Not quite the same

Merry Christmas from Jackson, MS! It's a pretty skyline.

But we are still dealing with the effects of Katrina.

Here in Jackson there are dots of blue roof here and there.Further south there are big blue roofs everywhere you look.

Big shady yards once full of trees now seem empty and bare.

And just look at what Katrina did at my great-grandmother's house!

Headline from today's Times-Picayune (the New Orleans paper) - "Louisiana gains from neighbor's influence. Mississippi senator pushed hurricane relief package." I'm just so proud of Thad Cochran and Haley Barbour. Nature slams us with a major hurricane and Mississippians roll up their sleeves, throw a tele-thon, get a grant, and then go to work rebuilding!

Katrina's toll in Mississippi (statistics from the Sun-Herald)

$125 billion - Estimated dollar amount of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina
231 - Identified dead statewide
5 - Unidentified dead
67 - Missing
65,380 - Houses in South Mississippi destroyed
383,700 - Mississippi insurance claims filed (Katrina and Rita)
$5 billion - Claims paid (as of Nov. 21)
141,000 - Insurance claims filed in South Mississippi
$1.3 billion - Claims paid in South Mississippi
44 million - Estimated cubic yards of debris in South Mississippi
21.8 million - Cubic yards removed as of Dec. 5
20,447 - Red Cross staff and volunteers in Mississippi
5,543,006 - Red Cross meals served
42,768 - People sheltered by Red Cross
229 - Red Cross shelters opened
$185 million - Red Cross money spent in South Mississippi as of Nov. 30