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Posted Saturday, March 20, 2006 USA Today

Home Depot replaces debris with playtime

Updated 5/17/2006 2:36 PM ET By Mindy Fetterman, USA TODAY

In what was left of a park built to honor World War II veterans in what was left of a small town in Mississippi, the CEO of Home Depot and 500 volunteers came one recent Saturday morning to build a playground.

"We had a lot of gnats working, too," laughs Leo "Chipper" McDermott, alderman-at-large for the town of Pass Christian, once home to 6,000, now barely 2,000.

More than eight months after Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast, Pass Christian is one of the many towns that remains devastated.

A 25-foot storm surge and hurricane winds leveled 90% of the town's homes and buildings, including the antebellum mansions on Scenic Drive along the Gulf.

"I tell you, it's unbelievable," says Bob Nardelli, CEO of Home Depot. "I was here 48 hours after the storm, and even now, just some of the homes are livable —— maybe."

Still, "There are unbelievable pockets of hope and inspiration."

One of those is the new playground at the town's War Memorial Park, where 400-year-old live-oak trees were nearly destroyed by the hurricane.

Along with a volunteer group called Hands On Network; KaBoom, a non-profit company that builds playgrounds; and Playworld Systems, a company that makes playground equipment, Home Depot has pledged to build 100 playgrounds across the hurricane-damaged area over the next two years.

This month Home Depot increased its pledge to $11.1 million. And it said it would rebuild two Home Depots that were destroyed by the hurricane and add a new store in downtown New Orleans near the Superdome and other sites in the region. Its investment in the region: $57 million.

The company already has helped repair an athletic field and build three playgrounds in the region, including one in Pass Christian last month. Another will be built this month.

On the one-year anniversary of the Aug. 29 storm, the groups will blitz the region and build 10 playgrounds at once. The sites are being decided now.

Home Depot also has "adopted" the town of Pass Christian (pronounced pass chris-tienne) and plans to help with its rebuilding efforts for one year.

"We wanted to find a city we could partner with, with a size where we could have a real impact," Nardelli says. Home Depot, which doesn't have a store in the town, says it will help Pass Christian rebuild with supplies, money and volunteers.

"We're staying," says Nardelli. "It's not a stop by and leave."

Increasing volunteerism

Nardelli said the company's efforts are an example of "integrating social work with corporate values."

And, he says, he's worried about the "level of abandonment" among Americans for the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. "It's our responsibility to take care of each other."

Coordinating the corporate efforts is the Hands On Network, a non-profit group based in Atlanta. KaBoom has vowed to build 1,000 playgrounds across the United States.

Hands On also has a goal to increase corporate volunteerism, says President Michelle Nunn. Companies such as Albertsons Grocery, Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cisco, Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, Dell, General Electric and Jones New York have joined its efforts in the Gulf, she said.

"When CEOs are involved like Bob (Nardelli) is, when he's out there many, many, many days each year doing service, the culture of the company reflects that," she says. "The power of his capacity to make a difference is through the incredible power of his employees."

Other executives involved in the playground-building project are worried that Americans have forgotten the region's devastation.

"It's scary," says Matt Miller, president of Playworld Systems. "We're an instant-gratification society, but this story isn't going away."

He was in Pass Christian for the playground project and was "dumbfounded" by the level of destruction. "I've seen other destruction —— tornadoes in Oklahoma, 9/11 —— but this just goes for miles and miles and miles and miles," he says. "You wonder how they're ever going to get it back."

Alderman McDermott agrees.

After working "around the clock" since the hurricane hit, "It's a little more depressing now because we can finally stop and look around," he says. "This must have been what the original settlers saw: It's just the sea and the beach and vacant land."

No 'hum of activity'

Nunn of the Hands On Network says she's been surprised that so little has been done so far to rebuild on the Gulf Coast. But the devastation was just too great, she says.

"You'd think that nine months later, there'd be a hum of activity like you feel when you go to China and everything's happening," she says. "But it's really just the opposite."

Why playgrounds, then, when much of the town has been completely wiped out?

A playground may "seem like an insignificant thing, but it's not," says Miller. "It's a way to give communities a sense of normalcy. Kids have lost their entire home, all their personal belongings, all their toys, everything. It's a place where they can come out and be kids again."

The playground is the first permanent structure built in Pass Christian —— known by locals as "The Pass" —— since Katrina struck.

"The idea is to return kids' lives back to normal, or as normal as they can be right now," says Darell Hammond, CEO of KaBoom. "Kids should have an opportunity to play in a normal environment —— and it shouldn't be a debris pile."

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Posted Tue March 27, 2006 KentState

Kent State Students Volunteer For Spring Break

WLOX-TV — By Steve Phillips mailto:sphillips@wlox.com

Hundreds of students from Kent State University are helping with hurricane recovery. They're among several groups spending an "alternative spring break" on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

They swarmed the Pass Harbor like worker bees in a field of flowers.

"There's about 400 of us," said one of the student volunteers.

The harbor group is on clean up duty. These visitors from a thousand miles away were shocked at what Katrina did to the coast.

"Nothing like you see on TV. It's absolutely amazing to see down here, everything that happened. TV doesn't do it justice," said Mallory Selway.

Lynn Yamokoski was glad to help out.

"We're from Ohio, Northeast Ohio. And we're kind of oblivious to what's going on. And came down here to help out. Give back to the community. Do some good," she said.

For many of the students it's a spring break unlike any other. Ryan Tascar was among the young people yearning for something more fulfilling.

"I wanted to do something other than party down in Myrtle Beach. I wanted to be a part of something a little bigger than myself. Maybe help some people," he said.

The spring break help is surely appreciated. Visiting students have already experienced the thanks of a grateful community.

"It's really great when you get to talk to people from around here. Like when we pulled up on the buses, they came out with big signs that said "Welcome to Pass Christian" and everything. That's really touching," said Natalie Benedict.

The harbor clean up is the first in a week's worth of work assignments.

"It's something I really wanted to do. Come down here and volunteer and help the people of Pass Christian," said Benedict.

The working spring break will help those in need, while building character in those who labor.

"I'm glad that I did it. It makes me feel better about myself. I'm just glad to help anybody I can," Selway said.

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Posted on Mon, Mar. 27, 2006

PASS CHRISTIAN HIGH SENIOR PROM

One last dance

By KATHY HANRAHAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PASS CHRISTIAN - Wearing a canary yellow strapless evening gown, Jessica Jenkins walked across the remains of her home, raising her petticoat to keep it out of the red clay.

Prom season holds a special importance for Jenkins and other Gulf Coast students whose last year of high school was defined by Hurricane Katrina.

"The littlest things get to you now," said Jenkins, who was named the prom queen Saturday.

"Things that you would never have thought would bother you before the storm, bother you now."

Next to the site of her old home, where their new house is under construction, Jenkins and older sister Leah share a trailer supplied by FEMA. Her parents and younger sister Brett live in an adjacent trailer.

At one time, they all shared one trailer, with a white maltese and golden haired poodle.

"You have a lot of rough mornings trying to get ready in a FEMA trailer," she said.

Before Saturday's prom, she had to apply her makeup in the trailer's dim lighting while a bulldozer cleared debris from a nearby lot.

She and her classmates from Pass Christian High have been attending school in portable classrooms set up on the campus of the local elementary school.

Enrollment was down from 600 students last year to 420.

