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.