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| Al-Reuters on the situation in Biloxi, Mississippi |
| 2005-09-01 |
| For about a decade this gaming town on Mississippi's Gulf Coast has been the place to be in the state if you were poor, down on your luck or simply looking for work. That changed on Monday when Hurricane Katrina came ashore, leveling hundreds if not thousands of houses, stores and commercial buildings and killing scores of residents. In the devastated streets and atop the rubble piles where their homes once stood, a bitter refrain is increasingly heard from poor and low-income residents who complain that they have borne the brunt of the hurricane's wrath. "Many people didn't have the financial means to get out," said Alan LeBreton, 41, an apartment superintendent who lived on Biloxi's seaside road, now in ruins. "That's a crime and people are angry about it." Many of the town's well-off heeded authorities' warnings to flee north, joining thousands of others who traveled from the Gulf Coast into northern Mississippi and Alabama, Georgia and other nearby states. Hotels along the interstates and other main roads were packed with these temporary refugees. Gas stations and convenience stores -- at least those that were open -- sold out of water, ice and other supplies within hours. But others could not afford to join them, either because they didn't own a car or couldn't raise funds for even the cheapest motel. "No way we could do that," said Willie Rhetta, a bus driver, who remained in his home to await Katrina. Resentment at being left behind in the path of one of the fiercest hurricanes on record may have contributed to some of the looting that occurred in Biloxi and other coastal communities. A number of private residences, including some in upscale neighborhoods, were targeted, residents said. Biloxi experienced an economic boom when casinos were legalized in the early 1990s but class divisions, which often fall along racial lines in this once-segregated southern state, are not new to Mississippi. It traditionally is one of the poorest states in the United States. In 2004, Mississippi had the second lowest median household income and the highest percentage of people -- 21.6 percent -- living in poverty, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #4 When the shooting stops. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-09-01 21:14 |
| #3 When are the Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson gonna show up in New Orleans? |
| Posted by: Fleck Hupomoter1523 2005-09-01 17:28 |
| #2 The War On Poverty has been in a quagmire for 30 years Quagmire? Its been a gold mine [out of the public purse] for one political party to establish a solid base of support for their 'Socialism with a Human Face' program. Doesn't it strike you that all the complainers are people whose view of the world is one that Someone Else is Responsible to Take Care of Me. The I just have to sit here and someone will give it to me attitude is written all over the tv screens. When the infrastructure disappears, they're lost and without a clue. |
| Posted by: Slereger Slitle6846 2005-09-01 10:20 |
| #1 "Many people didn't have the financial means to get out," said .... "That's a crime and people are angry about it." Yes, it is a crime. And you, of course, bear no responsiblity at all, right? So the looting is justified by the 'anger', eh? The War On Poverty has been in a quagmire for 30 years. Isn't about time to withdraw? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-09-01 07:18 |