Other senior classes from Pass Christian have had their proms at a venue in downtown Gulfport but it, too, was damaged by the storm, so Saturday's party for the Class of 2006 was moved to the Orange Grove Community Center off scenic U.S. 49, next to the Kangaroo Gas Station.

Senior Ryan Spear was shocked the school could hold a prom at all, much less have it ready on time.

"It isn't bittersweet. It's just sweet," fellow senior Heidi Knight said. "Having one just makes you feel normal."

They got some assistance from far away, as six students from Pennsylvania's State College High School came to help them decorate and others in the central Pennsylvania town donated 150 formal dresses for the Pass Christian seniors.

"I figured that most people wouldn't think of a prom for hurricane survivors, but it is something important to high school students," said Jony Rommel, a State College High student who put on a performing arts show to help raise money for Pass Christian's big night.

In November, another group of Pennsylvania students, from Lampeter-Strasburg High School in Lancaster, donated money and supplies for an elaborate homecoming gala for Pass Christian and Long Beach high schools.

Katrina's effects extend into the post-high school plans of some students.

Spear will attend a community college in Tennessee, where his family evacuated during the hurricane.

Jenkins has decided she will attend a Mississippi community college, where she expects to play softball.

"I was going to go off farther to a university but now I'm just going to go to a junior college just to stay closer to home," she said.

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Posted on Fri, Mar. 24, 2006

Pass will have run-off

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - The unofficial tally in the election for the vacant Ward 4 alderman seat ended with near-certainty that no candidate earned more than 50 percent of the votes, forcing a run-off sometime in the next two weeks, said Mary Catherine Ward, election committee chair.

The final tally will be taken today, but it is certain Huey Bang won enough votes to be one of the two candidates to square off to become an important part of the city's history. The next spot in the run-off will most likely be taken by either Greg Federico or Maria(h) Furze, depending on today's recount.

There were about 197 total voters in Thursday's elections, of which about 30 voted by absentee ballot. This surprised some on the election committee as many parts of Ward 4 were utterly devastated and many of its residents are unable to live there.

There were only minor irregularities in the voting, Ward said. The status on the town rolls of five people who voted were uncertain and it appeared that an additional five people voted with both absentee ballots and in person.

A final announcement of who is in the run-off and when it will take place is expected by the end of today, Ward said.

A scattered voter base, a depleted elector core, destroyed voting machines, an unlockable polling place that forced pollsters to get up in the wee hours in time for the 7 a.m. poll start and a town in ruins all conspired against this election and the election committee, but the whole thing went off without a hitch, Ward said.

A steady stream of smiling voters poured into the ruined elementary school cafeteria right up until the 7 p.m. close of polls.

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Posted on Fri, Mar. 17, 2006

Cities grapple with priorities

Master plan to rebuild is goal

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

In Long Beach and Pass Christian, the much-discussed SmartCode will become law in a couple of months, giving homeowners and businesses a framework for rebuilding.

The difference between each town's progress toward a SmartCode lies in its execution, and begs the question: Which comes first - the plan or the details of enacting it?

In Pass Christian, they have had charrettes, they have a written SmartCode and now all they need is to begin creating a master plan to start rebuilding their ruined town.

In Long Beach, the charrette begins Sunday and the SmartCode is weeks away, but the master plan is almost complete.

Pass Christian lost about 90 percent of its homes and businesses during Hurricane Katrina and has gotten its SmartCode together first, which is simply a way of creating mixed-use zoning districts, allowing homes and businesses to be built side by side.

The Pass has had charrettes, or public meetings, discussing the SmartCode. Charrette is a French word meaning "cart," the implication being the charrette is simply a public meeting at which an urban designer pulls a proverbial cart along and the public throws its ideas on board so the designer can come up with an all-inclusive plan.

The problem in the Pass comes with the master plan - namely that there is none, said Ward 1 Alderman Lou Rizzardi.

"A master plan answers these questions: Do we want to change our streets, put a park here or there, eliminate certain crossovers on the railroad track, propose sidewalks be put on certain streets?" Rizzardi said, adding the SmartCode puts the zoning in place to allow those changes to occur.

"If you're going to replace your infrastructure, you need a master plan."

Rizzardi said the next step is to have the planning commission hire an urban planner to help develop a master plan.

Long Beach felt the master plan should come first, said Mayor Billy Skellie, who has met with his department heads and has a good idea of what changes are needed prior to their week-long charrette.

"We're gonna have some more discussion about this next week," he said, adding that Long Beach is dealing with a smaller area of destroyed land than the Pass. The city will focus its discussion and plans on the downtown area around Jeff Davis Avenue and that little by way of zoning changes and planning will happen elsewhere.

Once the charrette is finished Thursday, a master plan should be in place and the team hosting the charrette will then spend a few weeks writing a SmartCode to fit the plan.

In the Pass, they are now waiting for a master plan so they can tweak their already written SmartCode toward it.

Once all the pieces are in place, each town's planning commission will hold public hearings to finalize the SmartCode before sending it to the City Council to become law.

Despite the supposed concrete vision of the future the charrettes, SmartCodes and master plans lay out, Skellie said he believes they are not the most important things that will shape their cities' future.

"At the end of the day, you try to have a plan in place that would best suit your community, but it's who will make the investment and do the development... that's the greatest thing," Skellie said.

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Posted on Thu, Mar. 16, 2006

BEFORE AND AFTER

West Beach Boulevard in Pass Christian

Three times John and Cynthia Hammond opened their historic beachfront house for the popular Pass Christian Tour of Homes. The view from their terrazzo-floored porch was as unforgettable as the mix of antebellum, French Rococo and seaside-resort wicker furnishings acquired over a lifetime.

John Hammond was a New Orleans attorney and the couple, like a number of others who lived in the Pass, maintained two homes. After his death and after 23 wonderful years of the porch view from 716 West Beach Blvd., Cynthia Hammond decided to sell.

"After experiencing Ivan in 2004, I realized without him it was just too difficult for me to board up and get ready for every hurricane," Hammond said.

The large, 1850s cottage that received a Colonial Revival facelift after a 1947 hurricane had also been lowered four feet by previous owners and the wooden porch replaced with the terrazzo floor and round cement columns.

Hammond said goodbye to all that when she sold to a New Jersey couple who wanted a large beachfront home near New Orleans. In June, Hammond moved her furnishings to a house she bought on St. Louis Street. It was several blocks back from the beach and had survived Camille, so she considered it a safe place.

She boarded up and evacuated for Katrina but took little with her, not even photographs, because it would be safe.

She returned to nothing on St. Louis Street. Her former house at 716 West Beach was also gone.

"I moved into a FEMA trailer on a friend's driveway and couldn't decided if I wanted to stay or go," Hammond said. "I was looking at houses in New Orleans - we'd already sold ours - and here on the Coast. And then I got caught up in the excitement of the charrettes."

She refers to the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, which brought widely recognized community planners to Mississippi to help each city rebuild.

Hammond has downsized to a 2½-bedroom house on Park Ridge Lane in the east part of town, and is finding excitement in simple things like new sofas.

"I don't have any regrets about staying," she said. "You get caught up in all the charrette plans and the possibilities of the future.

"It's an ongoing saga that I want to be part of, and I can still walk in the evenings and see a beautiful sunset."

- KAT BERGERON

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 15, 2006

A break from rebuilding

Luncheon celebrates Rotary efforts

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - Tommy Russell stood in front of his destroyed service station Tuesday afternoon enjoying a plate of jambalaya and salad during one of the last hurrahs for the Pass Rotary Club there.

