We have family within the entire gulf coast area, and I have good friends in Alabama and Mississippi. Through a round about way, we actually made contact with some of the family. I've got a cousin with her kids and nieces in northern Florida, awaiting a time when they can go home to Pascagoula, MS. Her husband and brother-in-law stayed with their houses. Her husband went out today and bought an RV, parked it in the driveway and declared it home while they completely redo their home which had almost 3 feet of water and gunk in it. The Lord apparently had plans for him Monday morning because he ended up rescuing the family of five across the street who were trapped in their house because water was at the top of the windows. The brother-in-law's house in Mobile faired pretty well. There was minor damage, but nothing that causes the house to be inhabitable.

My other cousin, as it turns out, came to Houston with her mom. It seems that Betty (mom) has "tumors" that have began to grow within the lymph system and also a huge growth on her neck. She is to have a biopsy Wednesday morning. She's been treated for cancer several times and has beaten the odds every time. When I lived in Alabama I spent a lot of time with my cousins and Betty. I hope and pray that the biopsy comes back benign.

It scares me that family members are coming up with cancer on both sides of the family, and I'm dealing with these lesions and the mass on the pituitary. They've never been able to rule out cancer with these.

We are thankful that everyone is "present and accounted for" even if property is damaged and houses must be rebuilt. It also seems their places of business, while sustaining extensive damage, can be repaired and get back into business soon...as compared to others.

I've not been able to contact friends yet. That may be a while.

I hope all of you along the east coast are doing o.k. with the remnants of this storm. I realize you all are having some extensive rain and wind too.

PEACE!
Nancy

I'm glad to hear they are safe, maybe the news is showing more bad than good.

My MIL has a cousin who lives about 9 miles north of the coast and she just had an operation done, and cannot travel well. The family there tried to take her out, but they just didn't have the room for everyone in their vehicles. So they all stayed there! That would be a lot of people trying to hang on just for one person, but they didn't want to leave without her.

They could have sent the whole bunch off and left someone with her, but apparently concern goes far beyond common sense!

I know there are people who don't have much, but why stay with "stuff" when they have the chance to leave? One man tried to go back and see if his place survived, only to lose his car in a flood he drove into.

I am hoping the place will rebuild, but I do believe the next Mardi Gra may be cancelled.

I hope the churches don't do as some did and start saying that God is punishing them and "they deserved it" as some has for the Tsunami and other disasters. That makes me mad. If God did anything, it's to test us to see how the Christians would react towards it.

Sometimes I feel rather helpless in times like this. I'm afraid to go out and see the gas prices this morning.

Hang in there everyone.

Boyd

...about feeling helpless. Like many of us on this board we live from check to check investing money in the business and working at low paying jobs. I was thinking yesterday that I wondered what we would do if disaster struck us also. We would certainly have no money to get a hotel. We could drive to safety for a while, but how could we ever rebuild our life? I wonder sometimes about people's jobs. Would their employer fire them for not being able to show up? Then, I remember, the workplaces are under water as well. I also read about people traveling down to a disaster area to help, but I know we could never make that sacrifice and go without pay. I suppose those in the fire and rescue jobs can go down with the support of the cities that employ them, but that's not always the case and that's pretty pathetic that a person has to pay their own way on vacation time to help a disaster area.

Anyway, I'm just rambling because like Boyd said. "Sometimes, I feel rather helpless in times like these." I guess if the area is a big enough voting block politically, help will arrive quickly. But, that's sarcasm on my part, too. I'm pretty good at it and it gets me in trouble at work (LOL).

Terry

way you two are feeling is how I'm feeling. I told my mother last night that I don't know how my cousin's husband could afford to get an RV to live in when they were going to have to rebuild the house and "restock" it. She reminded me that the entire family down there does work for the same car company and have pretty good clout with it. That aside, we could never do that.

I see the pictures and want to help. All I can do is pray (which I guess is a big help, eh?), and perhaps donate a couple of bucks to the Red Cross or the church relief fund. I feel helpless and sorry for those people -- even a lot of those who are looting. One man said it all when he commented to a reporter that they were in a desparate situation and they were just trying to feed their families. It's the one's stealing Nike shoes and guns that bother me.

We'll just all keep praying...

Take care all.

PEACE!
Nancy

They are saying that the local police (whats left of it) is letting them loot as long as they steal shoes that fit. If they don't fit, then don't take them. Leave them for someone else to loot!

Boyd