Silent Nights on the Gulf Coast

By JOHN GRISHAM
Published: December 25, 2005
Charlottesville, Va.



IN the harrowing days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the shellshocked and homeless survivors strung up tents and tarps wherever they could find standing shelter, anything to hide from the sun. Now, four months later, many of the tents remain: in the front lawns of once fine houses now gutted and unlivable, in small clearings between mountains of rubble, beside camping trailers too cramped for entire families, on concrete slabs wiped clean by the storm surge, even in the living rooms of houses with few walls but intact roofs. The sun is no longer the problem: instead, the most desperate of the hurricane's victims have stuffed tents of every imaginable make and model with Salvation Army blankets and mattresses to try to stay dry and warm.

There is the dismal feeling that some of these tents may not be so temporary. One tent city built by the Army, dubbed "the Village," sits in the center of the small town of Pass Christian, some 30 miles west of Biloxi and at ground zero for Hurricane Katrina and its assault on the Gulf Coast.

The Village is a gloomy grid of 70 tents, 10 numbered rows of seven each, housing about 150 people - old, young, black, white, poor, middle-class, some so ill that their tents are marked "Oxygen in Use." After four months, some of the shock of loss has worn off and the people go quietly about the daily challenges of securing a warm, private shower, washing whatever clothing they have left, and hoping that their children do not fall ill.

They are grateful for the dry bed and the free food. Everyone knows someone who is worse off, or dead. With tens of thousands of Mississippians displaced and living with families or friends around the country, the residents of the Village at least have their children with them and they are close to home.

A handful of tents are decorated for the holidays, but it seems almost cruel to ask a young mother what she's planning for Christmas.

"We're leaving," she says without hesitation. "Getting out of here for a day or two."



Keith’s Barbeque Central

and I'll redouble my efforts to get the news media to focus on this problem.

:hug:

Thanks to a very good and kind DUer, I have a Christmas tree.




As referenced in the article, the trailers are too small to have a tree inside. My tree, Woodie, is outside my front door. Notice the lights, those are cow lights, the DUer wanted me to have a Farmer's Christmas in Biloxi.

Thanks to this DUer for helping me have good cheer this Christmas and thanks to so many who have generously given so that my life can be a little easier. I also thank all of the DUers that won't forget or let the rest of the nation forget the Hurricane Survivors.

:grouphug:

You are not forgotten.



Willie is quite happy to see his cousin ....he says he looks taller then he remembers.

Merry Christmas.

Peace.
O8)

I am glad I was able to post the picture, it has taken me all night to get it right and to get it hosted, but it was worth the effort.

Peace to you. :hug:

thank you for not forgetting. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

planning & hoping to get down there in February to celebrate Mardi Gras with Swampy. Will be staying with in-laws if their houses are cleaned out by then.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

I would love to join you and Swampy in the celebration. A DU meet up would be great.

Keith’s Barbeque Central

And here's another quote:

"But volunteers cannot build bridges, ports and highways. New infrastructure will require lots of federal aid, and Congress has been slow to respond."

Kicked and recommended. Thanks for posting. :hug:

if this continues. It will be much harder to exploit wedge issues when people remember so clearly the apathy of Bush and the GOP Congress.

...Gov. Haley Barbour and friends are using the catastrophe to their advantage. They are constantly decrying the media for giving New Orleans more coverage, for ignoring Mississippi and they are using subliminal racial resentment and division in the midst of it. They have painted the NOLA folks as being whiners, products of the "welfare state" and begging for handouts that the Mississippians are too self-reliant to request.

They're using the same subtle methods of blaming Democrats and blacks for all their ills.

The GOP may not lose the south completely, but it's going to be tougher of them to make the case for the party that forgot its citizens in their time of greatest need.

I fervently hope that the country will not forget!

very avoidable tragedy

This is a catastrophe. What will happen to these people come next hurricane season?!

this Christmas day? Serving up dinner for their tent constituents? Dropping their own holiday plans to raise more money for shelter and food?

