Page 6: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2005)

E nduring a historic October rainfall in New

York, someone recently had the audacity to complain about the 10 consecutive days of rain and cold. Of course, the complainer was me, and as soon as the words crossed my lips my thoughts turned to the stories and images coming out of the

Gulf of Mexico region, gratis of a double smack from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Putting this disaster in perspective is easily the most difficult task in my 13 plus years with Maritime

Reporter. Simply put, the losses are incalcuable, though I’m quite certain a number of insurance companies are burning the mid- night oil trying to do just that. Anyone who knows the Gulf of Mexico realizes that the maritime and offshore energy businesses in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are not merely businesses, they are the very core threads that weave the cultural and economic fabric of the region. For every large corporation in the shipbuilding and offshore oil business that announced losses due to the storms, there are perhaps a dozen other companies that were simply lost.

To get the story, we sent Don Sutherland — a long-time contributor to MR sister publication MarineNews — to the region for a week after Katrina hit.

Logistics hell, combined with the arrival of hurricane Rita, stretched his one- week tour into a three-week journey. Along the way Don took many pictures — about 60 gigabytes by his best estimate — and met with a good number of locals and outsiders, both marine and non-marine, to gather information for his article, which starts on page 37 of this edition. Anyone who has read Don’s reg- ular work in MarineNews, though, knows that he is rarely at a loss for words.

That said, part of his coverage is in the November edition of that publicaton.

Along his “On the Road with Charles Kuralt”-esque travels, Don took to the air and water, nearly was left ashore by his ride, heard many great stories that unfortunately are not for publication, and enjoyed incredible generosity and assistance from colleagues I’ve know for years. Most of all, Don got the story.

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No. 11 Vol. 67

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Business Publications

Audit of Circulation, Inc. 66 Pipes, Pumps & Valves 73 China 82 Buyer’s Directory 88 Ad Index 89 Classifieds

On the Cover: Pictured on this month’s cover is New Orleans after Hurricane

Katrina blew through. (Photo Credit: Don

Sutherland)

Editor’s Note www.marinelink.com [email protected]

On the Cover

Circle 202 on Reader Service Card

Coming in Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

December 2005

Great Ships of 2005

MR’s annual review of the best ships delivered in 2005, with an emphasis on the companies that built and supplied them.

January 2006

Passenger Vessel Annual

Marine Propulsion Directory Marine Interior Design Marine Finance &

Leasing Australia www.marinelink.com 6 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News (I really hate to single anyone out, as Don received assistance from innumerable individuals and companies, but a special debt of gratitude in this case is given to

Robert Socha and the entire Bollinger Shipyard crew.)

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