Nevertheless, both MSAs remain in recovery mode.
   "The one thing that makes you wonder how fast they can come back is the sheer volume of the housing destruction," says Scott. "Housing is a major issue there not only in terms of the sheer destruction – about 100,000 homes in those areas were rendered uninhabitable – but also because the rebuild effort is being hampered by two things. One is the slow payout of the Road Home federal money for homeowners. Secondly, the homeowners insurance issue is a huge issue. Anecdotally, I can tell you that in part of Louisiana, the homeowners insurance premium is bigger than the mortgage payment. It's a huge issue in the region that has captured the attention of all the policymakers."
   Looking ahead, visitors to the area will see a new and improved casino industry that will pose a bigger competitive threat to Louisiana's gaming industry.

Loren C. Scott & Associates Mississippi Development Auth.

Some predict the industry on Mississippi's Gulf Coast will one day rival that of Atlantic City, N.J. Significantly higher casino taxes in Louisiana will add momentum to the re- emergence of Gulfport- Biloxi as a leisure destination. Mississippi's state tax on casinos is 8 percent; in Louisiana, it's 21.5 percent.
   "That means the slots in the Mississippi casinos will be a lot looser," says Scott. "It doesn't take gamblers very long to figure that out."

Congressman Brings Home the Extra-Salty Bacon    In December, the Department of Energy announced the selection of salt domes in Richton, Miss., as the location for a new, strategic petroleum reserve facility with a capital value of between US$1 billion and $1.5 billion. Construction and implementation of the project, just east of Hattiesburg and an hour by car north of the Gulf Coast cities featured in the main spotlight, will create about 1,000 jobs. Salt domes are natural geological structures used to create huge caverns as far as 1,000 meters (3,280 ft.) underground. Each cavern at a site can hold up to 30 million barrels of oil.    The Richton facility is projected to hold 160 million barrels of crude oil with pipelines running from Pascagoula to Richton and from Richton to Liberty in the southwest corner of the state near the Louisiana border. It will join four other facilities in the region: Bryan Mound near Freeport, Texas (226 million barrel cap.); Big Hill near Winnie, Texas (160 Mb capacity); West Hackberry near Lake Charles, La. (219 Mb cap.); and Bayou Choctaw near Baton Rouge, La. (72 Mb cap.).    The new petroleum reserve facility is needed to meet a requirement in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to fill the strategic petroleum reserve to its full 1 billion barrel capacity. Sites in Louisiana and Texas also are being expanded to meet this goal. Current maximum capacity is 727 million barrels, enough for roughly 60 days' protection from import disruption.    "This new strategic petroleum reserve site and the supporting infrastructure in Mississippi will bring construction jobs and energy investment into our south Mississippi communities," noted Rep. Chip Pickering (R.- Miss.) who is co- chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Richton site is not technically in the Congressman's district, but it's not far away. "The strategic petroleum reserve is critical for our nation's energy security and our growing economy. Abundant, affordable energy is the lifeblood of our economy, and we saw the vulnerability of our entire nation to energy shortages when Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This reserve provides an additional option in times of energy crisis."