New Orleans, a favourite city of mine with years of memories for me and my family, did not get hurt as badly as the Gulf Coast to the east. The Crescent city suffered some damage, some flooding and damage due to incompetency and humans. The Mississippi Gulf Coast, in comparison lost everything. The devastation was, and still is total for miles in from one side of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to the other. But, to hear the media tell it the only place really damaged was New Orleans.
Flooding is one thing. Complete destruction is another.
Scenes like this are all too common along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Even the worst pictures from New Orleans are no match for the levels of destruction that we have seen wreaked upon the coastal communities. Large sections of multiple cities have been scoured from the face of the Earth.
My family and I took our recent vacation to the Mississippi Gulf Coast this past summer, as we often do. We visited places from my childhood, went to the beaches and restaurants and took our children to see the places I grew up in. All of the places we went to are gone now. Not damaged, not flooded, not blown over. Gone. The White Cap Restaurant at the Gulfport Marina, gone.
Perhaps the owners of the White Cap will rebuild. Perhaps Marineland will rebuild. Maybe Ship Island Excursions will rebuild. But, as long as the press keeps America's eyes on New Orleans the Gulf Coast will be very slow to rebuild.
As someone who really wishes the government to stay out of the mess, as much as possible I would much rather see private companies thinking about the Gulf Coast than New Orleans. Just as many minority families in Mississippi have been impacted by the devastation wrought on the coast maybe more, but the cameras were there incidentally while on their way to New Orleans.
I'm tired of a nightly update on New Orleans. I want nightly updates on the people who truly suffered the greater loss.
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