Battle for Biloxi

I first heard the words "disastrous opportunity" from a man named Gavin Smith. In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, Smith worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (he now heads the Mississippi Office of Recovery and Renewal), and the phrase, though it seems like an oxymoron, is apparently not uncommon in emergency-management circles. "On the one hand," Smith explained, "you've got catastrophic loss. You're almost starting from scratch again; the housing stock is just gone. To some degree, you can step back and say, 'This is a chance to rebuild better than it was."'

from the NY Times