MS recovery slow, but steady

[Lindaloo]

Stephanie Guthre comes home from her mother-in-law's house in Florida every few days, and each time, something is different.

"The red lights are working now,'' she says. "They weren't when I left.''

The 31-year-old real estate agent is moving back to her flooded house two blocks from the beach, planning to sleep with her husband and two dogs on the hardwood floors she scrubbed with bleach.

"It's just going to be a slow go,'' she says.

On Aug. 29, a monster Category 4 storm called Hurricane Katrina wiped out 80 miles of Mississippi coastline, from the Alabama to Louisiana lines. It destroyed about one-third of the homes in the state's six southernmost counties and left another third severely damaged. Many may yet have to be demolished.

Before Katrina, the coast was an eclectic blend of antebellum homes and neon-lit casinos, of fishing villages and artsy tourist towns. But in most of them, mountains of debris still stand and countless businesses remain dark. It will take years to rebuild, and the new Mississippi coast that emerges will inevitably be different.

Progress in the first four weeks of recovery has been incremental but steady, every small development a psychological boost.

First, it was power. Many coastal residents thought it would take months to restore service to hundreds of thousands of homes, but seemingly endless convoys from around the country had much of the work done within two weeks. Now, most homes capable of receiving electricity have it.

"Mississippi Power? They should be running our country,'' says Joe Seal, a commercial fisherman from Long Beach.

Then came running water, though in many places it's still too dangerous to drink. Slowly, the half-mile lines at gas stations vanished, and a handful of restaurants opened. Then stores. Car dealers strung balloons from newly shipped-in vehicles, and laundry workers took dirty clothes by the sackful.

Early in the fourth week, a radio station that had broadcast 24-hour Katrina coverage switched over to music. Now some small luxuries are possible.

For Dianne Mavar, who had to pile up items destroyed when her Biloxi home flooded, it's a pedicure in the air-conditioned comfort of the M English salon in Gulfport.

"I've shoveled, I'm exhausted and I'm ready to relax,'' says the 49-year-old interior designer.

For others, the luxuries are even smaller - buying clothes and bed linens at Wal-Mart, popping open a cold beer, munching on a fast-food burger.

Joe Spraggins, emergency management director for Harrison County, says schools will open soon and many of the streets are clear.

"It's a lot further than we thought we could get in four weeks,'' he says.

But the huge challenge of providing temporary housing to thousands of displaced residents remains.

By Saturday, the federal government had shipped in about 800 trailers to serve as temporary homes for Katrina victims. Spraggins says his county needs 10,000.

"We still do not have enough of them to cover the people who are in shelters or staying with friends,'' he says. "We're way behind the curve on that.''

Lennie Givens, 53, survived the nearly 30-foot wall of water that swallowed her Waveland home but has since bounced through the homes of four families. She has had custody of her two granddaughters for almost 10 years, but now they are with relatives in Florida. All she wants is a place they can call home again.

"I got a sidewalk,'' she says. "That's it.''

Hancock County took the hardest hit from Katrina, with whole towns now little more than piles of rubble.

Allen Callihan, 44, had owned his late mother's home on Waveland Avenue only three months before Katrina. The storm surge destroyed all but its shell. He sleeps on a cot in a soggy, moldy room, spending his daylight hours ripping down wallboard and tossing out ruined possessions.

On Thursday, he got a check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $5,200.

"That may buy a new furnace and air conditioner,'' he says.

An insurance adjuster came by the same day, with the same bad news many people have heard: Because most of the damage was caused by a flood, Callihan is unlikely to get much money.

Gayle Gibson, 49, filed a claim three weeks ago but is still waiting for FEMA to visit her Waveland home. She, like many here, has few kind words for the agency.

"Everything else is going great. We're being helped right and left,'' she says. "The church groups have been excellent here, and so has the military.''

Bruce Shook, 54, says it's unfair to blame FEMA for the shortcomings so far.

"Everybody wanted everything yesterday, but they don't understand what they had to come into,'' he says, sipping a beer on the porch of the flooded but still standing Log Cabin bar.

"Once they finally got established here, it rolled. But you're talking about a place with no infrastructure.''

Shook lived on a 12-by-12 porch for six days after the storm. So far, the only help the government has offered is $149 in food stamps. But he's not complaining.

"Things are rolling as fast as they possibly and humanly can,'' he says.

Paul Reese, a spokesman for the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center, agrees.

"Hancock County was ground zero, so there's a lot of stuff tore up,'' he says. "You know how you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And that's how we're going to get it done, one bite at a time.''


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[Ixolib]

Great article, Linda. I liked especially the quote below...

Bruce Shook, 54, says it's unfair to blame FEMA for the shortcomings so far.

"Everybody wanted everything yesterday, but they don't understand what they had to come into,'' he says, sipping a beer on the porch of the flooded but still standing Log Cabin bar.

"Once they finally got established here, it rolled. But you're talking about a place with no infrastructure.''

Shook lived on a 12-by-12 porch for six days after the storm. So far, the only help the government has offered is $149 in food stamps. But he's not complaining.

"Things are rolling as fast as they possibly and humanly can,'' he says.

[dhweather]

Hey, I got cable and high speed internet back at the house today, life is good!

[Ixolib]

Hey, I got cable and high speed internet back at the house today, life is good!

Congratulations, DH. Life for me was not anywhere close to "normal" until Cableone got their service back up in our area. Been since about the 18th, I think. When the water came in, the first thing I went after (and saved) was my computer and all the accessories - cable modem included!! Shortly thereafter, reality set in...