Email from Oct 26, 2005\r\n\r\nGood evening boys & girls,\r\n\r\nIt\'s another beautiful, if rather cool, day on the devastated Gulf Coast. The good news is that I spent my first night in my trailer last night. After almost two weeks sleeping on the floor, it was very difficult to get out of my nice warm bed this morning. As one would expect on any moving day I still have stuff strewn all over my little land ship. We have been unable to find a workaround for the sewer hook-up but I have access to the loo in the Big House so it\'s not a terrible problem. It is making my life much easier because I have broadband access here so I can get on line almost anytime I need to do so.\r\n\r\nThe President, V.P. and Southern Regional Director of the National Trust we here for a visit Monday. I was rather disappointed that they only spent less than a full day here (they spent a couple of days in NOLA) and never made it to Hancock County (of which B.S.L. is the County seat) but spent their time in Gulfport, Biloxi and Ocean Springs. Anyone who has been here agrees that you don\'t really get it until you\'ve seen what\'s left of B.S.L., Pass Christian and Waveland. They opted for meeting with three mayors and being on TV which may make some sense in the Big Picture. But the worker bees down here had a rather cynical take on it if only because the Trust hasn\'t come up with any real money to do actual recovery. I\'m not quite so cynically inclined because I know that the fund-raising environment is tough out there but there hasn\'t been any meaningful private sector money coming down here to help. Also people feel (not without reason) that MS has been eclipsed by NOLA. Dick Moe (Trust Pres.) at one point stated that this is the biggest preservation catastrophe in American History (without a doubt\r\ntrue) but the editor of the local newspaper bridled when Dick mentioned that there is a chance of 50,000 structures being demoed in NOLA. He rather bluntly pointed out that Katrina destroyed 65,000 structures in Mississippi already! What we really need is about $400K to stabilize structures before the rainy season. Thus far there is less than $100K.\r\n Real estate and condo developers are circling like vultures.\r\n\r\nI\'ve been spending my time preparing for my next team whenever we manage to get it together. There is a shortage of structural engineers who have experience with historic buildings plus lots of people are worried about professional liability, etc. We\'re also struggling to get an office open so that there is a place people can go to get info, etc. about how to deal with their buildings. There is very little in the way of office space much less a place with land lines and Internet access.\r\n\r\nAs I write this NPR has yet another program about New Orleans. They\'re still trying to figure out what the place is going to be. Mississippi has already launched that process and wants to move forward. In the meantime, Congress spends their time trying to figure out how they can pay for it by cutting the programs that benefit the underclass. Is it tacky to point out that when Islamic terrorists blew the WTC Congress started paying out millions to the victims. How are the people of MS less deserving the the people who got killed/hurt in the Twin Towers? Congress and the administration are taking this as a unique opportunity to gut environmental regulations, etc. instead.\r\n\r\nAttached is a photo I took in Pass Christian. What you see here is a school and a shopping center. As I mentioned to someone the other day, it\'s like a suburb of Hiroshima although it doesn\'t glow in the dark. Hope all is well with you and yours.\r\n\r\n73\r\n\r\nL.