Miss. beaches largely unspoiled by Gulf oil gusher

Miss. beaches largely unspoiled by Gulf oil gusher : "So far, Mississippi hasn't dealt with such messes, largely because of the underwater DeSoto Canyon in the Gulf, which is south of the Florida Panhandle, said Don Johnson, an oceanographer at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory."

The famed oiled pelican of Pascagoula

I've been hearing lots about this guy... but finally (in this day and age of instant photographic evidence, no less) we get a visual -- and the source is not the professional media. Go figure. It was uploaded to the user gallery at gulflive.com.



Link here: http://photos.gulflive.com/photogallery/2010/06/oiled_pelican.html

A common local sentiment

Read more at gulflive.com

Not yet federally banned.....

A palm tree near a previously bulldozed restaurant in Biloxi, MS: 2006

When the unthinkable happens - catastrophe strikes - it is apparently instinctual to slip into what they call 'survival mode'. All of the regular thought processes of the day come to a grinding halt and all you can manage is the brainpower to find clean water, a food source, and shelter from the elements. We are intimately familiar with 'survival mode'.

There were various dangers and hazards in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that either never crossed our minds at all or which were instinctually dismissed as secondary given our relative mental states. It was only well after it was too late before we considered the chemicals washed in from refineries and chemical plants (and our own garages & storage rooms) that swirled through our homes. Likewise, it took almost a year for us to start to consider the danger of unfortunately inevitable (for us) asbestos exposure.

Our own home was built in 1998 and the risk of exposure from older materials was low - however, consider the hundreds and thousands of older homes and businesses demolished in the aftermath of Katrina. There were days in those first months following Katrina when large particle pollution was so thick in our air that it reduced visibility like a winter's night fog. Debris trucks rumbled through neighborhoods and city streets packed with insulation - leaving mysterious moldy residue on our cars and windows.

The following is an article from the Mesothelioma Cancer Center (www.asbestos.com) published here in the hopes that it will be a starting point for many to make themselves aware now of the circumstances and dangers of asbestos exposure.

With a force only nature could create, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the morning of August 29th and railed through Bay St. Louis, Mississippi and destroyed everything in its path on the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. Although most media coverage surrounded Louisiana, the devastation was widespread through various states.

Responsible for $81.2 billion in damage, Hurricane Katrina is by far the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States.



Due to the extreme nature of the storm, one of the major contaminants of concern was asbestos. The threat of asbestos exposure was everywhere, and became a serious problem for those who did not evacuate and those assisting in the cleanup. The storm destroyed buildings in two, allowing many asbestos-containing substances flow freely into air and water. These buildings had to be demolished in the cleanup process (many have yet to be demolished still) which makes the risk for asbestos exposure much greater.



Regarded as the “silent killer,” exposure to asbestos fibers can be a real problem for home and business owners. Homes built prior to 1980 maintain a strong potential of harboring asbestos products. It is important to make sure the location has been tested for asbestos levels. Citizens need to be aware that inhalation of asbestos levels can pose severe health risks.



A fatal lung ailment known as mesothelioma is obtained through asbestos exposure and takes the lives of thousands each year. Asbestos manufacturers were aware of the corrosive effects of the substance, but continued manufacturing it anyways. Due to the amount of victims being plagued by the debilitating illness, it has lead to a variety of mesothelioma attorneys advocating for individual rights.

Although not yet federally banned, the United States Environmental Protection Agency has placed strict regulations in regards to the use and handling of asbestos. The removal of asbestos in public facilities and homes must be completed by a professional asbestos abatement contractor. Once the removal is complete, green alternatives should be considered, such as: cotton fiber, Lcynene and Cellulose.

The United States Environmental Program states that the use of recycled building materials such as cotton fiber insulation can reduce energy use by 25 to 35 percent. The numbers continue to improve as more eco-friendly options become available. These asbestos alternatives will not only reduce energy costs, but allow for a clean, healthy home, free of health damaging materials.

This post is dedicated in memory of Father Patrick Hayes - the priest who performed my baptism in 1971 - taken from us by mesothelioma in the summer of 2007. Requiscat in pace.

Ho Ho hahahahahahaha

I have a confession to make. I haven't been a very accurate - nay! truthful - blogger of late. Believe it or not, life has not been all cuddly newborns and Christmas cookies for the last three weeks. Actually, cuddly newborns and Christmas cookies haven't been nearly as prominent in my life as I would like them to be. How shall I explain this? Ah.. there's no way unless I take you back in time a little bit.....


