What about Mississippi?

NYgirl has a good post today about Mississippi, New York and Louisiana.  It got me wondering about news from Mississippi and Alabama, both of which were also hit by Katrina.  The primary focus of the BM and the blogosphere has been on New Orleans.

The fact that there is so little news coming from Ol' Miss makes me think that PERHAPS the situation there is better than it is in New Orleans.  Oh, certainly Mississippi hasn't been flooded like The Big Easy is, but on the other hand it apparently suffered much more damage from winds.  Could it be that the state officials in Mississippi have things under much better control than their counterparts in LA?  Hmmm...

On September 2, Governor Barbour held a press conference about the storm.  Speaking with him were Lieutenant Governor Amy Tuck, Speaker of the House Billy McCoy, Secretary of State Eric Clark, Director of the Mississippi Department of Finance J.K. "Hoopy" Stringer, Director of the Department of Mental Health Dr. Randy Hendrix, and Executive Director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Robert Latham.  Here are some of their remarks:

Gov. Barbour: Let me just give you a couple of little reports here. We appreciate very much the President’s coming. We have talked to him about things we thought needed some forethought—housing. We’re going to have a massive housing need very soon. We discussed how many thousands of people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast will be displaced. Of course, thousands of them today are staying with family members somewhere else inland, or some of them stayed. There are some down there today who are staying in shelters, and don’t have any place to go. But, there are in my opinion, tens of thousands of homes on the coast that are uninhabitable today. Many of them obliterated; others have been flooded or have had the roof blown off and simply are uninhabitable for some period of time. There is the coast that is going to take an enormous effort just to clean up the debris. We went places where the debris is head deep, chest deep, higher than that. And of course, the areas that we went to they had to clear off the roads so that we could go to them. More and more of that is getting done. We have an immediate shelter problem not just for the victims of the storm but also for all the people that are down there providing relief—5,000 utility linemen, tree cutters. 5,000 people down there working to get the electricity turned back on; people working to get the telephone system running. Before we ever mention the hundred-something highway patrol, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) agents we’ve pushed in there, and what will be 9,000 national guard by this weekend. We’ll have 9,000 national guard on the coast primarily from other states, for which we’re very grateful. But, we got to house them. So, the President brought the Secretary of HUD, as well as Secretary of Homeland Security; these are some of the things we talked about.

Speaker McCoy: Today was a most humbling day for me personally, and it’s hard to be in a place we were today with the people we were with without being humble. I feel much better at this hour of the day than I did early this morning, and I’ll tell you why. Again, today was an experience none of us will forget for several reasons—to see what nature can do at this magnitude is something you never forget. To see the toll of human suffering and misery, heartache…is something you never forget. But then we go past that just for a little bit. And we see optimism in their eyes and in their voices, the people that were there then and are there now. We see the possibility and we know the probability and actuality of a cooperative experience, like most of us have never been a part of. I’ll start with the most important people. And that’s the local people: their mayors, their board of supervisors, their sheriffs, their policemen, their chief of police, firemen—every person elected and appointed locally. And then they can start to know that they have help from the President of the United States, from the Governor of this state, from all of our elected and appointed officials at the state level, and from the state Legislature. The Legislature, of course, today was represented by several members, most especially by Governor Tuck and by the Speaker of the House. Again, to see this, what we know is going to be an absolute cooperative effort is most heartening. To be able to look there and see all of our forces coming together already to clean up and to make a difference is heartening. To hear again the optimistic voices is heartening. And so, from this will come a better day.

Director Stringer: [in response to rumours that state employees weren't being paid] Payday ran as scheduled. Was it a normal payday? It was much more difficult than some, but we’ve done everything we can to push the checks and push the money out to the employees. We’ve been in contact with all the agencies and anyone who hasn’t got their checks or their payday. The electronic transfer went as scheduled; the checks were mailed out as scheduled. Checks were handed out in very special ways that we set up for the agencies to come to the Woolfolk Building and pick up the checks. And if there are any employees out there who haven’t received their checks, if they can just go through their agency and contact us, we will push that payout to that employee. I don’t think there are very many that haven’t. There may be some very special cases of lack of communication that we haven’t heard about yet, but in those cases, payday went as scheduled and if there have been some exceptions, we will deal with them.

At another press conference, September 5:

Adjutant General of Mississippi National Guard, Gen. Harold Cross: Thank you, Governor. As we speak, we’ve got about 5,500 national guardsman along the gulf coast; we’re moving the battle space north. We’re spreading out a lot of troops, about 3,000 to be specific, into towns and cities. Any mayor or any sheriff that requests military police help or reaction force help can have it now. We rolled those up this afternoon and tomorrow, so they’ll be coming into towns and cities to assist law enforcements. They’ll be in places like gas lines, but they’ll also be there to help the communities, not just for civil unrest but to deliver supplies or do things that would clear some pathways, so they’ll have help almost immediately. We have about 13,000 national guardsmen in all areas in this affected area, and will go up to about 15,000. They’ve done a magnificent job. We have an airlift going immediately for the last four days, with 350 shortage [sic; sorties? dj505] per day, by helicopter, looking for target spot opportunities for getting food and water to people.

There was a question and answer period:

QUESTION: What would you say in response to those who suggest the state and federal response has been too slow?

