Disasters/Relief

Six weeks after the capping of the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, booksellers along the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama reported varying effects on their businesses, but all said they were looking forward to the fall season.

With autumn comes flu season, but this year's outbreak of swine flu, or 2009 H1N1, adds new urgency to preparations for combating spread of the diseases. To date, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 2009 H1N1 influenza virus "continues to be the dominant influenza virus in circulation in the world."

Pass Christian Books, which was leveled in Hurricane Katrina, has finally moved back to downtown Pass Christian, Mississippi. After the 2005 storm, co-owners Rich Daley and Scott Naugle operated online and out of their homes, then moved to a temporary storefront on the outskirts of town. On April 1, the bookstore reopened near its former location.

Houston's Blue Willow Bookshop has begun a nationwide book drive to restock the shelves in three school libraries that lost most of their collections due to Hurricane Ike. The store is encouraging booksellers, publishers, and book lovers to join the campaign to provide literature and reference materials as soon as possible.

Reports on the status of Texas bookstores affected by Hurricane Ike are still coming in, but with evacuations and severe damage in Galveston, as well as power outages and spotty communication throughout much of southwestern Texas, the picture will probably remain incomplete for a while. Galveston booksellers are unreachable, while some Houston bookstores have reopened. Downtown Houston was more heavily flooded, but for the majority of the city's residents and businesses a lack of power presents the greatest challenges.

While most reports of Hurricane Gustav's track through the Gulf Coast generally focused on the good news that the storm was not nearly bad as Hurricane Katrina, early insurance industry estimates put damages at anywhere from $2 billion to $10 billion, according to BusinessWeek, and approximately two million Louisiana residents were forced to evacuate.

Three days after Hurricane Gustav made landfall approximately 70 miles southwest of New Orleans, the very good news is that the Category 2 storm has not inflicted the catastrophic damage of Hurricane Katrina. However, as Gulf Coast residents returned to their homes and businesses, news accounts make clear that these are again very difficult times for the region.

The Afro-American Book Stop, which was destroyed three years ago by Hurricane Katrina, will reopen on July 1. The new 1,500-square-foot store will be near its former location in New Orleans East and will celebrate its grand reopening throughout the July 4th weekend."Reopening is something I'm both excited about, yet fearful of," said Afro-American Book Stop owner Michele Lewis. "Hearing and reading so much about the struggles of bookselling, it is a bit frightening, but at the same time I'm ready."

Some two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the rebuilding continues -- and will for the foreseeable future. But several area booksellers who recently spoke to BTW said, despite significant infrastructure issues and other difficulties in their surrounding communities, business was good. They even talked of the future with a cautious sense of optimism.

Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of the Gulf Coast just two years ago, inspired one community member to open an independent bookstore in the town of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Kay Gough founded Bay Books in September 2006, shortly after the first anniversary of Katrina's destruction of one-third of the housing stock and virtually all of the commerce in the tiny coastal town, widely known as an arts center. Gough's commitment to reviving the business environment of "Old Town" Bay St.