Let's go back to three weeks ago when our darling son Peter was born after nine and a half months of the most miserable pregnancy of my life (and hey I have so many other pregnancies to compare it to - I can say things like that) -- not to mention after three weeks (YES THREE) of very uncomfortable and exhausting prodromal labor. (i.e. painful contractions no more than 10 minutes apart every 10 minutes for three weeks)

As soon as I stood up for the first time in the recovery room I knew something was wrong. Pain immediately shot up my spine to the very top of my head like one of those 'test your strength' meters at the carnival with a bell on top. DING. I chalked it up to exhaustion and went to sleep not long after that. Rest didn't help. As a matter of fact.. it all continued to get worse. By the second day in the hospital my neck was so stiff I couldn't lift my head off of my pillow.. standing up meant the addition of splitting head pain and any sudden movements left my back in spasms. The doctor on call prescribed muscle relaxants and a heating pad... and because the pain in my neck and back was not relieved by merely lying completely prone -- side effects from the epidural were ruled out and it was said that I must have pulled something during delivery since I was no longer a spring-chicken, afterall.

When I got home the following Sunday - the headache became as unbearable as the neck and back pain - despite the steady stream of tylenol 3. By Monday I couldn't function. I was hoping the doctor would prescribe something a little stronger for the pain when I called to make my follow up appointment that afternoon. All I did was mention my headache and the doctor asked if I could come in immediately.

I was at the doctor's office long enough to describe the neck and head pain before he made a few phone calls and sent me across the street to the hospital. I then learned that I had a post-dural puncture and was leaking spinal fluid and this needed some correction. I called Dave who was home with three of our smallest kids and a Jeep Wrangler with no car seats to tell him I would need a ride home from the hospital -- then my cell phone battery died.

After a lot of waiting and paperwork.. I had a fifteen minute procedure called an 'epidural blood patch'. This lovely and uncomfortable procedure involved taking blood from an IV in my arm and then injecting said blood into my spinal column (eep) just above the offending epidural site from three days before in the hopes that my blood would then clot and effectively 'plug' the leak.
All internet sources state that the epidural blood patch procedure is anywhere from 'painless' to 'mildly uncomfortable'. I'm here to tell you that all internet sources lie. The sensation of having blood forced into your epidural space is not at all pleasant... And as the pressure increases the sensation progresses from unpleasant to painful to unbearable. The doctor asked me to tell him when it was uncomfortable so he could either slow down or give me a short break. It took less than 35 seconds for me to go from telling him 'okay that's feeling kinda uncomfortable' to shouting 'okay STOP NOW' and then threatening: "I'm sorry but if you do that again I'm going to cuss.. and then I'm going to get off of this table whether you like it or not."

At that point.. it was over.

In the meantime, Dave had obviously arrived at the hospital as I could hear the sweet sounds of my young girls screaming bloody murder in the waiting room across the hall.

The doctor had me lie prone for 20 minutes before asking me to sit up slowly. It was about that time that I noticed I couldn't hear my family in the waiting room and learned later that Mom had come to our rescue yet again and gotten the girls from Dave. I also noticed that the headache.. the backache.. and the stiff neck were all gone. POOF just like that. I told the doctor it was a miracle. He was very pleased. I was very pleased. We laughed. I smiled. I thanked him. He told me I could wait just a few more minutes and then get dressed and go home. I thanked him again. He left. It was all sunshine and roses....

Until I stood up to get dressed.

Yes they had warned me that the trade-off for getting rid of the headache would be a 'bit of a new backache'. I should have known that it would be something like describing the procedure itself as 'mildly uncomfortable.' When my feet hit the floor I had to stop myself from collapsing like a stringless marionette. Stopping myself from collapsing hurt. Getting dressed hurt. A happy nurse brought me a wheelchair. I smiled a pained smile because I was afraid that if I didn't smile they might keep me in the hospital a little longer... And I took the gruelling four steps to the wheelchair.... With every step it felt like my hips were going to explode.

But the headache was gone.

Life at home was slow for a while as things like bending over, walking, sitting, sleeping, coughing, sneezing and laughing were all excruciating. But I felt so much better than I had during my entire pregnancy that I really didn't complain much.

Now I have to pause my post-natal disaster story to mention that our friendly professional over-charging contractors were still here.. not finishing the house. MDA sent us a certified letter informing us that they were unable to process our application (you know the one that resulted in a grant? that we appealed.. and won... the one that they closed... months ago?) because we had never provided them with an affidavit stating we lived in our house on August 29, 2005. A couple days later we got a letter from the IRS informing us that we owed them more money and penalties after we paid taxes involving the grant which we actually didn't have to pay in the first place... but since our CPA was dumb enough to have us pay something - we might as well pay them more that we don't owe them.. or something. We also got a letter from FEMA letting us know that we were eligible for a grant to help us in relocation. Maybe they were trying to tell us something.