Russell's Service Station on Scenic Drive had long been one of the centers of Pass Christian's and the Rotary's social scene and Tuesday's luncheon under the awning of the ruined gas pumps was an opportunity to celebrate the 15-member Rotary Club's post-hurricane efforts, network with potential donors and yet again give back to the community by inviting the whole town, for many of whom it is building new homes, to lunch.

Russell said Hurricane Katrina has sort of forced him into retirement and that he will now sell the land rather than rebuild.

"I guess the Lord got everything planned," Russell said.

Katrina has forced a lot of changes on Russell and his fellow Rotarians, whose club has been around for almost 80 years. They had met in the Yacht Club before and one of their main community efforts had been the Boy Scouts, whose clubhouse and shed were destroyed.

Rather than licking their wounds and just replacing what was there before, incoming president Trey Campbell said, Pass Rotarians have been dipping their benevolent hands into several new endeavors across town.

They are raising money to help fix the library and portions of the sewer system, buy dump trucks, build a community building and get the Boy Scouts up and running again, Campbell said, but their most impressive effort involves building dozens of homes for Pass residents who will not be helped by FEMA, SBA loans or insurance reimbursements.

"This is the most important undertaking in our 80-year history," Campbell said.

Current Rotary President Dr. D.H. Short has been traveling the country raising funds for the rebuilding effort, volunteers are searching for potential candidates and the Mennonite Disaster Services has agreed to provide all the free labor necessary until the money runs out, Campbell said.

The first home built with Rotary funds, on Second Street just west of Davis Avenue, is almost half finished, Campbell said, and they have the funding, materials and eligible candidates for 38 more homes.

Campbell said his group does not plan to stop building until everyone in Pass Christian who needs their help gets it.

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 15, 2006

Bridging St. Louis Bay

Residents encouraged to offer input

By DON HAMMACK and JOSHUA NORMAN

SUN HERALD

A copy of the newspaper article commemorating the old U.S. 90 bridge's opening in his back pocket, Chuck Breath took in the new bridge design presentation at Bay St. Louis' temporary city hall Tuesday night.

He lived near the foot of the now-destroyed bridge, and posed one question about working hours as the Granite Archer Western team begins building.

"The barges would clang all night long," he remembered.

The head of construction said they'd start piledriving work in two shifts, probably 60 hours per week and adjust the schedule as needed. Breath later joked that not as many people live right by the bridge anymore, after Hurricane Katrina's blow more than six months ago.

The old bridge, finished in 1953, cost $9.2 million; the price tag for the new one is $266.8 million. It's twice as wide, with four lanes of traffic, four breakdown and emergency lanes and a pedestrian walkway, making it around 100 feet wide.

It's also a high-rise, eliminating the need for a drawbridge.

Members of the HNTB Corp. design team presented esthetic options, which the communities can have input on. There are choices in lighting and artwork on mammoth decorative pylons that flank each end of the bridge.

Local artist Marty Wilson prepared several pieces of art that will be laid into or raised from the concrete. Comment cards were taken up, and more will be available at city offices in both cities. Citizens can also e-mail bsl.bridge@gcinc.com, the same address for interested workers to use to apply for jobs.

A similar presentation in Pass Christian received a rockier reception. Ward 3 Alderman Anthony Hall questioned why they were getting the presentation, as the bridge actually lands in the unincorporated strip of Harrison County to the west of the city.

"I don't think this board has any jurisdiction, so I don't understand the purpose of this meeting," he said.

That seemed to puzzle the team assembled to answer questions, including Mississippi Department of Transportation employees, as did other queries posed by residents about where the bridge will land, dredging issues in the bay and where the concrete will be made.

In Bay St. Louis, it was pointed out the bridge will land at the same spots at both ends as the old one, but additional land had been acquired in Harrison to smooth out the sharp approach curve. The bridge curves about 150 feet north of the old footprint, partly to allow construction while debris removal continues.

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Posted on Fri, Mar. 10, 2006

Leaving the Village

Compared with alternatives, living was 'luxurious'

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - The Village, a.k.a. tent city, and its feeding tent are closing March 15 and while it might create some hardship for the half-dozen non-volunteers who still lived there as of Wednesday, it may be just in time for the city.

More than 2,000 volunteers are expected to pass through the Pass in the next three weeks as college kids from across the nation spend their spring breaks rebuilding, and the city needs somewhere to put them, said Lou Rizzardi, Ward 1 alderman who has been coordinating volunteer efforts since Hurricane Katrina in Pass Christian. Rizzardi said it is hard to guess how many thousands more will come through town in the coming months.

It is convenient, then, that the already-extended contract that the city had with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund the Village ends March 15, Rizzardi said.

The Village was created right after the hurricane and existed on the funding of FEMA, which paid for the shower station, the port-a-potties, security, some support buildings, the feeding tent and the heating and air conditioning in the tents, said Malcolm Jones, city attorney, adding that the city has always handled the administration of the Village.

At the height of its operation, the Village, off Second Street, was housing anywhere from 75-150 citizens and dozens of volunteers living in 74 military-style tents with hard floors, Jones said. FEMA has managed to place everyone who applied for and was eligible for assistance in FEMA trailers or other more semi-permanent situations than the Village.

The new situations are not a comfort for everyone who lived in the Village though.

"We've made a home here and now we're being uprooted," said John Grower, who was puttering around the cluttered tent Wednesday that he had lived in since October in a desperate attempt to be ready to move by nightfall.

Grower, who lost his Pass home and all its contents, said he and his wife had been offered a FEMA trailer, but it is in a park in Kiln and Grower works in Gulfport. Their Pass property will not have water for some time, Grower said, which is why FEMA will not let him put a trailer there.

The tents are roomier and more comfortable than FEMA trailers, Grower said, the only downside being that they lack indoor bathrooms.

"We're going from relatively luxurious living to trying to make a go of it...I haven't lived in a travel trailer since college," Grower said.

There were also a couple of Village residents who had not applied for or did not qualify for FEMA assistance, including a pregnant Latino woman and a partner, Jones said, but the city is working to find something for them.

The City Council voted at a special meeting Wednesday morning to ask FEMA to turn over what it owns in the Village to the city so they can now make it a volunteer housing site.

The tents belong to the Seabees, who built the Village, and the Navy has agreed to let the tents stay there if the city is able to maintain the Village. Jones said the city has arranged with various volunteer groups to cover the cost of operating the village if FEMA turns it over.

Jones said the city felt it would be a waste if they just watched FEMA tear down the site and sell what scraps they can when there is so much potential left for the site.

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Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006

Tour de force

Members of Congress see Coast damage firsthand

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

Congressman John Boehner has been here before. Actually, Boehner (R-Ohio), the recent successor to Tom DeLay as House Majority leader, has seen all this before, too - except it happened more than 36 years ago.

Boehner was a Seabee who arrived for a brief tour at the Gulfport Naval Construction Battalion Center in the early summer of 1969 and was there when Hurricane Camille left the Gulf Coast in ruins.

Decades later, Boehner found himself wandering through what must have seemed like the same piles of debris Friday, except this time he was here helping South Mississippi via the legislative branch of government.

"I've seen this picture before, but this is a whole lot worse," said Boehner, touring with 33 other Congress members as part of a visit arranged by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Boehner said he was with the hundreds of Seabees after Camille who cleared roads, built schools and removed debris. He was re-deployed a few months after Camille, but the devastation seemed incredible to him then, and more incredible that it happened again.

