Editorial: Hurricane Recovery: Mississippi Feels Left Out

As a follow-up to last week’s editorial about hurricane recovery plans for New Orleans, we shift our view to Mississippi, which, unlike Louisiana, never seems to have been center stage. Indications are that there will be bitter disputes about restoring New Orleans. Mississippi, on the other hand, would simply like to get started on survival.

The inland barge industry, which really is our principal focus, might have defied common belief. The industry faced its challenges; but as reported in these pages last week, the barge industry is looking for another strong year in 2006. “Even with all of the disruptions caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 2005 looks like it will wind up being one of the best total-tonnage years ever for the United States inland barge industry,” our article began. “And trends point to another good year in 2006.”

In recent issues we reported on recovery in the Port of New Orleans. We reported that the Port of South Louisiana expects to maintain high tonnage levels. And we’ve learned that barge traffic at the Port of Catoosa, where, after Katrina, 2005 tonnage levels fell below the 2-million ton mark for the first time in the past nine years, is again moving at nearly normal levels.

While Mississippi has experienced some recovery, there are those who believe that more extended news coverage of their plight would hasten improvement. On the other hand, as the Associated Press reported last week, there are those who believe that too much news coverage can be a bad thing.

One headline writer’s blunder mirrored the mindset of those providing hurricane coverage. While the headline said, “New Orleans Dolphins Find New Home,” the dolphins actually came from the hurricane-ravaged marine park in Gulfport, Miss., the AP said.

The Gulfport Sun Herald reported in December that the estimated damage to the region was $125 billion. Some 236 had died in Mississippi, and 65,380 homes had been destroyed. By comparison, dead in Louisiana numbered 1,078 and more than 6,000 homes in New Orleans and neighboring St. Bernard Parish may be tagged for demolition.

President Bush, making his ninth visit to New Orleans since the hurricane struck, also toured Mississippi coastal roads, where he found little but debris. According to Bush, there were no homes to be repaired. He said the area had just been flattened, and the people of America have to understand that.

In Mississippi Bush reportedly found no dramatic recovery as he earlier suggested was taking place in parts of New Orleans. But he did find dozens of onlookers who “held signs pleading for help and pledging their determination to rebuild their communities,” AP said. A Sun Herald editorial headlined “Mississippi’s Invisible Coast” argued that the region is fading into a “black hole of media obscurity.”

Yet there is some light at the end of the tunnel. While recovery will not come fast and easy, three casinos reportedly have reopened in Biloxi. Others are planning to reopen before the Katrina anniversary rolls around. The 2004 operations of a dozen casinos in Mississippi generated $1.2 billion in gross revenue.

It seems only natural to conclude that all of the attention on New Orleans could cause federal spending to be focused there, and some are concerned about that. Others feel that too much reporting of bad news isn’t good either. They would rather see reports about the positive things that are taking place. Some in Mississippi are terrified that Americans will forget them. One publisher thought that more balanced news coverage would give a “sorely needed morale boost.”

Stephen Richer, executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, told AP, “Yes, there has been less coverage here, but I think in the long term we may come out ahead, because there’s been more focus on the constructive things we’re doing.”

It will be a long time before hurricane recovery tactics can be written in indelible ink and analyzed. Right now the pot is still boiling. For sure, however, the needy whose homes and businesses were wiped out in Mississippi, Alabama and other parts of Louisiana should not be totally overshadowed by New Orleans recovery demands and efforts. There is no dancing in what is left of the streets in those locations. New Orleans is planning on Mardi Gras.

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