...and one little red prius

I arrived in Waveland MS this evening after dark, so I haven't really seen much. What I have seen however, is huge stretches of highway filled with business marked "For Rent," "For Sale," "Going out of Business," etc. Many of them appear to have long been abandoned, most likely since Katrina.


I don't know how much they are covering this in the national news, but I can tell you from two conversations I've had just today that people here are terrified, and there is a general sense of hopelessness.  The depression is so heavy you can smell it (along with the faintest odor of petroleum, unless it's my imagination running wild). I stopped off at a Walgreens for some stuff before going to the hotel and overheard an employee explaining to her manager why she was quitting.

"I've got family up North that I can go live with. I can find work up there maybe, and someone down here is going to need this job."

I was reeling. Imagine all of the people who are soon to be out of work down here moving North to find work? You think the job market is tough where you live NOW??? How about the influx of an entire coastal region of the United States pouring Northward looking for the same nonexistent jobs you are looking for.

When I pulled in to the hotel, only a mile away from the Waveland Civic Center where training is to be held, I noticed immediately that the parking lot was populated not by the typical minivans and campers of early summer, but by F-350, Dodge Ram 75 bajillions, GMC gargantuwheels, etc. One entire block of spaces is occupied by medium sized boats, apparently to be pulling booms or providing some other such service. It was surreal.

I was still in a tizzy from Walgreens when I got to the motel to check in. The desk clerk noticed from my driver's license that I was from Tennessee and she asked:

"Are you coming down here to help us?" When I told her yes, I was here for training, she just quietly said.

"Thank you so much." After a short pause she added, "I just don't know how much more we can take down here."

Just heartbreaking.

When I got to my room I checked out the local news and found out that the giant sandbags deployed by the National Guard to block the oil have failed. The tides were higher than expected, and they simply pushed right over, bringing the oil with them. Local residents are terrified of the fumes coming from the gulf, with fears of the dangers of the dispersal agents mounting. Finally the exasperated and exhausted Coast Guard officer who was answering the public questions said: "At this point you've got to pick your poison. Do you want the oil to just wash up here?"

I wonder, is this a case of accepting the lesser of two evils, or just exchanging one for an equally horrible other? Like I've been saying for days now, only time will tell.

In other local news, even though it was reported last week that there were plenty of booms for this particular spill, they are reporting now that they have run out. So please, if you are ready for your summer haircut, now is the time to find out which salons in your area are participating in the program called Matter of Trust. If you can't find a salon that is participating, see if you can talk them into it!

Kevin Costner and his brother are also here in the region, offering a demonstration of their new technology for separating oil and water. The process is called transesterofication, and they claim they can harvest reusable oil from seawater to the tune of 5,000 barrels per day. Obviously drop in a drop in the bucket, but at least he's trying SOMETHING. He's put over 26 million of his own person funds for the development of the technology. I've not had any time at all to look into this further, just watched the local news. They reported that the demo was a success.

Must...sleep...NOW. I want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.