Something new

And in more positive, uplifting news, I received my doily from Ulla in Sweden! A free-form doily with lots of flowers and leaves. I am so impressed. Thanks so much Ulla!! I Love It!!








And I've actually managed to knit my first pair of socks. A month or so ago, I bought the book 'Knit Socks' and some Cascade 220 yarn. I've been working on these little by little every since. I'm amazed that once I bound off the yarn and wove in the ends, there were actually two socks and they fit! Hubby has requested a pair of himself, so I've got the yarn ready to go for his pair. We will definately have warm feet this winter!



Another view of a complete sock, just because I am so thrilled that these came out as real socks!

FYI

www.mississippirecovery.com

Some photos from the Mississippi Gulf Coast - http://dancingwithkatrina.blogspot.com/

Closer to Normal

Life is turning back to something closer to normal here in Jackson, MS. The 3-hour gas lines have disappeared much to the relief of us all. I walked into a local convience store yesterday and was impressed by the fully stocked shelves - rows and rows of soft drinks, chips, gum, candy bars, even doughnuts and sweet rolls! Amazing how I've always taken stuff like that for granted but, after more than a week of stores with very little on the shelves, it sure did look good. Restaurants are opening back up, even if they don't have a full menu. The local Burger King, which sustained a bit of roof damage, is selling burgers again (don't order a fish sandwich because they don't have any).

One of the stranger after-effects of Katrina has been the failure of the 1-800 phone systems. I've been doing buying for the hospital this week and we are still having difficulties getting through on vendor's toll-free numbers. I can pull up their websites but I've been amazed at how many companies do not post their local number on the web. Been having to get rather inventive to get in touch with different companies.

I traveled south down highway 49 over the weekend to check on the folks and saw so many vehicles headed south with supplies. There was a military convoy, 4 Cobra helicopters, RV's and motor homes, and all sorts of out-of-state service trucks that I couldn't even began to identify. Although if you know about Shaw Electric, they were staging in Mendenhall. (I think they may have been a little lost but I'm not sure.) Then there were the trailers filled with weird, complicated looking equipment, including several trailers filled with multi-colored port-a-potties.

And the news from the country folk - Cell service has been set up back in Lone Star and now Daddy no longer has to go up to the top of the hill to make a call. Cellular South has really done a fantastic job getting service back up through the state. While we were there a truckload of ice from Maryland pulled into the local volunteer fire department. I've never quite figured out how news travels so fast out in the country, but there were a lot of people coming up to get some of that cold ice! There has been a give-away of MRE's. Daddy says they are pretty good once you figure out how to open them without burning you fingers.

We went on over to Collins to survey the damage. Collins had a lot of older oaks, many of them hollow, and there are trees down everywhere! (I forgot my camera at home or I would have pictures here.) Anyway, the local grocery store has suffered a lot of damage, including all the front windows being busted. So, the store is now set up in the parking lot and there were quite a few customers as we drove by. There was another ice give-away going on at the Collins Fire Department. The local Sonic opened up for business with just potatoes - they had french fries, tater tots, or hash browns. It is good to see how people have banded together to help one another!

There are still thousands of evacuees here in the Jackson area. It's just so sad how many people have been left with no where to go.

Random Thoughts

My mind keeps jumping from one thing to another. So much has happened lately and I'm having trouble processing it all.

My dad called me yesterday on his cell phone!! If he goes to the top of the hill, he has cell power, apparently from the tower in Collins. They still have no power but the pumping station in Collins has been brought online so he has been able to get gas. Yeah! I did call the power company yesterday to see if they had any idea of when the power might be back on in the Lone Star community and was told probably 2 to 3 weeks.

Dad called me again today but our phone service here in Jackson has been screwy today, both the cell and wall phones. So I wasn't able to speak to him but my cell shows it as a missed call.

Our church is sending supplies to Hattiesburg, MS and people to help clean-up. The Hattiesburg-Laurel area was hit pretty hard. There's a good article about Jones County here. The church has two large 18-wheelers that is being filled with supplies today. Response has been great. (Started to say overwhelming there, but I've been using that word way too much lately.)

Interesting web site here. There are satellite images from the NOAA. Click a box and you can see a detailed satellite image of how different sections of the Gulf Coast look now. My husband and I traveled down to the Gulfport-Biloxi area twice this summer. I'm still trying to comprehend the total devastation down there.

Stopped by Wal-Mart today to get some baking soda to get the odor from the fridge. No baking soda and very little bleach, no frozen pizzas and very few canned veggies, but they had plenty of some fancy labeled Organic Cane Sugar. For some reason that really irritated me.