ANSWER (speaker not identified; Gov. Barbour?): When you have the most massive natural disaster in the country’s history—a disaster that literally destroys all the infrastructure of an 80-mile swath of the Gulf Coast and much of the infrastructure inland for as much as 50 miles, plus a lot of the infrastructure in southwest Mississippi that wasn’t even in the line of the storm, you have to realize that there are going to be a lot of shortages: Inabilities to communicate, to provide electricity, and to provide the services we’re accustomed to. That’s certainly what happened here. Starting Monday, you had MDOT, the Highway Patrol, the National Guard, pushing through to the Coast before the storm fully abated. We had the U.S. Coast Guard rescuing people, and ultimately the Coast Guard, through Friday at least, had rescued 1,700 Mississippians by helicopter—hoisted them up off the roofs of their houses or out of their yards. Did they rescue everybody? Nope. Were there people who weren’t found until later? The Mayor of Bay St. Louis—not mayor, Sheriff—of Hancock County told me yesterday that they had found two living people in the rubble on Thursday—on Friday, actually. Do I wish we had found those people on Tuesday? Yes sir. Am I glad we found them? I’m happy about that. I am very proud of the work that’s been done not only by the state agency employees, but by the local governments, fire departments, police departments, and I’m very grateful for all the federal government’s done. The federal government has been a good partner in this; they’ve been a great partner in this. You’ve heard me say that there’s not been a day gone by where we’ve got as much done as I would like to have gotten done. Everyday, we’ve made real progress and for the people with 20/20 hindsight, particularly those in the national news media, I invite them to come down to try it, see how they think they’d do. It’s pretty easy for the vultures to the fly around after the fact—but it’s a lot different for the man in the arena. Like these firefighters, and these Coasties hanging out of helicopters saving people’s lives, and these highway patrolmen and policemen. That’s how I’d respond.

QUESTION: “We’ve heard there was a dispute over the state governments being overtaken by the federal government; in other words, the federal government has tried to take authority over the state military—like in Louisiana. What’s your response to this?”

ANSWER: “I have no knowledge about Louisiana. The National Guard has been incredibly cooperative with us. NorthCom—is that what we call it? NorthCom has been very cooperative with us. We don’t need them to command the troops here; the guard troops in our state are under the command of our Adjutant General. He doesn’t need someone else to do it for him. But I think if you check with the guard units, we’ve probably had more than forty states give us support from their guards, and probably more than fifteen that actually have guardsmen boots on the ground here or have had them on the ground here, all under our command. We don’t need somebody else to command them. If we did, we’d say so. We’re grateful, really grateful that the states and the DOD have been willing to give us what is now about 12,000 national guard already. We’ll hit 15,000 before it’s over.”

QUESTION: “Have you had any requests from federal government to take authority, though?”

ANSWER: “The federal government has never felt the need to do that here. Thank y’all.”

According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger's Jack Mazurak on Sept 3:

In a change to schedules Saturday afternoon, city buses will run throughout the Labor Day weekend, continuing its no-fee program indefinitely.

Hundreds of Jackson residents have turned to JATRAN, packing buses as fuel supplies remain tight in the metro area, city officials said. At a briefing Saturday, city administrator Robert Walker requested the change. Buses were originally not going to run Sunday and Monday in order to be on standby for evacuee needs.

The nine metro-area shelters being used for about 3,100 evacuees are full, Hinds County Emergency Management Director Larry Fisher said.

"The Red Cross is not turning anyone away. They're redirecting people to several churches," he said. "We've been hearing that 600 to 800 more are coming, but they're not showing up yet."

Community centers and senior centers will start accepting evacuees as they come into the city. Michael Raff, deputy director of Jackson's Human and Cultural Services, said six facilities are on standby to open sequentially.

According to Florida Today's Patrick Peterson, writing in Gulf Port on Sept 4:

While the federal government might stumble to send food and fuel to the Coast, churches across the Southeast have sent volunteers and truckloads of food, water, diapers and even toilet paper.

Three church vans from Savannah, Ga., rolled Saturday into poor west Gulfport.

"Oh, happy day," said Audrey Richard as she clutched her bag of toiletries.

The volunteers are moved by the spirit and move at lightning speed.

"People donated it to the church and we bring it to ya'll," explained Earl Helmey of Savannah Christian Church.

...

The federal government eventually will deliver 34,000 military "meals ready to eat" per day, but churches, unhampered by protocols, accounting procedures and bureaucracy, move faster. Forced to keep accounts and issue orders, the federal, state and local governments are slow to organize and act.

From the Clarion-Ledger's Ana Radelat, Sept 5:

People like Randy Kearns who are streaming to Camp Shelby to help Hurricane Katrina's victims are transforming the military base into a key relief center in southern Mississippi.

Kearns belongs to a 100-member contingent of doctors and nurses from North Carolina whose medical convoy recently rolled into the National Guard training base.

As soon as they can, they hope to set up a 110-bed hospital in Biloxi, probably in the parking lot of the Biloxi Regional Medical Center.

"The state of Mississippi asked for help two or three days ago, and here we are," said Kearns, coordinator of North Carolina State Medical Assistance.

The doctors, volunteers from all of North Carolina's major hospitals, have been training for this for about a year as part of the Department of Homeland Security's plan to respond to a terrorist attack or natural catastrophe.

Much is being done.  Much remains to be done.  I'm sure that Mississippi is having its share of snafus and other problems; the sheer scope of the disaster makes it certain the people who need help may have to wait to get it as relief workers move into less populated or less accessible areas.  But it's refreshing to read some stories of what IS being done, and see that the government officials of Mississippi seem to be working on the problem instead of griping about what somebody else ISN'T doing.

Comments

[NYgirl]

Thanks for the link :)

Hopefully the Congressional investigation will ask this question too.

[docjim505]

There are a lot of questions they need to ask. Wish I had more confidence that they'd actually try to do a good job and not use this as an excuse for more 'gotcha!' games.