have been a focus on NO I must admit but that is only because its a large city and potential loss of life. MS and AL are devasted along the coast too.

The media just seems to go for concentrated areas of interest don't they.

[MBismyPlayground]

Mississpi and Alabama have been forgotten. I know New Orleans is bad but so is the coastal areas of Mississppi and Alabama. In Bayou la Batre the shrimping industry has been hurt badly. Pascaqoula is hit hard and is not getting aide fast enough. (I have a friend of my husband who works at the shipyard there and he said it is unbelieveable. The people there have lost everything but they have the most strongest human spirit you can imagine. He said the devastation done down there is unbelievable to the point he can't put it into words. And he is from the Coast in Alabama)

Then there are little towns like Gautier that no one has heard unless they live here and they are pretty wiped out. Bay St. Louis and Gulfport are beyound comprehension.

And even though Alabama doesn't have complete devastion and deaths communities in Fairhope and Mobile along the Bay were hit hard. I have many friends and my daughters' friends have lost their house and their belongings. They do have relatives and friend's nearby that are letting them live with them but the children are just sad. How do you explain to a child that their favorite toys are gone in the Bay? And I am talking about young children who don't comprehend what has happen. Fort Morgan is badly hit along with Dauphin Island and Mobile. Then you have small little towns like Bayou laBatre that no one has heard of except if you eat Shrimp you have.

I know NO is suffering and I ache for them. I have friends there too. Friends that I have not heard from but know they got out. But I am sure their places are gone.

But we can't forget the smaller towns in LA, Mississippi, and Alabama that also need help and someone to listen to their stories. They were also hit just has hard too.

I will say that I amazed by the people from all over the United States and the world that are sending help to everyone. To me it shows that there are good people in this world when it comes to disaster like this!

I am sorry that I have been on a Soap Box this morning. But I have heard several survivor stories this weekend by friend's relatives that are from the MS Gulf Coast and have lost everything. What is amazing is that their first goal is to find place for their children to go to school and rebuild their homes where they used to stand.

I am pretty upset watching this unfold as well, not that I haven't been.
Today, actually on the weather channel, NOT CNN or any of the major stations, I saw people who have been in shelters in MS be bussed to places to shower......and bussed back to those shelters. Granted, they are in "shelters" but these shelters do not have electric, AC, running water or anything else. Eventually these things will come back, but that is eventually. It just seems sort of biased that the world is embrasing those folks from NO and not MS. They want to make sure that the people of NO have AC and comfort....What about the people of MS?? These people also have lost everything including forms of employment! The state itself is hurt without the income from the casino's. Why is there no talk of placing these survivors in areas where they can begin to rebuild their lives, since it will take much time to rebuild their homes and communities?? Because the area is drying out there????? That is a cop out. The disease that is breeding in NO is also breeding in MS. Already cases of dysentery in MS.Why are these cruise ships only for those of NO?? Regardless of how many more people were in NO, the shores of MS were hit harder. So it is only a handful of people compared to NO......is this really a good enough reason??
My husband is now freaking out. I am trying to find someone to either run my company for a while or I will shut the doors for the time being(seasons almost over anyways) and I am going down to volunteer.
I just can't help myself.

[MBismyPlayground]

Mayor of Hattiesburg MS on phone with CNN.
They are still waiting for FEMA to approve the release of ice and water.
Truckloads of it which has not been distributed to his people.
And who ever still has not signed off on it to release it.
What the heck?

[Solaris]

Misery at Mississippi motels without water or power
By VICKI SMITH
Associated Press Writer
BAY ST. LOUIS, Mississippi (AP) -- 85-year-old Margaret Pertuit lies still on a bed in a dark, waterlogged room at the Economy Inns Motel, awaiting one of two things: death or rescue.

Her thin, pale limbs are covered in the bruises common among people on blood thinners. But Pertuit has stopped taking her medication, half-hoping for the clot the drug is supposed to prevent. "I just hope it will take me," she says.

For thousands stranded along the Mississippi coast since Hurricane Katrina, the damaged hotels where they took refuge have become almost uninhabitable.

From one motel to the next, the conditions are the same -- hot, smelly, soggy and dark. Toilets won't flush. Water won't run. Boredom won't end. Carpets are caked in mud and the concrete outside is often more inviting than the beds in the fetid rooms.

Just off Interstate 10 near Bay St. Louis, at what used to be a Waffles Plus restaurant and motel, Joanna Dubreuil and her two sons are luckier than most. Within the wreckage that surrounds them is an artesian well. The pump was carried away, so water now gurgles nonstop from a white plastic pipe jutting from the ground.

Dubreuil washes sheets in it but, fearing contamination, tries to keep a toddler from drinking it.

Ten people are living at the Waffles Plus, where vehicles passed by for five days without stopping. On the sixth morning, a church group pulled in and handed them a box of food -- the first they had received.

Jimmy Dubreuil, 23, had tried earlier in the week to enter a Dollar Store several miles away but says he was chased out by a police officer who pistol-whipped him. A fresh gash on his close-cropped head has been stapled shut.

"They started telling us we're thieves," he says. "We're not thieves. We just wanted to feed the babies."

Muneer Ahmed, who owns the Economy Inns, sleeps outdoors like everyone else. His children, instead of attending classes at Bay High School, have been sweeping mud and carrying debris from the office and their first-floor kitchen.

His rooms are soaked and stink of mildew. The business he spent $300,000 building is in shambles.

"When I came here, my heart was broke, because this is the only business I got," he says.

Ahmed's guests are staying for free, sleeping on the concrete in front of their doors and squatting behind the buildings to relieve themselves.

Despite the discomfort, guests like Noel Rowell stay put. He has no gas and no money, so he, his girlfriend and three children do the only thing they can: "We're sitting back, waiting for the United States of America to take care of us."

It is unclear when emergency officials will be able to help stuck guests leave, by providing gas or a ride. Until then, they rely on each other.

"We are all sharing and living like one family," Ahmed says.

[cancunkid]

Well I am happy to report that because there isn't flooding to the extent that there is in NO a lot of the utility crews sent out have been in Mississippi making repairs. Also Biloxi and Gulfport shut down their power grids before Katrina arrived so power is being restored quickly. My cousin who has a house still standing in Long Beach north of the tracks now has phone and power. They have seen no water or ice distribution sites but those fabulous power crews are sure nice to see. But then the power crews are not being limited by the same government redtape.