Beau Rivage reopens with pomp and ceremony
BILOXI — Employees from bellmen to chefs stretched across the driveway of Beau Rivage Resort & Casino as it reopened today on the first anniversary of the killer storm that shuttered the Coast’s gaming mecca.
Bryan Teates of Ocean Springs was among 12 bellman who opened the doors for the employees who streamed inside.
Teates began at Beau Rivage in 1999. After Hurricane Katrina heavily damaged the premiere casino on the Coast, he worked at the Cingular Wireless call center in Ocean Springs. He returned to Beau Rivage on Aug. 14 for training.
Teates said he wanted to come back because of the benefits — three weeks of vacation and seniority. He also said he is a people person.
Ashley Knowles of Mobile was among the flood of people who streamed into the renovated and reinvigorated casino when the doors opened to the public. She played the slots. “It’s a ray of hope, a ray of sunshine,” she said of the reopening of the casino.
Before Beau Rivage reopened, she played slots at IP, Palace, Boomtown and the Grand.
MGM-Mirage, parent company, invested $550 million to renovate the resort after Hurricane Katrina hit a year ago. It is the seventh casino to reopen since the storm.
It has 3,800 employees, about 400 more than it had before Katrina.
Source: Nell Luter Floyd - Clarion Ledger