Groundhog

WooHoo. I just got an email back from Rox. She's okay. Here's the message.

Hey, this is the first day we've had e-mail... actually my office just got electricity today, and I was trying to get to the boards but our internet was still down, I just got back from the hospital and found out the e-mail had come up... I'm crazy worried about Behrfanny!!! has anyone heard from her? we have not even been able to pick up a radio station till about 2 hrs ago and it sounds horrible... some people are getting cell service back and unless you have a generator you have no electricity... bad thing is all our gas stations are running out of gas so no one can run the generators for long. They are saying once the gas is gone it could be 2 weeks before they can get a trucks back in to us. I'm about 2 and-a-half hours away from the Coast so I really thought we would not get allot, but we did. I live in a trailer, and although no trees hit us, it did push it off the foundation, BUT I didn't lose anything... My parents house (where me and Brandon road out the storm) had a tree fall on my dads tractor, 2 small trees fell on one end of his shop, but all damage we could live with. I almost did not make it home on Monday before it hit. When I finally left the office I had to drive about 40mph all the way home because of the rain and wind... about 10 miles before I got to my turn-off a tree fell across the road, and I mean a big tree.. I was scared and it was raining and I was on the phone with my mom and I told her to send daddy to help me get home... and then this guy pulls up behind me and I see a guy on the other side of the tree (facing my lane) and he gets out of his truck and drags a power saw out of the bed of his truck and he and the other guy begin trying to cut up the tree to get me through... and I was crying because I was scared but also because they were trying to help me and they didn't even know me... the power saw kept going dead in the rain and the tree was so big and finally one of the guys just crawled in on my side of the car and pushed me over, and drove my car around through a gully which was scary to because the car was almost on it's side... but he got me around and I made it home... by the time I got there trees were falling everywhere... I live in the "country" and we are surrounded by woods... I actually live on a dirt road... so we just sat in the dark and watched out the window as things just went crazy... around 10:00p.m. it died down and we drove over to my trailer to see if it was still there... we tried to make it to my aunt's house about 1 mile up the road (towards the highway I had come home on) and there were so many trees across the road we could not make it.

Tuesday was spent just trying to get trees out of our way. Men in our community just all got up and started at one end of the road and they would cut them away, pitch the wood and limbs into the ditches and move on to the next one... It was like my dad and 3 other guys.... I finally made it into town but there was no lights, or phones or water... and we just got our cell phones back late last night and only for limited areas/times. Since everything was down at my office I went to the restaurant I manage to survey the damage. We were called by red cross and local radio stations asking us to open if there was anyway because the fast food places, the ones that weren't damaged, were running out of food... So we stayed open till about 10:00 last night (our restaurant did have power and water thank goodness). I got home about 11:30 last night still no power or water... I stopped at a friends house this morning and took a shower, she has no power, but she does have water...a very cold shower...

Today has been crazy what little gas was left in the town people started acting crazy over... they had to send police and national guard out to handle the stations that were able to pump today. I sat in a line for 2 hours to get our company van filled up with gas and only two people behind me got gas before the pumps went dry. Power is being restored slowly but surely. The water company told me it will be about one more week before I get water, BUT the electric company says 2 to 3 weeks before we get electricity. All of my friends live in the "country" so we're all in the same boat.... My boss has told me that Brandon and I are welcome to bring sleeping bags and stay in the office there is a shower in the executive bathroom, but I can't leave my mom and dad alone... I mean they are both disabled, my dad is a very bad diabetic and my mom doesn't get around well. If I'm not going home and taking them ice and making sure they have water, I'm afraid what would happen. And they would never even consider moving to town with me, so I'm pretty much stuck where we are. School is out right now because of damage to the buildings plus no water or electricity. The city school is going to be up and running tomorrow I think.

They did have a curfew that no one could be out but emergency personnel from dusk till dawn, but I think they will lift that tonight.

My friends on the coast lost everything. The Grand Casino came out of the water, barge and all and acted like a level and just came across and took their house, their car and truck and all the houses around it for about 3 blocks... but they are alive and that's what counts. They are headed to family in Florida.

My friends in Hattiesburg said they had 2 trees in their house and in both of their son's bedrooms the roofs were now in their floor, but they also made it through (they were able to leave Hattiesburg around 3:00am this morning) and went to family in Alabama.

I keep hearing awful things about New Orleans and Slidell... I have been so worried about Behrfanny and could not find out anything... Please let me know if any of the OTO's hear anything... I just want to know she's safe.

Thanks for e-mailing... sorry it was so long... but it seems like ages since I heard from the outside world.. Although this all happened Monday it feels like weeks....

keep us in your prayers...

your friendly OTO
rox_mc




I'm sure BehrFanny probably doesn't have power and therefore no internet. Hopefully someone will hear from her soon.

GH