So.. this brings us to last Friday when I discovered after a long homeschooling day with the boys that we were even further behind schedule with classes than I had previously thought. This meant we spent the entire weekend trying to catch up and get back on track once and for all. In retrospect.. we should have slept more.

Monday night was another long one after we realized that we hadn't actually gotten any Christmas shopping done and it would probably not be a good idea to rely on getting everything we needed from the only store in town which happens to be an over-crowded Walmart. Dave and I stayed up until the wee hours ordering a few important items online and praying that the shipping cost wouldn't kill us this year.

Tuesday night sent me out Christmas shopping at said Walmart with George in tow and functioning on a mere two hours of sleep. (We did get to stop by Mom's for a visit which made all the delirium worthwhile.) I got home exhausted and fuzzy and then realized that we had forgotten to go grocery shopping. I was not looking forward to yet another homeschool day with five kids and nothing to eat but bread heels and an old jar of pickles. At that point I had what can only be described as a minor nervous breakdown. Dave talked to me and comforted me until 1 am -- which is when he left for Walmart to grocery shop.

I stayed up grading homeschool papers and feeling really guilty for sending my exhausted husband to the grocery store at one in the morning. We both put the groceries away when he got home and finished just in time for Emily to wake up screaming .... and for Peter to need his middle of the night bottle. Dave took Peter and I went to get Emily who was sweaty with fever.

I forgot to mention that at some point between the epidural blood patch and the nervous breakdown both Emily and Yvonne had come down with unexplained fevers for about 48 hours. There were no other symptoms.. and the fevers disappeared... and I thought everything was better.... But it seemed like Emily had relapsed.

We then stayed up with Emily and Yvonne and Peter for the rest of the morning. Dave left for work and I started laundry around 4 am. It was now Wednesday. It was a long day. Emily just wasn't herself and by mid-morning had developed a nasty cough and was wheezing badly. At 2 pm Dave called to let me know that he had made a doctor's appointment for Peter's checkup at 8:15 am the next morning. At 3pm I called Dave back to say "I know you really don't want to hear this right now.. but Emily is incredibly sick and her breathing is shallow..."

Sooo Dave came home and got Emily and the Suburban and took her to the doctor. In the meantime Mom and I were getting ready to go out Christmas shopping. We never made it.
Dave called at 4:30 pm from the hospital. Emily was admitted at 5:30 pm.

So... there we were. Dave was at the hospital with Emily with no sleep and the only vehicle that can carry all of the children. I was home with four others including a newborn. We didn't even know WHY she was being admitted to the hospital.. but it all seemed very serious. They did bloodwork and samples and xrays.. and food and nutrition called and asked what Emily wanted for breakfast... So it was assumed they'd be spending the night.

Look! Ceiling repairs are in our future! Again!

Thursday morning rolled around and it was pretty obvious that Emily was being treated for pneumonia -- but Dave wasn't getting a whole lot of feedback from doctors or hospital staff. The IV antibiotics and steroids and oxygen tent were a dead-giveaway though. Thanks to Mom - Dave was able to take a little time off from holding Emily to come home and get cleaned up... which is when he noticed that the air conditioning unit upstairs.... which is broken (oh wait.. I didn't mention anything about when the air conditioning unit upstairs broke....) ... was running... poorly.. and therefore... flooding the upstairs. The flood was consequently leaking through the downstairs ceiling.

I gathered every towel in the house and threw them on the mess. I wasn't going to let it get me down. I took a deep breath and started cleaning up the house... finishing with the Christmas decorations.. doing laundry.. and adding more and more to my to-do list. At around 3pm I finally sat down with the boys to go over schoolwork for the day. Just then there was a loud bang.. pop.. crackle.. explosion from somewhere in the center of the kitchen. I looked up just in time to see a miniature wall of water rise up just above where our kitchen sink is.

I should say 'was'.

That is.. where our kitchen sink was.

Where our kitchen sink was.

While we were sitting there reviewing spelling words - the entire kitchen sink and the water and dishes it contained simply fell out of its opening in the countertop and crushed the plumbing beneath. The kitchen seemed to fill up with water rather quickly. The boys spent the next two hours sopping up the floodwater with two dishrags -- since the rest of my towels were upstairs sopping up THAT floodwater. Can anyone say 'deja vu'?