I need to stop watching all the television coverage of this because it is really getting to me but I can't. We keep turning the TV over to Fox. I've got a soapbox here I could really climb on about how this is all being reported on but I'm not. I have a roof over my head, food & water in the fridge, and air-conditioning. I know that my family is safe and sound. I am blessed.

A few pictures

Monday, August 29th, Hurricane Katrina arrives in Jackson, MS and the screen door to the back is already being pushed inward. I had left work about 11, picked up hubby, and the power went off as soon as we walked inside the house, about 12:30.
Rescued The Cat who was sitting inside next to this screen getting soaking wet.


I actually had to rescued The Cat two more times from the wet. Poor kitty was just fascinated by the wind and flying debris.
I stepped out front once during a short lull to try to figure out what were the large dark things flying through the air. Discovered lots of shingles from our house lying in the yard. This also explained the popping sounds we kept hearing on top of the house.

Fourteen hours later it was still raining but we told ourselves that the wind had subsided a bit and went to bed. Woke up a few hours later and stepped out the survey the damage.
Our yard was, well the back yard still is, covered with debris, including this large limb which had been stripped of leaves.



Bud-Dog absolutely refuses to go out so we give up on that and try to figure out what to do.
Power is still out and I can't get anyone on the phone so we decide to drive to work and see what was what. Going down Highway 25, there were lots of snapped power poles like this one here.



This is the street light outside my office. Obviously Katrina didn't like caution lights! This particular light has still not been fixed.
Roads are full of leaves, sticks, and downed trees. One woman died in the neighborhood near where this photo was taken when a large oak tree fell on her house.


Everyone tries to find somewhere to get gas. Gas lines have become a fact of life here but many, many areas do not have gas so we are lucky on that score. Police are now posted at all gas stations and only allow cars to enter the pump area as pumps become available.



The line for the station above. Notice there are no prices posted. I don't even look to see what the prices are at the pump. You got to have gas to get to work so we all just take what is available and hope we have enough money. I filled up on Wednesday, getting in a line at 5:37 am and pulling away from the pump with a full tank at 7:04 am.



Work sent me back home, so these are from my neighborhood. This is the view of my back neighbor's yard as seen through the newly acquired hole in our fence. We have since put some chicken wire up so the dogs won't roam off.


The dock on Oak Street. Power lines down over the entrance. There is a truck and trailer there, but I can't imagine why you would want to go boating with all that was floating in the water.





Another view of Oak Street. This street did not get power on until today.





A two-for-one special that I'm sure this homeowner didn't appreciate. Actually, it was a three-for because there was also a tree down on the other side of this house.




Downed trees sitting on power lines all over the place. This is at Arrowhead Trail.







A cut power line on the ground in front of the fire department.







Low power lines over the road.






My parents, my sister and her family, my grandmother and aunt live in rural Mississippi. I was able to get down there Thursday with three 20lb bags of ice, some water, batteries, and canned goods. This is the only picture I took down there and is a pecan tree behind my grandmother's house. I remember being a little girl and picking pecans with my grandfather under this tree.

While a lot of media attention has been given to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast (and Lord knows those people are in really bad shape), Mississippi and Louisana are still mostly rural areas and the country folks are facing some hard times. They have no power and it will be another 2 to 3 weeks before power will be able to be restored in some outlying areas. The really lucky communities have someone with a generator and gas to run it. In my parent's area, two generators are being shared from house to house to try to help people out a bit. (Thanks Joel!) Clean drinking water is running short and once folks eat what food they have, there is no way to run up to the store to buy more. There's no phone service, no gas, no power and no TV so they are really isolated and do not yet fully understand the enormous impact of Hurricane Katrina.

I want to thank the American Red Cross for all they are doing and all they will continue to do in the future for this area. If you want to help, please make a donation to their hurricane relief efforts. I'm also very grateful to Brookshire's grocery stores. They have been bringing in truckloads of ice and giving bags away (1 per person). This is how I got the ice to take to my family. And Jackson radio stations Mix 96.3 and MIS103. Mix 96 got us through the storm by airing the television weather coverage all day. Country radio 103's signal was reaching as far south as Hattiesburg. They gave up their music format and became talk radio as people from across the state called in and gave what information they could.

It's just all so overwhelming, and sometimes, it quite frankly seems hopeless, but we southerners will survive!!

Tired, Dazed, And Confused

Still living with the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina. I'm working on a larger post, but I am here!