An Impromptu Tour
First off, I saw my dentist today and I have an appointment for my tooth extraction next Monday afternoon. That should be fun.

I had a little time after my appointment today, so I took a tour of D'iberville and East Biloxi. The Taco Bell in D'iberville looks the way it did after the storm, as if nothing has been done to it at all. Most of the area is either back up and running, or the buildings have been razed. Over on the other side of the bay in East Biloxi, east of Oak Street to the point is mostly vacant lots now, prime for casino development. I drove down to the bridge and was surprised to see that people were climbing out on the broken sections to fish. With small fish jumping out of the water in the area, I presume the fishing is probably pretty good, with larger fish invisible below the surface. No work has been done to clean up the bridge sections yet.

West of Oak Street, there are more homes still standing, but very little has been done to them. Mostly they are sitting there gutted. I saw one store open on Howard Ave. It was a little Vietnamese place and there were some customers there, with a few people standing around outside. I cut back to Division Street where the situation was about the same. I saw people with no money and, essentially, no home looking like they didn't know what to do about their situation. They were sitting and standing in yards throughout the area. It was pretty dismal.

Back farther still on Bayview Ave, there is a large area being cleared across the street from the Imperial Palace Casino. These were previously homes, but I heard that several owners got together and sold their property, presumably to the IP. Turning left onto Caillavet Street, I barely recognized the landscape. Between the storm and the properties that were bought before the storm for the road widening project, this area is nothing like it was.

Out on highway 90, several landmarks are gone. There is no more Casino Magic, and the Grand Hotel on the beach side of the highway was imploded weeks ago. There is now an excellent view of Deer Island that hasn't been visible for many years. North of 90, the old Tivoli Hotel is gone, now little more than a messy pile of rubble needing to be cleared. The skeleton of the Ohr O'Keefe Museum is still standing, having never welcomed so much as its first visitor before Katrina. The Hard Rock and the Beau Rivage are rebuilding, and the J.L Scott Marine Life Center has been razed. There are no plans to rebuild the latter.

All in all, a pretty dismal tour, but one I've been needing to take for some time now. I have some pictures of the bridge that I might post if I have time.