Yesterday when visiting my daughter and son in law I wasn't my usual self. I began by asking a question. "Do you remember when I said that you will probably be the age I am now before you see recovery?" They nodded. I couldn't stop myself from saying, "There will never be a complete recovery from this."

Could I have spoken words that were less then encouraging because it brought back memories of my own personal hardships living in the aftermath of Camille as a young wife and mother? No! It's because Katrina caused monumental damage and the federal government is in control. Before and after Camille most businesses on our coastline were small structures and suffered the most destruction. The majority of inland homeowners reshingled their roofs and cleared up the fallen trees. The point I am trying to make is it was the PEOPLE who worked on their recovery and rebuilt the communities. The red tape of government control is hindering our progress to rebuild as we did after Camille. Private property is not private any longer.

There are still a great number of us still living that experiened Camille. I remember a weather plane "seeded" the storm with what they called ice crystals in an attempt to slow the wind speeds, instead they increased to over 200MPH.

Post Katrina houses have been bulldozed but not all. Debris has been picked up but not all. The roads are not in good shape and none have been paved. Walmart is open, Lowe's is open, McDonald's is open but the small locally owned businesses such as bakery shops, beauty shops, scrapbooking shops, hardware stores and gas stations are closed. The big Chains are thriving off the misfortune of people. For instance, Walmart's stock can now be considered "garbage" that we buy. Lowe's building supplies are not of good quality. Oh! McDonald's fast food is terrible. I don't eat cold french fries. Wouldn't you think that they would provide the same pre Katrina service to the people that have helped THEM be a success in the community?

Mortgage companies are complaining about the thousands and thousands of people who are behind on their payments. Can't you see the hopelessness in all of this? They are to continue paying a mortgage on destroyed homes. Before the storm when payments were reneged on there was foreclosure by the banks and said property sold. Now there is nothing to sell.

Schools were destroyed in the coastal counties and students merged with other schools thus making it necessary to not renew the contracts of many teachers.

There will be a mass Exodus each time a hurricane enters the Gulf. I liken it to Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land but when he gave them the LAW (Ten Commandments) and they didn't obey they wandered for forty years in the desert. A big difference with this analogy is that Moses was guided by God not the government. So what happens if we do not obey such an impossible disruption of our lives?

The State Grant Assistance Program began taking calls for appointments on April 10th. They had "one" 800 number to call. The very first day the phone went down because of 40,000 people calling. Luckily, the daughter and son in law have an appointment Monday the 17th. I have my fingers crossed for them that the schedule isn't changed before they arrive as there seems to be a Waiting Game!