Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 13:19:38 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: thank you all
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

This is nothing compared to Drew's mother, but I am wondering about the
status of Keesler AFB in Biloxi.  Anyone heard anything?

At 01:11 PM 8/31/2005, you wrote:
>--- "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
>
> > At 07:59 AM 8/31/05 -0700, Drew Bittner wrote:
> > >Thanks to everyone who's expressed concern for and
> > >sympathy about my mom in Gulfport.
> > >As Mike pointed out earlier, it'll be a very long
> > time
> > >(measured in weeks, hopefully, not months) before
> > some
> > >of the basic infrastructure is together enough to
> > get
> > >word out. My brother intends to head for
> > Mississippi
> > >tomorrow if we don't have word by then, but I don't
> > >know how far he'll get; I'm assuming the National
> > >Guard has the ingresses blocked off.
> >
> > According to a report I heard yesterday about
> > Biloxi, there's only one road
> > into the area that's been cleared enough to get
> > through, and they are
> > restricting that to rescue workers and other
> > necessary folks.  I suspect
> > the only way he'll get in in the near future is to
> > volunteer with the Red
> > Cross or join the National Guard.
>
>** Hwy 49, the north-south axis from Jackson to
>Gulfport, is likely clear but liable to be blocked by
>National Guard. I don't know if going there is a
>feasible plan but I can't talk him out of it. There'd
>be no way to get there from due east because all the
>bridges are out and parts of Rt 10 are impassible; Rt
>90, along the beach, is out of commission for a long
>time to come as well.
>
> > As one reporter in N.O. this morning said, there is
> > *nothing* there to
> > support anyone...it all has to be brought in...food,
> > water, gas, medical
> > supplies.  The reporter was sleeping in his car, and
> > drove in from Florida
> > with everything needed to survive there.
>
>** It's true, there's nothing. Oddly, though, my mom
>got a cell signal awhile ago and called my sister to
>say she was all right. You never know when a miracle
>will happen.
>
> > >New Orleans will never be the same, even if they do
> > >rebuild. Portions of the city may have to be
> > declared
> > >uninhabitable for many years to come, while others
> > >will be redlined and uninsurable for flood or other
> > >disasters. In any event, we may be seeing the death
> > of
> > >a major city playing out in real time.
> >
> > I don't know the geography there well enough, but is
> > there some place not
> > too far away where they could relocate?  It's still
> > a major port for
> > transshipping from the Mississippi to oceangoing
> > vessels and that will be
> > needed somewhere in that area.  Perhaps a little
> > farther upstream?
> >
> > There are reasons New Orleans is located where it
> > is, and some of them
> > still apply...though power craft have changed things
> > somewhat in the last
> > few hundred years.
> >
> > -- Mike B.
> > --
> > I'm not tense, just terribly, terribly alert.
>
>New Orleans is a vitally important shipping center,
>and I'm sure it will continue in that way, but the
>actual city around it may be reduced or relocated.
>
>Drew
>
>____________________________________________________
>

Candy
(301)345-6635