Boehner said during a vacation several years ago, as he and his family passed through Gulfport, he told his young children about the giant ship that had landed across U.S. 90 during Camille. His kids did not believe him, until Katrina came and images of the casino barges and other ships strewn on the road made them believers.

Friday's tour of this part of the Coast, from Bay St. Louis to Keesler Air Force Base, made believers out of many in the delegation, too, some who wield real power to help.

Don Young (R-Alaska), said he was utterly shocked at seeing the devastation here as compared with New Orleans, especially to the roads and bridges. The chairman of the Transportation Committee expressed concern and understanding and said he would take the mental images from his trip back to Washington.

"I didn't realize the 'bang!' that hit this place," Young said, adding he blames the national media in part for his lack of understanding because the national story focused so heavily on New Orleans.

Building awareness was one of the most important parts of this trip, said Tom Davis (R-Va.), who was chairman of the committee that wrote the House's Hurricane Katrina report. This was Davis' third trip to the Coast since Katrina, and he was none too pleased at the way things looked.

"Debris removal is still not where you want it to be," he said.

Davis and Congressman Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) were quick to separate the slow progress from the response of local governments.

"The response from the government here has been great," said Wamp, who has been advocating removal of FEMA from under the Department of Homeland Security's umbrella, likening the union of the two agencies to forcing NASA to join the Department of Transportation.

Hastert said he planned the trip to help educate his fellow Congress members and to see where the recent aid appropriations are being spent.

"We're here to see how things are going," Hastert said. "New Orleans... It's a different situation. We're here to make sure that people do have a future here."

Though the delegation largely received favorable reception from locals, not everyone was impressed with the massive gathering of this country's lawmakers on the sandy, dusty, debris-strewn shores of the Gulf.

As Terry Royce, a 51-year-old formerly homeless man who volunteers all his time to help in the cleanup effort, was leaving God's Katrina Kitchen in Pass Christian where the Congress members had stopped to serve lunch for a photo op, he scoffed at the mob of cameras and nametags.

"A lot of VIPs," Royce said. "They should have been here a long time ago."

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Posted on Mon, Feb. 27, 2006

Mardi Gras in the Pass signals new beginning

By ANITA LEE calee@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - The citizens of Pass Christian mustered their energy and commitment Sunday, turning their backs on destruction to throw one of the city's most memorable Mardi Gras parades.

The 76th annual parade was smaller, the route shorter, but the day was packed with meaning six months after a hurricane that cost the city its entire sales tax base and 80 percent of its houses, including stately turn-of-the-century homes where revelers gathered to barbecue and visit during parades past.

This year, the focus shifted to U.S. 90. Thousands lined the highway as trinkets and beads were tossed from floats decorated for the theme "Cooking up a Storm."

Hometown celebrity Robin Roberts, a co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America," served as grand marshal of the parade sponsored by the St. Paul Carnival Association. She's attended the Pass parade many times, but this was her first time to ride.

"I'm just so honored and proud of the people here," said Roberts, who rode atop an antique Buick LeSabre convertible. "They have such spirit. This is better than an Emmy."

Bob and Linda Zeller always invited family and friends from near and far to their historic home for the Pass parade. Last year, they renewed their wedding vows in the front yard before the 2005 parade rolled by on Second Street. They threw a party this year, too, outside the travel-trailer that serves as home while they make plans to rebuild.

As usual, Police Chief John Dubuisson kept an eye on the crowd. This was his 20th parade as police chief, but it's a miracle he's here at all. His house is gone and he almost lost his life in Katrina's tidal surge.

"I think this is a new beginning," Dubuisson said. "That's what I think."

It might drizzle before the Pass parade and it might rain afterward, but like anyone else from the Pass, Dubuisson will tell you, "It never rains on this parade. Look how bad it was Saturday and look at it today. It's beautiful."

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Posted on Mon, Feb. 20, 2006

The task ahead

As FEMA's deadline looms, Harrison County races to clear 26 miles of debris-strewn beach, and marine cleanup has yet to begin

By TRACY DASH tadash@sunherald.com

HARRISON COUNTY - Drive along the beach in Gulfport, east of U.S. 49, and you'll see sand and water littered with junk Hurricane Katrina left after destroying most things in its path.

It's part of Harrison County's 26 miles of beach that hasn't been cleaned since the monster storm. Contractors are working feverishly to remove debris embedded in the sand before warmer weather arrives and the federal government stops paying for the entire project.

Cleaning the beach is tedious, but cleaning the water is monumental, partly because the exact amount of trash and where it's located is unknown. It's also a task the U.S. Coast Guard hasn't attempted to address.

"Marine debris removal is always 10 times more difficult than land debris because normally land debris is easier to get to," said Irvin Jackson, manager of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources' derelict vessel removal program.

The beach cleanup is a county project and could be completed in mid-March; the marine debris removal is a federal project and hasn't even begun.

Cleaning up the beach

Bobby Weaver, Harrison County sand beach director, said the beach cleanup will be done in phases.

The first phase, which is complete, consisted of removing the top layer of debris and disposing of it. The second phase is under way, but is much more involved.

Necaise Brothers of Gulfport is screening the sand to remove litter buried as deep as a foot. The sifter has a blade that scoops up the sand and pushes it through a conveyor belt that allows debris to fall into a bucket on a front-end loader.

Clean sand shoots through the side of the machine and leaves large rows of sand along the beach. Contractors have sifted the sand from the Grand Casino property west to White Harbor Road in Long Beach. They also completed the area from Henderson Point east to Fleitas Avenue in Pass Christian.

A large pile of debris containing wood, a water tank, blanket, candle and other trash was collected in a small area near White Harbor Road.

The sand screening is about 40 percent complete, Weaver said.

A third phase involves removing concrete structures such as the pedestrian overpass at the Armed Forces Retirement Home. He said that project should start this week. A final phase involves beach crews passing along the sand and checking for any missed debris.

Cleaning up the Sound

U.S. Coast Guard officials hope to have contractors in the water by mid-April. But because the project is so massive, they first are tackling three sites: Jourdan River Shores in Hancock County, Henderson Point near the Pass Christian Isles in Harrison County, and a residential channel near Enger and St. Mary streets in Jackson County.

"We're focused primarily on residential canals," said Capt. Edwin Stanton, deputy sector commander in the Coast Guard's Mobile office. "They're areas that pose the most immediate threat to the population."

There are 375 square miles in Mississippi that could be filled with debris, Stanton said. Sonar technology was considered but is expensive and could take years to complete, he said.

Like other debris removal, FEMA will cover 100 percent of the cost until March 15. State and local governments will be responsible for 10 percent if that deadline isn't extended. As it stands, the deadline falls one month before the project is slated to begin.

Although marine debris removal won't start for weeks, volunteers already started pitching in to pull stuff out of the water near the shoreline. DMR is helping to organize volunteer efforts to remove as much marine debris as possible during periods of low tide.

The most recent was Monday, when more than 200 volunteers including people from Hands On USA, AmeriCorps and BFI spent the day cleaning marine debris from along the shoreline below mean high tide at Rodenberg Avenue east in Biloxi. They also worked near Courthouse Road in Gulfport.

They found appliances, pieces of buildings, clothes and other items that were pulled out to sea after the storm surge engulfed beachfront property.

DMR is assisting the Coast Guard, which FEMA assigned to remove debris "below mean high tide, south of Interstate 10 extending about four miles beyond the shoreline."

Jackson said, "That's a very significant effort."

He said FEMA is putting together documentation so the Coast Guard can start their contracting process. There could be more than 1 million cubic yards of debris in each of the three coastal counties.