On the bright side... The one year warranty on installation of said sink expires December 14th... We managed to make the warranty period with less than seven hours to spare.

Okay.. so we do still have a kitchen sink... It's just that it happens to be on the garage floor.

And so.. with new water damage, another broken air conditioning unit, a child in an oxygen tent, and no kitchen sink (again)... I bring all my blog-readers up to date for a little while. If I were feeling optimistic I would promise to post again and let everyone know what tomorrow brings.. but I really am not sure that waking up in the morning would be in my best interest -- so maybe not.

Hurricane to Dwarf Katrina Imminent

Hurricane to Dwarf Katrina Imminent: "Hurricane Katrina will be nothing in caparison to the big one to hit Southeastern United States in the future.

This was the warning given by the Director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, who is soon to leave his post."

Now that the BlogThis! feature is working with the new blogger (and I'm too lazy to blog news the long way like Mom does).. I decided I would search long and hard for some really good news to be the first blogged in a while. This is the best I could come up with.

At 10:15 this morning I was waiting to hear from a contractor or two and chatting with Swapna online when there was a loud rumble - sort of like thunder - and then the house started to shake. All of the doors and windows shook violently for several seconds.. So violently that a stunned Judge jumped up and ran from door to door barking viciously to keep whatever was out there from getting in. There was a brief pause - long enough for me to find Judge and get him to stop barking - before it happened again. The second time was a little shorter than the first - but there was a lot of creaking and groaning and I could hear things falling off the shelves in the garage... I'm not sure if the force itself knocked the bottles and boxes over - or if the spooked cats did it all.

I ran outside to look for smoke on the horizon - but there was nothing. Then, of course, I called Mom. She felt it too. Then I called Dave at work - and, yes, they all felt it.

So what was it? Will we ever find out? Is it going to happen again? Was it supposed to happen in the first place?

And am I ever going to hear from the contractors again?

In light of recent events -- and after several threats to do so over the past few months -- we have now purchased a separate earthquake policy for our home. Let's hope we won't need it.

METLIFE notice to Homeowners Policy Holders

From Camille and Katrina Were Not Ladies:

"What's more, if your policy excludes coverage for damage resulting from an earthquake, a notice with detailed information regarding the exclusion appears on the reverse of the page. If your policy currently includes optional Earthquake and Volcanic Eruption coverage, it will be listed on your Declaration Page and no exclusion notice is contained on the reverse."

Isn't that just totally interesting and so very timely! AND it just so happens that we received the same letter dated August 23, 2006 -- an astonishing 18 days before a magnitude 6.0 rattles the Gulf Coast from the Gulf of Mexico (where, incidentally, there is no earthquake-generating plate boundary).

Here's a bit of what the reverse side of our letter states :

"Your policy excludes coverage for any damages caused or precipitated by an earthquake or earth movement. This exclusion generally excludes all damages caused or in any way resulting from an earthquake, earth movements, tremors and aftershocks, and also excludes earth movement, land shock waves, aftershocks or tremors before, during or after a volcanic eruption. For further details, please see the language of your policy."

This is the second earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico since the beginning of the year. The first was measured as a 5.2 on February 9, 2006.

(Image from http://www.iris.edu - WILBER II - Station LTL.LI Seismograms)

(I'm challenging my blog-readers to help Mississippi public schools -- and quite specifically schools impacted by Hurricane Katrina -- by making a donation today:

Help Public School Kids by Funding my Challenge at DonorsChoose)

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program � Magnitude 6.0 - GULF OF MEXICO

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program � Magnitude 6.0 - GULF OF MEXICO: "# The following is a release by the United States Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: A strong earthquake occurred about 250 miles (405 km) south-southwest of Apalachicola, Florida at 8:56 AM MDT, Sep 10, 2006 (10:56 AM EDT in Florida). The magnitude and location may be revised when additional data and further analysis results are available. This earthquake was felt in parts of Florida, Georgia and Alabama. No reports of damage or casualties have been received at this time.

