06:04 PM CST on Monday, February 6, 2006

Mike Ross / WWL-TV Northshore Bureau Chief

Slidell Mayor Ben Morris says his city is being ignored in all of the rebuilding debate and he says many of his residents are suffering just as much as their more publicized neighbors in New Orleans.

“I don’t have any objection to the Ninth Ward,” he said. “But that’s all you hear is the blooming Ninth Ward.”

Neighborhoods in Slidell were devastated by Katrina as the eye passed closer to that city than to New Orleans.

Morris says that out of about 10,000 homes in the city, 4,000 were badly damaged by floodwaters and a total of 8,000 suffered either wind or water damage.

He’s afraid that if Slidell remains out of sight, it will remain out of mind and that could spell trouble getting the city ready for the next hurricane season.

“We’re left out,” he said. “You talk about Slidell and it’s, ‘Slidell, what’s that?’ We’re begging for attention, we’re begging for help.”

Morris said President Bush has bypassed Slidell on his trips to the Gulf Coast and even many Louisiana lawmakers haven’t seen the damage there.

“No one has a clue what happened here,” he said. “No one has a clue what happened here. The state legislature doesn’t. Our local guys know, but the rest of them don’t know and most probably don’t care.”

Morris said Slidell’s pumping stations are in disrepair and that the biggest pumping station was knocked out completely. He said several miles of subsurface drainage remain clogged and he hasn’t received any federal help to fix those problems.

“It’s just so god awful frustrating,” he complained. “Night after night – our people are tired of hearing about the Ninth Ward. They really are. I got neighborhoods just as empty as the Ninth Ward.”