Author: Dick

U.S. Air Force photo
Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., near Biloxi, was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. A “good 95 percent” of Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., was affected turning it into a pile of debris and mud, said a base spokesperson.

Directions to Ford Park in Beaumont, Texas, a shelter for those fleeing Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

It is just heartbreaking to see photos and read stories about what Hurricane Katrina did to the Gulf Coast, especially to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I was stationed at the U.S. Navy Construction Battalion Center — the Seabees — in Gulfport, Miss., some 30 years ago. I was there for 2 1/2 years and I loved the place. I loved the people. If it hadn’t been for a woman I would have probably lived there. Today that woman is long gone (my fault entirely) as is much of the Mississippi coast. I also visited New Orleans a lot when I was stationed in Gulfport. Hey, when you’re 19-20 years old and NOLA is 70 miles away, what you gonna do? I haven’t been to Gulfport since 1994 and haven’t been to New Orleans in a couple of years. But I still feel a connection with them. I remember special places and tonight I wonder if those places are piles of rubble?

One piece of good news. A friend in Waco e-mailed me that a friend of ours and her husband who live in New Orleans got out the weekend before and are visiting her mom near Houston. Unfortunately, their apartment is supposedly under 14 feet of water. It makes me wonder, what are you going to do about the little things, like jobs?

I still don’t know about my friends Betti and Dave who live in Gulfport. Their place is about 18-20 blocks north of the beach. But the whole place got hammered. I hope they went up to the country around Columbus, Miss., from where Betti hails. Hopefully, I will find out in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile, the Sun Herald newspaper in Biloxi still is doing a superb job despite everything. A couple of their reporters have been blogging for the last couple of days. Knight Ridder newspaper CEO Tony Ridder and other officials from that chain came to talk to Sun Herald employees today about the importance of what they were doing. At the time, only about 25 percent of the Sun Herald’s workforce had been accounted for. Scary. We wish them the best.

Other good info from the hard hit areas is from the Times-Picayune and WWL-TV in New Orleans. Local TV stations here in Beaumont, Texas, where a number of storm refugees have gathered, report that local shelters at Ford Park, the Salvation Army and in other spots need donations of money, toiletries, bedding, etc. for those staying here. If you’re around here or even elsewhere Email me and I’ll try to find out from someone how you can help.

A lot of people just seem to be noticing that TV news and weather people sometimes look like dopes when they stand out in the middle of a Category 4 (or 3,2,1)hurricane and do a stand-up. My guess is some may see doing such a stunt as a talisman that will somehow bring luck to the news person just as standing out in Hurricane Carla did to Dan Rather more than 40 years ago. That and sometimes the newscasters standing out in the middle of the hurricane are just dopes.

That said, I think it can be instructive by showing how hard it is to stand up against the wind’s fury. I don’t know how many of us can estimate wind speed by looking at trees. You can in a rule-of-thumb sort of way. But I believe all bets are off after the wind speed passes 100 or so, much less 130 mph, like with Hurricane Katrina.

I read a blog last night in which some guy left a comment about the news people out in the storm for stand-ups that just really ticked me off. He said: “Most news reporters are bottom feeders.” I fired him back an e-mail message that said, basically, okay, where are you going to get your news? From bloggers? That’s good, except the majority of blogs today are not doing original news reporting. Or so I would guess. I don’t know, I think the guy is a real ass**** to make such a blanket statement. Of course, I was a reporter until recently. I will be on and off as a freelancer as well. I also have good friends who are reporters.

I pointed out that there are government people who are also bottom feeders, and cops, firemen, carpenters, attorneys, preachers, just pick a profession and you will find a bottom feeder. But reporters — from TV and radio and newspapers — are out there in what was and what is still a dangerous area along the coast where one of the country’s most catastrophic natural disasters has just taken place. So say what you will, they are doing a job and, for the most part, a damn good one.

The hurricane stand-up has just been done to death, however.

And what is Leeza Gibbons doing on my blog? Funny you should ask.

Today I was at the Tyrrell Historical Library in downtown Beaumont, Texas, doing some research for a story I have pitched to a magazine. On display were photos and other artifacts to celebrate the 50th anniversary this year of local KFDM-TV Channel 6. That’s right Channel 6 and I grew up together and we both turn 50 this year.

Growing up in the sticks about 60 miles from Beaumont, Channel 6 was only one of two or three local TV stations we could get. No cable existed in those parts back then. Yeah, and I used to have to walk three or four … blocks to school.

Various distinguished news alumni were featured in the display’s photographs including Leeza Gibbons, who hosted a local TV newsmagazine on Channel 6 back in the 70s. I’m not totally sure what she is doing now, but if you have the patience to read her Web site, then perhaps you may find out.

We’re taking a timeout from hurricane coverage to talk about something that is really important — high school football. Yes, it’s that time of year already. Jock straps are off the locker room shelves and nary a cliché is safe from overuse.

Now I happen to like high school football. It sure beats the hell out of watching tennis. And I like to follow the fortune of my hometown Eagles who are the top-ranked Class 2A team in Texas and they’ve yet to play. Why high school football is a religion in Texas. So much is it a religion, that it is about the only entity that the Holy Rollers don’t get worked up over because you call it a religion. Can I hear an Amen? That is because the Holy Rollers are down with the rest of us heathens watching the game from the stands. You also don’t hear them use a lot of words like “smite” when they are watching the glorious battle on field. More commonly you hear them screaming the same four-letter words used by the rest of us sinners.

What I like almost as much as watching high school football is hearing the after-game interviews with the coaches on the local TV stations. Many of these coaches are grand wizards — oops I don’t guess I should call them that around these parts where a few Kluxers remain — at the mastery of the cliché . Here is my all-time favorite:

“They beat us like a rented mule.”

I don’t know if a practice existed at one time where people beat rented mules. For that matter, I don’t even know for sure if mules were routinely rented. I would think the only thing worse than renting a mule was renting a pimped-out ’76 Ford Pinto. Believe me on that one. Why if mules were rented and beaten nowadays, I’m sure you would soon have a nekkid girl from PETA show up outside your business. And rightfully so.

Then there is always is this jewel:

“We gave it 110 percent.”

Why just 110? Why not 2.2 million percent? Were the team to give it 111 percent, would the coach get kicked out of his state coaching association?

And this tried but true chestnut:

“We are going to take the season one game at a time.”

So that means you have no clue whatsoever as to what you will do if the team appears it might lose all of its games? You’re not even going to send out resumes to other schools in the very possible event that you may be without a job at the end of the season? No, no, no. One game at a time. Boys you don’t need to practice! We’re taking it one game at a time.

I don’t mean to insult football or other coaches. They do have a tough job. And they are a great source of entertainment on the late Friday night sports shows. Especially if your side lost because some jackass coach decided his team wouldn’t have any master plan to win and instead decided to take it one game at a time.

It is probably safe to say that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is taking the worst beating from Hurricane Katrina. The Sun Herald newspaper has excellent coverage of what is going on right now through a staff-written blog. Although it has been 28 years since I lived in Gulfport it is nonetheless chilling to hear about some of the places I recognize being underwater.

Here on the eastern edge of the Texas coast we are getting some cloud bands from Katrina and the storm is causing winds generally about 15 mph. But that’s it. It doesn’t help the heat or humidity much. The heat index is already 97 degrees. It’s kind of like a fan from a blast furnace.