Felt Reports
Felt in much of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Tectonic Summary
This earthquake was centered beneath the Gulf of Mexico, well distant from the nearest active plate boundary. Such 'midplate' earthquakes are much less common than earthquakes occurring on faults near plate boundaries, and most probably represent the release of long-term tectonic stresses that ultimately originate from forces applied at the plate boundary. This is the largest of more than a dozen shocks that have been instrumentally recorded from the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the past three decades, and it is the most widely felt. The most recent significant earthquake in the region occurred on February 10th, 2006 and had a magnitude of 5.2. We have not associated this earthquake with a specific causative fault." [emphasis added]

Chevron successfully tests new US Gulf oil discovery - Yahoo! News

Chevron successfully tests new US Gulf oil discovery - Yahoo! News: "Still, the appraisal well flowed at a rate of more than 6,000 barrels of crude per day, Chevron said, -- putting it on a par with discoveries in exploration hot spots such as the waters off Angola.

It was the deepest successful well test in the U.S. Gulf. With U.S. oil output in decline, large new fields are increasingly rare and oil companies are widening their search to more difficult places and drilling to far greater depths than ever before."

Tropical Storm ERNESTO Public Advisory

Tropical Storm ERNESTO Public Advisory: "000 WTNT35 KNHC 252030 TCPAT5 BULLETIN TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO ADVISORY NUMBER 5 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL052006 500 PM AST FRI AUG 25 2006 ...HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT DETERMINES THAT TROPICAL DEPRESSION FIVE HAS BECOME TROPICAL STORM ERNESTO... AT 5 PM AST...2100Z...THE GOVERNMENT OF HAITI HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR THE SOUTHWESTERN PENINSULA OF HAITI FROM THE HAITI-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BORDER WESTWARD TO THE SOUTHWEST TIP OF HAITI. ALSO AT 5 PM AST...THE GOVERNMENT OF JAMAICA HAS ISSUED A TROPICAL STORM WATCH FOR JAMAICA. INTERESTS IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS AND WESTERN CUBA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF ERNESTO."

Tropical Storm DEBBY

Tropical Storm DEBBY: "ZCZC MIATCPAT4 ALL TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM BULLETIN TROPICAL STORM DEBBY ADVISORY NUMBER 6 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042006 1100 PM AST TUE AUG 22 2006 ...TROPICAL DEPRESSION STRENGTHENS INTO THE FOURTH TROPICAL STORM OF THE SEASON OVER THE FAR EASTERN ATLANTIC OCEAN... AT 1100 PM AST...0300Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM DEBBY WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 15.2 NORTH...LONGITUDE 28.9 WEST OR ABOUT 300 MILES...485 KM...WEST OF THE SOUTHERNMOST CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. DEBBY IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST NEAR 18 MPH...30 KM/HR... AND THIS GENERAL MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT 24 HOURS."

Predictions

Before.

Success!

Earlier today I predicted that we would be finished with the kitchen closet texturing and patching and painting by tonight. Although I think I actually said by 'late' tonight -- I think we can still chalk one up for my psychic ability.

A look at part of the closet wall from the kitchen to show the lovely clay color which didn't show up in the first picture. I just want everyone to know that I'm not painting everything brown. In the background, behind the high chair, you'll notice some fresh, new drywall mud in the corner -- some of Bernard's handywork as he cleaned up some of the more jagged seams for us. (Read: We now need to touch up the kitchen paint as well...)

The Sun Herald has listed a ridiculous number of events that are being planned for the Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on their website. Oddly enough, we couldn't find even one that we were especially interested in attending. However, the City of Pascagoula has announced an event that's a little different from all the concerts and tree-planting ceremonies going on:

AUG. 26

City of Pascagoula communitywide picnic, all public parks will be open for picnics. To recreate the sharing atmosphere after the storm, residents are encouraged to grill and share. Residents are also encouraged to gather in their neighborhoods.

I certainly understand the sentiment... but I actually feel like it's almost too much of a reminder of the actual events following the storm: 'No folks, we municipal folks aren't actually going to do anything but instead we'll leave it up to you to do something.'

Though quite seriously I appreciate the sense of respect for independence -- something I have liked about Pascagoula since we came here.

Still, Dave and I were thinking that it would be a nice touch if they were to round up some city trucks and drive through the neighborhoods distributing cold drinks and ice for those suggested block parties. That's the spirit!

Personally, I think we should have community-wide swimming lessons tailored especially to our needs with such extra instructional classes as: "How to safely dive from the roof of your two-story home into fast moving water" and "Navigating debris while treading water".

Dave has a prediction of his own regarding the upcoming anniversary, however. He thinks we'll be spending the weekend boarding up our windows and getting ready for whatever develops in the tropics this coming week. Talk about deja vu.

And he makes a totally valid point -- this hurricane season has barely begun. No matter how much we want to remember and forget last season - we really cannot afford to be caught off-guard, nor can we pretend that we are assured every step taken from here on out will be forward...