Giving a hand [and their vacation]

By Laura Bly, USA TODAY
BILOXI, Miss. — At the Vegas-style, beachfront Beau Rivage hotel and casino, flashing neon helps disguise the ravaged interior of what had symbolized the Mississippi Gulf Coast's tourism boom until Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on Aug. 29.
Shouldering the load: Volunteers head out with the U.S. Army National Guard to clean up Canal Street in New Orleans. Shouldering the load: Volunteers head out with the U.S. Army National Guard to clean up Canal Street in New Orleans.
Robert F. Bukaty, AP

But in impoverished east Biloxi, a poker chip's throw from the shuttered high-rise, the lingering impact of Katrina's 30-foot storm surge and 155-mph winds is laid bare.

Here, unlit streets are lined with mounds of splintered siding and waterlogged armchairs. Families burrow under blankets in backyard tents, still waiting for FEMA trailers they'd applied for in early September. Chain saws buzz through toppled, century-old live oaks, raw sewage gurgles in abandoned toilets, and toddlers come down with "Katrina coughs," a respiratory ailment linked to the dust and mold percolating after the storm.

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