Helping history
People aren't the only ones who have taken a beating and soaking from Hurricane Katrina.
Gulf Coast history has been battered, especially in Mississippi, landscaped with homes dating back to before the Civil War. Confederacy President Jefferson Davis' home, Beauvoir, in Biloxi, was hit hard by the storm.
The other day, Greensboro planner Sue Schwartz, who is president of the American Institute of Certified Planners, e-mailed David Preziosi, executive director of the Mississippi Heritage Trust, to ask if there were anything she and others could do to help preserve what's left of Mississippi's historical landmarks.
In essence, the reply was plenty.
Preziosi e-mailed Schwartz that "any rallying on our behalf would be great. The best help we can get right now is money to help carry out the surveys that are needed to cover the enormous area Katrina has devastated."
He said the Mississippi Heritage Trust is already working with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to bring in volunteers to help with surveying.
"We are trying," he said, "to get areas surveyed as quickly as possible so that we can prevent unnecessary demolition of historic structures just because they are in heavily damaged areas."
Schwartz says she realizes human needs come first in the aftermath of the storm, but plenty of money seems to be pouring in to help people. Now, perhaps, is the time for consideration of other concerns. She heard an organization of arborists is raising money to save live oak trees in the Gulf.
Schwartz says anyone wanting to help the Mississippi Trust should go to its web site: http://www.mississippiheritage.com or the web site of the National Preservation for Historic Preservation, www.nationaltrust.org. The National Trust can also be contacted by calling 1 800 944-6847.
Schwartz has written her check, in honor of her boss, Andy Scott, who directs the Greensboro Housing and Community Development Department. Scott is a native of Laurel, Miss., hard hit by the storm and adopted recently by the North Carolina town of Shelby.
"He's my favorite Mississippian," she says, "next to Elvis."