LETTERS: Some Perspective on Hurricane Damage

By: E&P Staff Today we hear from a former Sun Herald staffer who begs that the press and the public not downplay the damage done to the Gulf Coast region by Hurricane Katrina.

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Don't Downplay Hurricane Damage to Gulf Coast Region

Re: Knight Ridder Raises $640,000 for Sun Herald Staffers

I was truly pleased to read your E&P story about Knight Ridder employees and ex-staffers raising so much money for the Sun Herald staff members who lost so much in Hurricane Katrina. Thanks! I hope this encourages others to open their wallets and purses. I've already sent my donation (I'm an ex-Sun Herald staffer).

I do, however, have a complaint about one sentence. You wrote, "Though Biloxi didn't sustain the same damage as New Orleans, the impact of Hurricane Katrina can still be felt on this Gulf Coast city and by extension the Sun Herald."

OK, I concede Biloxi (and its fellow coast cities Gulfport, Pascagoula, Ocean Springs, Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, Waveland, etc.) didn't sustain THE SAME damage. But I fear you may have minimized the damage to the Mississippi Gulf Coast cities, and you may inadvertently lead readers to believe that Biloxi got off easy.

Please, please, please take a look at the Sun Herald's Web site. Take a look at their photo archives of BK and AK -- Before Katrina and After Katrina. Buy the Sun Herald's book, and then tell me it didn't sustain the same damage. Actually, I think Biloxi and its neighbors sustained much WORSE damage! Where 300-year-old live oak trees once graced the boulevard that was U.S. Highway 90, toothpicks rise from the sand. Where antebellum homes once faced the Gulf of Mexico, splinters and broken glass and shattered homes sit in piles of rubble. Some two-story and three-story homes with grand pillars now are empty lots. People's furniture, photos, clothes, memorabilia and more are now buried under tons of rubble, or were washed into the sea.

PLEASE look at the pictures. You won't believe your eyes. The devastation reminds me of photos I've seen of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at ground zero.

And please remind readers that the "Mainstream Media" has essentially forgotten the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It has years, if not decades, of rebuilding ahead. And the people -- well, they've got to be the most resilient, determined and wonderful people on earth. And even though they went through hell, they've still got a hell of a long way to go before their lives can even begin to approach normal.

Cindy Perry
Marketing Copywriter
FCBI

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Final Say On Froomkin?

I have been reading his column for some time now and it never crossed my mind that he was a "White House Reporter". I doubt that he would be allowed near the White House. I think he does a great job!

Joy Berguido
Rosemont, Pa.

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Soldier's Salaries

Re: Newspaper Marks 1000 Days of Iraq War with Key Stats

While I found your article interesting, I nevertheless was left wondering how accurate it was. As a former middle grade NonCom, the number $4,160.75 (average monthly salary for an American soldier in Iraq) struck me as more than a bit high. Granted, I have been out of uniform for a little over 15 years, but I don't think Military Pay has gone up that much. As an E-6 over ten years my gross was only about $1,500 in '88. So, I have to question that number. I guarantee you that the average kid in uniform is not even making half that amount. Perhaps if you factor in all the Brass' Pay and took an average you might be able to arrive at that number but it is certainly not representative of pay received by "the Ranks".

Warren Palin

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Is Belief in God Linked to Intelligence?

Re: Poll Finds Americans' Belief in God Remains Strong

Anyone who thinks that belief in God is for stupid people would have to tag Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein as blockheads.

By the way, is lower casing 'God' supposed to be some sort of put down of Who's up? I'd call it petty, orthographically incorrect, and maybe downright Lilliputian.

Millions of people out there believe what nobody believes any more, and some of them can work with Fourier transforms, or even spell.

Pavel Chichikov
Washington, D.C.