Stanton said they will try to start work in the Mississippi Sound about the same time they begin the residential channels, but they might not be able to reach all four miles beyond the shore at first.

Jackson said he's thankful for the volunteers.

"Anything is a help," he said.

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Posted on Sat, Feb. 18, 2006

Pass draws ambitious plans

Design team will stay on to assist city

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - Plan first, then the code makes the plan possible.

Those were the words SmartCode expert Sandy Sorlien used in Pass Christian before a crowd of about 150 people Friday night, the final day of public discussion in the five-day charrette designed to produce a new set of zoning ordinances based on New Urbanism design philosophies and months of public input.

The plans suggested by the public and presented by a team of architects and urban planners from Fisher and Hall Urban Design company were ambitious too.

The team drew up designs for a new pleasure harbor between Market and Davis streets, a rebuilt Mexican Gulf Hotel near Memorial Park, a cement bike path along the beach, a new civic building, extended roadways at the end of Second and North streets, and a possible new neighborhood in the elevated and unused area north of the Wal-Mart site.

Some Fisher and Hall designers came up with ways to rebuild individual properties one piece at a time by building a small, cheap cottage first and later building the main house.

Many audience members at the final presentation expressed concern about high-rise condominiums going up in the area around Wal-Mart. In response, Fisher and Hall designers presented architectural plans they say not only allow for multiple families in a small space, but also provide the same amount of tax revenue to the town as a condo complex might.

The meeting also provided a unique opportunity for urban design by popular vote when Sorlien and team leader Laura Hall asked the audience, by show of hands, what type of building heights they wanted in various parts of town. The result: two to three stories in downtown, four to five stories near Wal-Mart, generally short buildings everywhere else and absolutely nothing taller than the tallest Live oak.

The Fisher and Hall team will now produce a final draft of the SmartCode for the Board of Aldermen to be presented Sunday at 3 p.m. to both city leaders and the public, Hall said.

The team will continue to advise and assist the Pass, Hall said, but the ball will soon be in the aldermen's court to make the SmartCode a reality and lay the groundwork for the city's future.

The process hasn't been easy for the design team, Hall said, and not because they've put in 18-hour days.

"We're talking about grand visions while people are still hurting," Hall said, adding that the Pass Christian charrette has been the most unique, challenging and rewarding task her California-based team has ever faced.

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Posted on Sat, Feb. 04, 2006

Home, sweet concrete

Pass Christian house stood firm against Katrina

By TOM WILEMON

tewilemon@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - Scott and Caroline Sundberg devoted eight years of weekends, spent more money than they will disclose and poured 1,320 tons of concrete to build their dream home.

Now, it's one of the few things left standing along the beachfront.

"We kind of over did it," Scott joked.

The house, which is perched on concrete columns 25 feet above sea level, is being used as an example of smart construction and has been featured in national news broadcasts. The Sundbergs believe their home can be a model for others and say concrete homes can now be built economically.

A structural engineer, Scott used the benchmarks set by Hurricane Camille in designing the house. He researched historical and scientific records from the storm. He used computer modeling to test his design against Camille's wind force and tidal surge.

The house was about 80 percent complete when Hurricane Katrina struck.

After the hurricane strengthened, the couple decided to ride out the storm in the house they rented in Long Beach. Floodwaters and crashing waves destroyed the house even though it was 1,300 feet from the beach and on higher ground than Camille's tidal surge.

The Sundbergs survived by taking refuge in their sailboat and by clinging to a neighbor's tree. After the storm, they went to the home of a relative in Tuscaloosa to regroup, all the while wondering about the fate of their concrete house. They kept hearing that everything on the Pass Christian beach had been destroyed.

Six days after the hurricane struck, they made it back to their street, Shadowlawn.

Scott climbed atop a pile of debris 30 feet high at the end of the street and saw the house was still there.

"It survived!" he screamed.

Caroline came running after him. The hipped gable roof lost about a third of its shingles to the wind, but it was still there. The windows on the first level were shattered. Almost all the landscaping had washed away.

The Sundbergs plan to hire contractors to finish their home as soon as they receive a settlement with their insurer. Scott, who had worked for a firm in New Orleans, intends to make designing concrete buildings a full-time business.

"When I started this house, concrete construction was not that common on the Coast," he said. "I was reinventing the wheel. I did not do it in an efficient manner."

Each of the columns that support the house is 12 inches thick and 30 inches deep and has eight sets of No. 6 rebar. Although he admits overbuilding, he has no regrets.

"What is the best insurance?" he said. "It's assurance. When you look at long-term costs, doesn't it make a lot more sense to build stronger and higher?"

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Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006

Favre and first lady

Playground dedication brings them to school

By RYAN LaFONTAINE rlafontaine@sunherald.com

HANCOCK COUNTY - Safe places to play are vital to South Mississippi's recovery from Hurricane Katrina, first lady Laura Bush told a crowd Thursday at an elementary school here.

Bush and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings visited Hancock North Central Elementary to help cut the ribbon on a new playground built by KaBOOM!, a 10-year-old nonprofit organization that has donated nearly 1,000 playgrounds in the U.S.

KaBOOM! is planning to build 100 playgrounds along the storm-pelted Gulf Coast, which Bush said is a critical part of the area's recovery.

"It's really very important to make sure that all the schools on the Gulf Coast are back up and running, and have safe places for children to play," said Bush, a former elementary school librarian. "That'll bring parents back; if they know their children will be safe."

Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, who attended high school at the Hancock North Central campus, helped Bush cut the ribbon. Favre said the new recreational equipment was needed even before Katrina walloped the county.

"I saw pictures of what it was when you guys first started," Favre told volunteers, who built the playground in less than 24 hours. "Those were the same swings that we played on."

Bush's visit to Mississippi was her third stop on a one-day tour of the region. Bush and Spellings made earlier stops at schools in Louisiana.

"Margaret and I feel very, very encouraged," Bush said. "I know for everyone who lives here and lost their home, it's seems like it's been a long time, and it seems slow, but the fact is, there has been a lot of progress."

Bush thanked KaBOOM! co-founder Darell Hammond for his dedication to the South. The playground was the group's second in Hancock County, and organizers have plans to build playgrounds in Waveland on Feb. 9, and in Pass Christian on April 22.

Ginny Vegas Reynolds, who helped form the Bridging the Gulf Foundation and joined forces with KaBOOM!, said the group plans to build 10 new playgrounds in South Mississippi before Katrina's one-year anniversary. Then on Aug. 29, it will build 10 in one day.

Urging Americans to "come on down," Bush said there are many volunteer opportunities here, and still a lot of work left to do.

******************

Posted on Thu, Jan. 26, 2006

DuPont reopens DeLisle plant after 5 months

By RYAN LaFONTAINE rlafontaine@sunherald.com

DeLISLE - Governor Haley Barbour said the restart of the DuPont titanium dioxide facility here is a sign of Mississippi's resolve, and the state's ability to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

"All of our big employers on the Coast are working hard to put people back to work, and I feel like progress is being made," Barbour said Wednesday during a brunch in DeLisle to celebrate the plant's reopening.

A study conducted just before the Aug. 29 hurricane estimated DuPont's annual economic impact in the state to be about $394 million.

Katrina pounded the facility along the north shore of St. Louis Bay, which combines titanium-bearing coke and ore in a unique fashion to create super-white titanium dioxide pigments.

