Disaster and the Mississippi Gulf Coast - How Long to Recovery?

Hurricane Katrina did not cut a path through Mississippi....she turned the entire Gulf Coast of Mississippi into a disaster that many say is the worst natural disaster every to strike the U.S.  Unless you've seen with your own eyes the strand of mardi gras beads sticking up from the mud where a home used to be...unless you have noticed a stuffed animal with fur rubbed thin by small hands at one time now laying face down in what used to be a lawn...unless you lived as a neighbor of a family of four that perished -- it is hard to comprehend the disaster that was Katrina.

After disaster comes recovery and recovery from Katrina will be slow and hard for many.  Parents must view a home site where no home exists yet make mortage payments somehow each month.  Even worse, they must try to explain to their children why their world is now upside down.

The people of the Mississippi Coast are strong, but they need help.  They need a government that doesn't get involved in pet projects of local politicians and forget the people who need help putting lives back together.
The need a government in D.C. and in the State of Mississippi who are not so involved with helping the major businesses that they forget the promises they made on their many visits here.

The citizens of the Mississippi Coast deserve representatives who are interested in helping rebuild the beautiful coast -- not in pushing their private agendas that were formed long before Katrina slammed into the land.

It will be many years of recovery, and the Coast will never be the same.  What was lost will remain lost.  We can move forward, we can rebuild our towns and give our people back their dignity and their lives.  We can give our children hope and strength.

As we move closer to another Hurricane Season, we are not prepared.  Tons of debris have been removed, but much remains.  Homes detroyed lean precariously but have not yet been demolished.  FEMA trailers perched on concrete blocks dot the landscape and squeeze into subdivisions.  Nervously, we watch the same weather conditions developing that were present going into the 2005 hurricane season -- and we pray that the Mississippi Gulf Coast will be spared in 2006.