Building Bridges in Mississippi

Took the journey to Amsterdam Noord today, to say hello to a visitor from Long Beach Mississippi. Yup, one half of the wonderful couple that I stayed with on the gulf coast, is here in Amsterdam for a few weeks.

As we sat down and started to run down all the updates about people, places, and anything under the sun, she mentioned that the famous bridge between Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian was just re-opened. (if you’ve never seen images of the bridge in ruins like fallen dominoes, it is pretty amazing)

I was pretty excited to hear the news. While so much of what I saw in Louisiana and Mississippi, seemed so hopeless, and so completely frozen in time when it comes to rebuilding… it is great to hear that such a vital bridge has been reopened.

As I drove from New Orleans to Long Beach, I of course, couldn’t take that bridge as it was still being rebuilt. I didn’t even get near enough to look at the construction work. But when I eventually make my return to the Gulf Coast, I have definitely made myself a promise to not only go see what rebuilding is taking place in Bay St. Louis, but also, I intend to drive along the bridge and hopefully feel some sense of excitement that rebuilding can and is taking place somewhere.

bm187 Poisoned and Forgotten, Katrina Survivers 2007

Some people might imagine that a year and a half after Katrina, life for many survivors might be improving as the rebuilding process progressed. But what if the rebuilding process was not progressing? More than that, imagine hundreds of thousands of people still living in FEMA trailers that are actually poisioning them? While the mainstream press turns its corporate back, an unbelievable crime is taking place along the gulf coast… again. In this program, with the help of people working for the recovery effort, we lay out the agonizing facts.

Guests:

Becky Gillette, Co-Executive Committee Chair – Mississippi Chapter Sierra Club
Ashley Tsongas, Oxfam America

We discuss:
– FEMA Trailers and the toxicity levels
– Health problems being reported and underreported
– FEMA’s response
– The Trailer Companies and the building of the trailers
– Options for trailer residents
– Next steps for Sierra Club and Katrina
– The delays of the rebuilding process
– Causes and those responsible
– The poor and housing in the NOLA area
– Lack of coverage of the issue
plus much more, so please listen.

Nation Article on this topic