Update:

Well, we have the Popps Ferry bridge open as well as all 4 lanes of Hwy 90 in Biloxi, MS. Three casinos have opened temp. land based casinos consisting of about 30 table games and 60 slot machines as well. Debris clean up is coming along in the areas with funding and unhindered roads. Insurance checks for flood (and some for wind) have slowly started to come in - most are written to the policy holder and the lender.. so there is a 30 day wait before the home owner ever sees any of it. The SBA has started offering more low interest loans for folks who will rebuild but those who want to relocate are placed in a different stack of papers for some reason.

I got a post card in the mail last Friday asking me to come in for Jury Duty in Biloxi, MS. Heard they were really desp. for jurors after Katrina struck. There were about 70 of us in the courtroom. 21 of us had conflicts of some sort and were dismissed(that doesn't count the 1 felon and the dozen senior citizens and the 2 that have moved out of the county since August). Know its my civic duty to serve, but now is not the right time. Being self employed does not make it any easier to give yourself a week off with no pay when you are in the real estate business(or the music industry for that matter).

I wanted to share 2 pics that were sent my way today:
I will first post a brief description and then the pics (and then I will put a map together to show you where these were taken)

The first picture (603) was taken from the Interstate 10 overpass looking south onto Hwy 603. (file size: 543k)

The second was taken from the third floor of one of the buildings at
St. Stanislaus.(Bay St Louis, MS) Look at the wave in the back of the picture.(file size: 222k)

pics are large on some screen resolutions:
[www.thegroovybean.com]


[www.thegroovybean.com]



ok - here are maps showing you where the pics were taken.
the first shows I-10 and Hwy 43 intersecting.. The show was taken standing on the interstate overpass looking south. (Hwy 43 and 603 are the same roads at this point) Ignore the thumb tack marker.. it just marks the road, not the location of the picture.. image was shot further north on that highway.




Did a large area map so you'd see how far it was to water. Where St Louis Bay curls up is the mouth of the Jordon River.

you can see in the first map where Washington hits the water at Beach Blvd.. this is where the 2nd shot was taken.
Here is a better map of where the 2nd shot location-



friend of mine's quote re: pic 2:

"Storm Picture


Hope you enjoy! Probably the most profound photograph I've ever
seen.
The bulk of the perpendicular surge is about quarter mile off the beach.
In order for a perpendicular wall of water of this magnitude to retain
its shape, (27 - 30 feet strait up) I'm told its speed of advance had to
be over 400 miles an hour. I seriously don't know if I can fathom that
having grown up running up and down these beaches in Bay St. Louis.
If you look further well behind the initial surge through the
mist you can see where the wave height and water depth has to be well
over 50 feet. "

---

[www.reverbnation.com]

Thanks for everyone's help and support after Hurricane Katrina!

you people sure build short light posts.....

Don't the casinos need to be on the water (out in the river) or something to that effect? Just curious.

It does sound like some things are slowly starting to normalize.

yes, some aspects are almost back to normal which is a welcome change to the "stone age" we were in! haha

Casinos, by law, were all on the water. With multi milllion dollar hurricane plans and architecture, they STILL ended up on land, sunken, or just totally blown away.
So legislation was passed that now allows them on land. But the three that have reopened have done so in their convention halls (in the hotels) until they can build a proper land based facility.

---

[www.reverbnation.com]

Thanks for everyone's help and support after Hurricane Katrina!

I'm so glad to live in a place (WA) where we only have to worry about earthquakes!

just earthquakes? How about volcanos and flooding? (and canadian goose crap?)

seems we only get a storm like this every 35 years or so -- they brush, nudge and miss us every year..

hey, at least we see em coming and are told to evacuate. could not imagine earthquakes!

---

[www.reverbnation.com]

Thanks for everyone's help and support after Hurricane Katrina!

Rain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> seems we only get a storm like this every 35 years
> or so -- they brush, nudge and miss us every
> year..
>
> hey, at least we see em coming and are told to
> evacuate. could not imagine earthquakes!
>
> View my Hurricane Katrina Pics:

Quakes have the advantage of being over before you know what hit you. They seldom last more than 30-45 seconds, but that can be the longest minute most of us will ever spend.

Even a 4:30 AM quake. 5-6 seconds to wake up another second or two to realize whats happening and 30 or so seconds holding on to the siderails of a waterbed.

Its a short trip but the adrenaline flow lasts a week.

---

When fascism Comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying the cross - Sinclair Lewis

Wow, that second one makes me think of this quote I heard once: "Christ you look #ucked"

I mean really, that would seem like the end of the world to me had I been there.

Glad to hear there is some progress being made, although it is dissapointing that the rebuilding process has hardly even begun.

Hang tough.

Who was it who stayed around to take pics, Rain?

Seems LOTS of folks stayed, despite the mandatory evacuation orders.

We get several of those orders a year, everyone boards up, packs up, and heads inland, only to return two days later to a perfect house and a few limbs to pick up the next morning.

That caused a flase sense of security - and some people stayed.

Others were much older residents who had stayed thru Hurricane Camille in 1969 (not the most expensive hurricane to strike the US, but I believe the largest before Katrina). They figured if their home survived Camille, then it was fine for Katrina. and they too stayed.

Many of the folks in both of those groups lost their lives or the lives of loved ones. Since digital cameras and video cams being as common as VCRs and DVD players, there are TONS of amature storm shots out there.

My family did not stay. It just isn't worth it to risk your life over your :stuff: !

---

[www.reverbnation.com]

Thanks for everyone's help and support after Hurricane Katrina!

Teela Brown Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who was it who stayed around to take pics, Rain?

Pictures and live video are the only thing that get peoples attention anymore. If live coverage of the 1910 San Francisco earthquake or the Chicago fire or (insert your own favorite one here) had been available and seen by the public, impressions of how well we are prepared for any disaster, would be shaken.

I lived a half mile from the epicenter of the 1994 LA earthquake. Take my word for it. You're own your own. The authorities, busy with their own famly problems, just wern't there.

Then, when clean up started (a week or two later, if you you could find them) they were making up for lost time by being authoritative)

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When fascism Comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying the cross - Sinclair Lewis

Rain, I am VERY glad to hear some progress is being made. I was in your fair city (well, in NO) +14 days of Katrina and the devatation of what you all endured/are enduring brought tears to my eyes on a daily basis for the five days I was on the ground and then some. I plan to return and help you all triumphantly celebrate when NO is "officially" open again. Know that you and yours continue to have my prayers and sympathy.

See my blog for my write-up on that first trip; scroll down to 10.1.05 entry:
[www.stevewhitewrites.com]