The scenes of this area alone should cause every voter in this nation to reject the Republican Party completely.

If you have a warm dry place to sleep and food in your belly, you are truly blessed.

Add to that the love and support and generosity of so many here at DU, including you Generic Other.

I am so blessed and so much better off than thousands. They don't have the support system I have.

Thanks Generic Other for all you have done. You did help to make my Christmas special.

Thanks to you and so many others, Katrina and the admin were not allowed to steal my Christmas. :grouphug:

:loveya:

because doing something active to help the situation made me feel so much better. I wish it could have been more.

By the way, the flash you guys made was powerful. It made me cry.

:hugs:

& you haven't slowed down. Don't know how you do it lady.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

and not just for blackmail purposes.

:toast:

My registration never takes. I register and then the next time I try to log in, it doesn't recognize me. Then I try to register again, and they tell me an error has occurred and the admins will contact me and they NEVER do.

Is it my browser? Why won't they let me register?

I really want to read this. Was it in today's paper? Maybe I will just go buy one.

it's only the regular columnists you should have to register for. This is a guest editorial, is free. I never signed in to read it, although I am registered. Go ahead & register, I have had no problems with them, spamwise or otherwise.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

The tragedy of Katrina will worsen if the Gulf Coast is forgotten. People can't survive in tents. And FEMA trailers aren't meant to be longtime homes.

For free access to this article and more, you must be a registered member of NYTimes.com

clicked on editorials & ops & read them all, except for the ones you have to pay for. Was never asked to sign in.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

Maybe it's my browser. :shrug:

I'm registered & have had zero problems, No spam or anything. But I just go there & read to without signing in too. Once a month they send links to especially pertinent stuff, but nothing else. I'm not paying for the extra stuff, it'll probably be free again soon I hope. Maybe too many people clicked from this link & it triggered something in their software.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

I just registered again this past week and have logged on every day with no problem - until today.

Maybe I can try to email them again. They didn't respond to my first email.

I will also go downstairs later and see if I can log on using my husband's PC. Maybe it is a Mac thing.

set up an organization to help Katrina survivors. He and his wife donated five million dollars to get it off the ground.

Please go here and add a donation! http://www.rebuildthecoastfund.org

And KEEP TELLING CONGRESS THAT ADEQUATE, IMMEDIATE, ONGOING FUNDING FOR REBUILDING OUR NATION'S GULF COAST IS IS VITAL!!!

Why are we a united states if not to care for our brothers and sisters in times of need???!!

and maybe elsewhere on the Gulf Coast, have been regularly dismissed by neocons as criminals or little better than criminals.

Well, isn't that strange because the shepherds, to whom the Angel of the Lord and the Heavenly Host of Angels appeared, were apparently looked upon in just the same way. In fact as criminals; the origins being that it was not unknown for a sheep from the flock to "fall off the back of a lorry". Well, you can guarantee of course that their wages would have been pitiful.

They were privileged to see the newborn Saviour, the infant Jesus, together with Mary and Joseph, before the three Magi, who would have ranked high in spiritual circles on earth and relatively high in Heaven, in terms of the respectable monied society from which they originated. Out of all mankind, apart from the Holy Family, they were chosen as the first witnesses to that marvellous occasion. Truly, this world is upside down.

grisham is one of the good guys, for those who don't know, he has already spent millions of his own dollars for housing for katrina victims

Keith’s Barbeque Central

:kick:

Hope you have something to feel good about,even if it is only many will not forget.Peace.

eom

man your name is hard to spell.

Your post puts things in proper persective on this day

Keith’s Barbeque Central

copy and paste! ;-)

kliljedahl, did you see my post 42?

You stay up WAY too late for me



Keith’s Barbeque Central

The storm altered a great deal, including sleeping patterns.

Naps are great. ;-)