Despite the storm's mammoth beating, no hazardous materials were released from the DeLisle plant, according to a recent study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The chemical giant was forced to shut its DeLisle site for several months, but the company's business operations leader, Glen Wood, said one production line is fully functional and another is expected to return soon.

"We have a strong global business," said Wood, who is based in the company's Wilmington, Del., headquarters. "I have never seen a recovery effort like the one being done here."

The DeLisle plant, just north of Pass Christian, is the second-largest producer of titanium dioxide in the U.S.

During the brunch, plant officials announced a $225,000 donation to the Pass School District. The money is in addition to more than $73,000 in computers the plant gave to the district.

Barbour said leadership from DuPont and other local businesses will be needed for decades to help drive South Mississippi's recovery.

"The same effort that allowed DuPont to be restarted is the kind of spirit we will need on this coast for a long time."

*****************

Posted on Sun, Jan. 22, 2006

The pioneering spirit

Pass Christian couple hoping others follow

By DAVID TORTORANO dtortorano@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - When Chuck Linkey woke up one day last week, he opened the blinds and looked outside to what he considered a postcard image of South Mississippi.

"The sun was coming through and the golf course was all green," said Linkey, who could also see the sun reflecting off the water.

"It was serene," he said.

Then he went to the other side of his house and looked outside.

It looked still like a bomb had gone off. He could see heavy equipment tearing down houses, and slabs where homes once stood.

"It was bittersweet," Linkey said.

Linkey and his wife, Joyce, have received a certificate of occupancy for their home in east Pass Christian.

They are to some extent pioneers.

And like the pioneers of old, their decision to move back in might prompt others to do the same, he said.

Linkey said he's already talked to former neighbors who are now thinking about moving trailers to their home sites.

The house the Linkeys live in, a quarter-mile from the water, was just a few days from completion when Hurricane Katrina came through.

It wiped out the first home on the site, but left his new home standing.

But even the new one took a licking. With an elevation of 18 feet and 6 inches, it still wound up with five feet of water.

It took Linkey four months to finish the house and return last week.

He has a phone and his pre-Katrina number, electricity - all the things homeowners took for granted before Aug. 29.

He and his wife still get emotional over having those things back..

*************

Posted on Mon, Jan. 23, 2006

Team dreams up new model for cities

Towns may turn backs on ambitious plans

By ROBERT TANNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PASS CHRISTIAN - Dreams of the future here are just sketches: Friendly streets lined with a welcoming mix of homes, stores and sidewalks. Neighborhood parks for play, picnics and a shady respite from the Southern sun. A bustling waterfront.

Reality lies on the ground, for mile upon mile of this hurricane-blasted stretch of Gulf Coast, a mess of splintered homes, flattened trees and tent cities housing hundreds still homeless more than four months after Katrina.

Many people are neck-deep in that reality, scratching for the basics of meals, shelter and a job. But a high-powered group of community leaders, elected officials and architects are busily hammering out an ambitious framework for what could come next - to rebuild the entire 80-mile stretch of Mississippi's coast in a way that could produce a new model for small towns.

They are creating a test case for a different vision of America, one that seeks to turn away from the suburbs of the past half-century and instead embrace an idealized life of small towns and compact cities. It aims to resurrect the best of the past - evening promenades, neighborhood groceries, even trolleys - with the promise of the future's technology, jobs and transportation.

The ideas come from architects who call themselves New Urbanists - a group committed to the idea that smaller, walkable communities work better. They emphasize densely built downtowns with thriving Main Streets, neighborhoods that mix commerce and homes, a range of transportation options and a style that relies on a region's history. They spurn suburbs and sprawl.

"You don't want to call it a blessing, but it is a chance," said Jim Barksdale, the former Netscape president and a Mississippi native who heads the state rebuilding commission. "You need hope and a sense of place. These ideas have provided that. They seem to be resonating with an awful lot of people out here."

There are plenty of doubts - about the costs, jobs, casino gambling and the return of the poor and minorities who have built homes here. And many architects say the New Urbanists' vision is unrealistic for some towns. But leaders here are pushing for change, and quickly, hoping to jump-start Mississippi's rebuilding while arguments have left New Orleans hamstrung.

Elected leaders, newspaper publishers and developers are enthusiastically backing the proposals. Residents are still learning about the ideas. But what will determine the real shape of rebuilding here will come together through the incremental, unflashy steps of local government and private development, from building codes and road plans to housing blueprints.

The proposals came together remarkably quickly. Katrina hit Aug. 29, and while much of the nation's attention focused on the tragedies in New Orleans, the devastation in Mississippi was sweeping. Fewer people died here, but the storm's fiercest winds and waters flattened the cities of Bay St. Louis, Waveland and Pass Christian. Devastation was tremendous farther east, too, in Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs.

Within days of the storm, rebuilding talks were shaping up. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour welcomed a rebuilding proposal from one of the most prominent of the New Urbanist architects, Miami-based Andres Duany. Separately, Barbour moved quickly to allow the Coast's casinos to rebuild on land, eliminating an earlier requirement that they must be on the water.

In mid-October, scores of architects from around the world met for a six-day meeting at a ravaged casino in Biloxi. Working with local architects and community leaders, they examined the damage and weighed each of 11 communities' mix of residences, business, transportation and history.

They produced 11 individual plans tailored to each town. Overall, they aimed to create more transportation options, strengthen each community's downtown and build a network of neighborhoods. Each town will choose what pieces to put in play.

Among the bigger proposals:

• Put a beachfront boulevard in place of U.S. 90, the busy waterfront road that runs the entire coastline. Cars would share space with people and the area would have a median, trees and other ways to lure pedestrians, with hopes for evening promenades.

• Move freight-train lines that run close to the coast miles farther away, north of Interstate 10, and turn the rail lines into mass transit, or bike paths.

• Better utilize the waterfront for a range of uses - for ferry service, water taxis, for recreation as well as for working shrimpers.

"It's always about community, it's always about walkability, it's always about diversity of use and people," Duany said. The idea is for people to live closer together and rely less on cars, with less sprawl and less traffic. "The lifestyle of the American middle class is the greatest environmental problem of the world."

California architect Laura Hall, who led the work in Pass Christian, said that tackling the entire coast of Mississippi will give the country the best example yet of how well New Urbanism works. "It's a huge turning point for the country to be able to see this on such a huge scale. It's taken us 20 years to get to this point."

The embrace of their effort in Mississippi has spurred interest among officials in several Louisiana cities, though not New Orleans.

It's also stirred up a simmering backlash among other architects, who say New Urbanists, while correct in building denser cities where people can walk, produce a "one-size-fits-all" model that confines its solutions to the past and isn't open to new ideas.

"This is a very conservative, very waspy ideology," said Reed Kroloff, dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture and head of a New Orleans rebuilding committee. "There's no doubt that a fair amount of New Urbanist principles have found their way into the embrace of the American right... . They call themselves neo-traditionalists. Neo-traditionalists and neo-conservatives make a very happy marriage."

For the people on the Gulf Coast, however, architectural arguments are a long way off.

In Pass Christian, Philip LaGrange said he'd seen the plans but had little faith in them, given the slow pace of reconstruction so far.

"They're a viable vision, but they're not realistic unless people and money come in from outside areas. They're all expecting a major influx of outside developers," said LaGrange, who's spent every day trying to rebuild his beachfront bed-and-breakfast, The Blue Rose. He said the federal government so far hasn't shown itself willing to spend the money to bring the region back - and developers won't come until the feds do.

