Now, Where'd That Casino Go?

In looking through Steve & Vern's photos from their intercept of Hurricane Katrina (all photos will be posted here soon), I found and interesting picture of the President Casino in Biloxi, MS taken on the day before the storm hit.

Turns out, it was probably the last picture taken of the Casino, intact and in it's current location. You can see it in medium resolution or a complete, huge, wide-angle view.

I decided to see if I could find the casino on the NOAA satellite maps taken the day after the storm. I wasn't familiar with the area so I had to do some serious Googling to find out where the casino should have been on the satellite map. Unfortunately Google Maps has not integrated the satellite pictures for southern Mississippi yet and they did not have high-resolution satellite photos of Biloxi before, so I had to figure this out myself.

Then, Google Maps further confused me by reversing the locations of the President Casino and the Treasure Bay Casino. Clearly from my research, the President was in the large rectangular area jutting out from Biloxi, while the Treasure Bay Casino was (duh) next to the big treasure boat down the road a bit. The city of Biloxi GIS system confirmed that the owner of the rectangular area was the President Casino.

In any case, despite this good information, I still couldn't locate the casino on the "after" satellite photo. I could see where it was supposed to be, but there was nothing left but the docks that led to it (enlarge):

Turned out, I was a mile off! According to MSNBC,"The casino was torn from its mooring Monday by Hurricane Katrina and floated over U.S. Highway 90 until it rested on top of the Holiday Inn Express." By my measure, the "relocation" was over 4000 feet -- nearly a mile (enlarge)!

There it is (enlarge)!

There are two "after" photos of the casino, one from an aerial view, and one from the ground (scroll down to the guy on his bike).