Words alone can't describe the horrible fate that befell the people of the Mississippi three months ago. Countless lives have been altered forever, as familiar scenes have been swept from the horizon. The people of the coast remain stoic, and as always, resilient. But the stench that pervades some places is hard to ignore, and the agony of death and despair lie fallow in their collective consciousness, leaving many locals in a condition that's almost inexplicable, but best described as shock. I've seen the refrigerated trailers sequestered away in a remote part of Harrison County that hold the human remains yet unidentified and claimed. Local officials remain reluctant to talk about the death toll. Mental health professionals will be preoccupied for years trying to help Coast citizens put their lives back together.

There is a surreal calm that now pervades the entire area. All the best and, in many cases, heroic efforts of National, State, and local government officials are not enough to sustain these people. The thousands of volunteers, aid workers, and "first responders" who descended on the Coast, many at their own expense, cannot alone continue to provide for these Coast survivors (as they prefer to be called).

It will take a long-term and concerted effort by a throng of new faces that will comprise the teams of government officials, professionals and volunteers that will be necessary over the next many years, to restore some semblance of normalcy, and to further aid in the effort to rebuild the Mississippi Gulf Coast. If you will continue to monitor this Site, I'll do my part to bring you some of the pictures and stories of survival and recovery. But as I write this, nighttime temperatures on the Coast are now near or below freezing, yet thousands of residents, and many brave relief workers, still live in tents, and many people have no potable water or electricity simply because they have no shelter...no home. I'll leave the endless political bickering, whining, and finger-pointing to others. It's time for all of us to look inward, and forward, to find some way to help bring some relief to the misery that is Katrina's Wake... Return To Editorial Page 1 ...

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