******

Posted on Sat, Jan. 21, 2006

On Gulf Coast, dreams of new kind of city

ROBERT TANNER Associated Press

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. - Dreams of the future here are just sketches: Friendly streets lined with a welcoming mix of homes, stores and sidewalks. Neighborhood parks for play, picnics and a shady respite from the Southern sun. A bustling waterfront.

Within days of the storm, rebuilding talks were shaping up. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour welcomed a rebuilding proposal from one of the most prominent of the New Urbanist architects, Miami-based Andres Duany. Separately, Barbour moved quickly to allow the coast's casinos to rebuild on land, eliminating an earlier requirement that they must be on the water.

Among the bigger proposals:

_ Put a beachfront boulevard in place of Highway 90, a busy waterfront road that runs the entire coast. Cars would share space with people, with a median, trees and others ways to lure pedestrians, with hopes for evening promenades.

_ Move freight-train lines that run close to the coast miles farther away, north of Interstate 10, and turn the rail lines into mass transit, or bike paths.

_ Better utilize the waterfront for a range of uses - for ferry service, water taxis, for recreation as well as for working shrimpers.

The designers turn to old postcards of the coast of 75 or 100 years ago to help carry their message to residents. The faded images of old rail stations, dusty storefronts and beach scenes seem to capture the neighborliness and mix of residences and businesses they're trying to recreate.

The embrace of their effort in Mississippi has spurred interest among officials in several Louisiana cities, though not New Orleans.

"This is a very conservative, very waspy ideology," said Reed Kroloff, dean of the Tulane University School of Architecture and head of a New Orleans rebuilding committee. "There's no doubt that a fair amount of New Urbanist principles have found their way into the embrace of the American right. ... They call themselves neo-traditionalists. Neo-traditionalists and neo-conservatives make a very happy marriage."

For the people on the Gulf Coast, however, architectural arguments are a long way off.

In Pass Christian, Philip LaGrange said he'd seen the plans but had little faith in them, given the slow pace of reconstruction so far.

In Biloxi's low-lying eastern edge, floodwaters left block after block of tumbled-down homes where a thriving community of Vietnamese had settled. The plans would leave much of that area alone.

"I don't 100 percent reject the city plan, but I ask - the city should find a way to adjust the situation to help the poor people," said Father Dong Phan, head of the Vietnamese Martyrs Church.

In Ocean Springs, new Mayor Connie Moran loved the design plans. But she has been frustrated by state transportation officials' plan to more than double the size of the bridge across Biloxi Bay, from the four-lane span left in pieces by the storm to a six-lane bridge with four breakdown lanes.

Moran warns it will fuel more traffic and overwhelm plans in her town for a waterfront of shops, restaurants and water taxis.

"We have an opportunity to do it right," Moran said. "Finally we'll have joggers and people with baby strollers and people in wheelchairs who won't have to dodge traffic. ... (The bridge) turns our small town into a speedway to Biloxi."

A few blocks away, Chris Marie Logan tends bar each night and supports her two young boys. Her home is the only one of nine left inhabitable on her block. She hasn't heard much about the plans her mayor is so enthusiastic about, but is worried about big casinos and big development.

"Too slick, too many people" is her worry. She doesn't understand why there's all this talk about change anyway: "I just want it to stay the same as it was."

---

On the Web: http://www.governorscommission.com/

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Posted on Mon, Jan. 16, 2006

Tours get mixed reviews

Trips around storm-ravaged Coast offered

By PETE TATTERSALL ptattersal@sunherald.com

About three weeks ago Hussein El-Hamaki, owner of King Limo Biloxi, began offering guided disaster tours along Mississippi's storm-ravaged U.S. 90.

While word of the tours, which cost $20 for one hour and $35 for two, has been slow to spread, the concept has been greeted with both disdain and encouragement.

On a recent afternoon, Chris and Susan Danser, together with a crew from the United Methodist Disaster Response Team, were cleaning out their home at 620 Hardy Ave., in Gulfport.

The couple, who sleep in their minivan on their sporadic returns to South Mississippi, have been living in Jacksonville, Fla., with relatives since the storm.

"I don't think I mind people seeing, because when we go to Jacksonville, our relatives say, 'Oh yes, we've seen it on the news.' But until you see it, you can't understand what happened here. So I'm kind of torn," said Susan, 50.

"You don't want to capitalize on other people's misfortune, but I guess you have a point there," Chris, 56, said to his wife.

"I would like people to see what the devastation really is here, that people aren't just crying wolf," Susan said.

"Maybe a portion of the money to pay for the tours should go toward helping people," said Chris.

El-Hamaki said he decided to offer the tours because New Orleans was getting so much more national attention than South Mississippi. He said money doesn't figure into the equation. However, El-Hamaki said if the endeavor did start to rake in a marginal profit he'd be happy to donate a portion of the proceeds to recovery efforts.

"I tried to do it for free, but the driver gets $20 an hour, and there's the price of gas, insurance and maintaining the vehicle," said El-Hamaki, 53, a father of two, whose home in Pass Christian was destroyed by Katrina. "If I get support from any organization, I'll make it for free. I don't want to take money from people."

The tours will be noninvasive, sticking exclusively to U.S. 90, El-Hamaki said.

The tours should also help alleviate traffic along U.S. 90, easing pressure on local police, he added.

"People who've lived here for a long time, but maybe they are elderly or have no transportation, and people from out of town who will go back and tell their friends about what they saw...If I can help people see what the truth is, that is very important," said El-Hamaki.

Some people say they find the idea of the tours unsettling.

"I have mixed feelings about it," said Barry Cottrell, 61, who lives in a trailer on his relatives' land in the 400 block of East Beach Boulevard, together with his wife, Kathy, his daughter, Elizabeth, 17, and their elderly dog, Jeb. "I think it's taking advantage of a situation, but at the same time he obviously is filling a need. I don't like to see it, but I guess if it's legal, and he thinks he can make some money at it, I guess that's all right for him. I guess you could say I find it distasteful, but not illegal."

What about the theory that the more people who see the actual damage the more the word of South Mississippi's plight will spread nationally?

"I think that's possible, but I don't think that's his main motive," said Cottrell. "His motive is profit. But we certainly could reap some benefit out of it."

Carla Beaugez, whose family operates Biloxi Historic Tours, said she knows five people who were killed by Katrina along the tour train's route on Howard Avenue.

"Personally, with us being from Biloxi, this is just not the time for it. Not to say in the future we won't, because our tours always were historical tours of Biloxi. It would be done in a manner that ties in well with the history of Biloxi," she said.

Erroll Hotard, general manager of Hotard and Gray Line of Biloxi, which operates a fleet of more than 20 buses, vans and minibuses in South Mississippi, said anyone can charter their own tour, and indeed the company has transported a number of architects, planners, workers and individual companies around the Coast since Katrina, but "at the present time, we don't have any plans to market or do a Katrina-based devastation tour on an individual basis to the general public."

Even so, Hotard left open the possibility in the future, noting that another Gray Line franchise in New Orleans had conducted similar tours in an appropriate and tasteful manner.

In Long Beach, Wesley and Alyce Scoggins, who together with their three children live in a trailer in front of their house at 126 West 4th St., were dumbfounded by the concept.

"If it's going to benefit the victims, or the homeless that need help, I could see someone doing that, because we get it all the time anyway, people driving up and down the street taking pictures," she said, pointing to two sailboats that floated from Long Beach Harbor and came to rest just steps from their property. "If part of the money were going to go into a fund that was going to benefit the Mississippi Gulf Coast recovery, I'd say go for it. Sell as many tickets as you can."

