Thursday, September 08, 2005

Katrina: Beyond the Big Easy

A few things have happened lately reminding me that Katrina only grazed New Orlean. She in fact saved her greatest fury for Mississippi, and brutalized the Alabama gulf coast as well. I thought about this when Rick "Analfroth" Santorum suggested penalizing people who rode the storm out despite mandatory evacuation. I wondered if he was aware of the nice Republican Mississpians who had made the same decision as ne'er-do-well black Democrats in New Orleans. Conversely, when Al Franken talked today about the effect of the bancruptcy bill on the poor in New Orleans, I wondered aloud about the poor in the other gulf states.

Then this afternoon, I spoke to a recent acquaintance who moved her from Mississippi this summer. She said they are still without power. Bottom line, even factoring out the disaster in New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi, Katrina' damage is still huge. But New Oleans has overshadowed everything.

To that end, I've pulled together some links to a few major newspapers along the storm's path. They have a good perspective on what is happening in the other Katrina disaster areas, though frankly they are hitting New Orleans as hard as anyone.

Biloxi SunHerald

Jackson Clarion-Ledger

Mobile Register

Hattiesburg American

One great pull quote from a forum in the Hattiesburg paper. Q: Governor Haley Barbour says that complaints about the Federal response come from the media and a few enemies of George Bush. What do you think?

Unless the countless people I have talked to while standing in lines at
Walgreens, Lowes, and at the shelter I have volunteered at are members of the
press or part of this small group of enemies of George Bush, then no... quite a
few people feel quite a bit of anger at the federal response or lack thereof.

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