But if it's going to benefit someone's pocket, that's not right."

Another Long Beach homeowner who resides in a trailer in front of her ravaged, century-old home, and who asked that her name not be used, summed up her feelings about the disaster tours.

"I believe in live and let live, as long as they don't step on my toes," she said. "If they want to ride down the street and look, they can ride down the street and look. But they don't stop and come in unless I invite them."

Hussein El-Hamaki, owner of the King Limo company, is offering disaster tours along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The lure of observing the damage firsthand could bring plenty of disaster tourists Hamaki's way.

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Posted Jan 13, 2006

EXERPT from Pres Bush visit to Bay St. Louis

But there's some other lessons learned where we don't need to change: the lesson of courage. We saw great courage. I'll never forget going to the hangar to see those Coast Guard kids that were flying those choppers. I think it's something like 30,000 citizens were saved by rescue efforts by Coast Guard men and local responders. And the people here on the front lines of saving lives showed great courage during Katrina. (Applause.)

I remember seeing the determination of our citizens. One of the lessons learned is when people are determined, they can get things done. At the Pass Christian school system, for example: This is a place where they consolidated all the schools at the elementary school. It was kind of inconvenient, when you think about it, but the inconvenience didn't bother the people in charge of that school system. As a matter of fact, they viewed it as a fantastic opportunity to be able to come together and share -- and that school was up and running, with broken windows, and -- but there wasn't a broken heart, and their spirit wasn't broken.

One of the lessons, of course, as I mentioned, is the compassion of our fellow citizens. Think about lonely folks being sent out, having all their property, their material goods destroyed, wondering what the future meant for them, and there's a loving family saying, I love you, brother; I love you, sister. Think about a country where the compassion is so strong that a neighbor in need can find a stranger that wants to help them get their feet back on the ground. (Applause.)

One of the lessons of this storm is the decency of people, the decency of men and women who care a lot about their fellow citizens, whether they be elected officials or just folks on the ground here just trying to make somebody else's life even better than it was before. So we learned some lessons about how to respond, and we're going to change. But some of the lessons shouldn't change, and that is the decency and character of the American people.

It's been an amazing experience for you. You just got to know, though, that a lot of people in this country, many of whom have never been down here, care for you, they pray for you, and they're pulling for you. God bless. (Applause.)

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Posted on Wed, Jan. 11, 2006

Pass gives corps two weeks

Debris removal concerns debated

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - Aldermen voted 3-1 Tuesday night in favor of giving the Army Corps of Engineers and its principal contractor AshBritt two more weeks to address concerns about their debris removal contract.

The corps came dangerously close to losing the contract because every alderman and dozens of citizens said either the work was going too slowly or AshBritt was not doing a good enough job hiring local debris-removal crews.

Voting to keep the status were Donald Moore, Ward 4; Joe Piernas, Ward 2; and Lou Rizzardi, Ward 1; voting no was Anthony Hall, Ward 2.

The corps has come under fire recently in South Mississippi for debris removal work. Pass Christian is the only city in Harrison County that hired the Corps of Engineers for debris removal.

Corps spokesman Brian Westfall and AshBritt President Randy Perkins made passionate pleas to keep the contract by trying to explain some of the holdups and promising to work harder to get locals involved.

Westfall said the corps has made significant progress and is over the hill in terms of red tape. Westfall said the fact that 95 percent of debris has been removed from public property should attest to their gains and that it was only recently that they have been able to get onto private property to remove debris.

Perkins said the work has been going slowly because they are strictly adhering to federal guidelines, thereby assuring Pass Christian's full federal reimbursement. Perkins said there are more than $1 billion in disputed claims involving Florida cities from last year's storms because the work was not done according to the letter.

"We're unhappy," said Ward 4 Alderman Donald Moore. "They seem too bogged down in red tape. It's slow...look around."

(Click Here to Return to Aldernan Report)

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Posted on Thu, Jan. 05, 2006

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Henderson Point residents have legitimate concerns

Residents and property owners in Henderson Point, including the Heights and Pass Christian Isles, have good reasons to worry about the future of our neighborhood:

• The advisory base flood elevations proposed by FEMA and which have Harrison County cowed are simply knee-jerk reactions to Katrina's freak storm surge and have no rational relationship to maintaining the residential quality of the neighborhood, much less reducing flood insurance claims.

The truth is, most homes in Henderson Point from the bay to the city limits of Pass Christian had been built on grade; many frequently flooded in heavy rains. If homes were rebuilt to current flood elevation requirements, as amended by the county in 2000, almost all flood claims in the area would be eliminated, barring a freak of nature like Katrina or Camille.

Raising flood elevations five to eight feet is pointless, unless you are seeking to rid the area of its residents. For example, my home, which is still standing at 20.1 feet above sea level, had 7.5 feet of water in it. Elevating it to 24 or 25 feet isn't going to make a bit of difference, except cost me money and compromise the integrity of my structure, because I'd never even had water on my slab prior to Katrina.

• The proposal to replace the CSX railroad with an east-west highway does not bode well for Henderson Point and Pass Christian, since another busy highway through the heart of our neighborhoods would do nothing but hurt our way of life, yet it would benefit condo developers along the beach who want to reduce traffic on Scenic U.S. 90.

• The proposed bridge over Bay St. Louis is another MDOT monstrosity intended to complete the massive highway buildup ending with the bridge proposed between Biloxi and Ocean Springs.

• The water supply and sewer system still have not been repaired in our area, although FEMA by federal regulations is supposed to repair such infrastructure.

In short, it's easy to take advantage of Henderson Point residents right now because we can't live in our neighborhood, where we still have to show identification to enter, and the county will not issue permits to rebuild our homes.

THOMAS JEFFERY GREGOIRE

Pass Christian

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Posted on Tue, Jan. 03, 2006

Americorps pitches in

Locals praise youths' work

By JOSHUA NORMAN jdnorman@sunherald.com

PASS CHRISTIAN - Miles from his small hometown and family farm in Iowa, A.J. Lyman said he has rarely felt more at home than in Pass Christian.

Lyman, 23, is an Americorps volunteer who signed up for cleanup work in the Pass for two months after Hurricane Katrina before rotating back to his group's St. Louis base. He then volunteered to return and work through the holidays.

"I've seen so much happen and so much progress," Lyman said after finishing another difficult round of cutting up a downed Live oak in a Pass cemetery Friday, adding that he has relished his time with Americorps. "There are so many great things you can do with it."

Lyman represents the eagerness and resiliency of Americorps' frequently young members, said Evan Snyder, the Emergency Response Team's unit leader.

Americorps was formed in 1993 by President Clinton as a kind of domestic Peace Corps.

The program offers American citizens the opportunity to do everything from teaching in rural classrooms to participating in urban revitalization programs.

In recent years, it has fallen under the budget ax and seen its federal funding cut significantly and some of its programs reduced or eliminated.

However, the Emergency Response Team, based in St. Louis, has never been the victim of such cuts, Snyder said.

"We get calls from FEMA all the time," said Snyder, who has been working with the response team on and off for the better part of six years.

There are 18 members of the response team on the Gulf Coast, with 10 working in Mississippi, Snyder said. The team tries to rotate its volunteers in and out of the region once every few months to prevent burnout and to advance certain people's training.

Most volunteers are young and fresh out of college, and they receive little compensation beyond room and board and some pocket change, Snyder s