Finally, a New Post!!

It has really been a while since I have been able to get to a computer to do much of anything!! We evacuated for Hurricane Katrina, to Tony's Nanny's house in Tylertown, MS. Well that ended up being right in the path of this monster storm. We got 120 mph sustained winds there. It was really scary for a while, the wind started blowing up the tin on the roof and one of Tony's cousins was up there with a screw gun, screwing the roofing down. The wind also blew in one of the garage doors, there were 6 men holding the door down and all of the women were looking around for something to brace it with. We finally were able to brace it, but for a while there I was beginning to think that we were all gonners, if that garage door had gone the whole house might have gone with it! I think next time I am going to evacuate much farther (maybe Canada, that should be out of the way!).

We stayed there for 2 weeks with no power after the storm. One of Tony's Aunts and Uncles had a camper there that we were able to cook on and they also had a generator so we had power at night for fans and such. I am so grateful that they took us in to there home when we had no where to go. People have been so wonderful through this storm.

We were finally able to go home just to access the damage and to clean out the freezer 4 days after the storm. We got home to a tree down in the back yard, and the fence down, and a few other minor things but we have no major damage and our house got no water!! Tony and I were so happy that we were crying in the street. Most of the food in my freezer was still cold so we packed it into an ice chest and brought it back to Tylertown with us to cook. We have really eatten like pigs through this. We are trying to cook everything and there is no refigerator or freezer so we have to eat everything, no leftovers. It makes me sad though because we have so much left after this storm and so many people have nothing.

Coming Home

We finally came home to stay Saturday September 10th. We got power back about an hour before we got home according to our neighbors. It has never felt so good to shower in my own bathroom, and sleep in my own bed. Then we were on the road again. We went to Houma, LA to visit with my mom, stepdad, and brother for a while because I hadn't seen them since before the storm. It is a very happy day to see the faces of your family after something like this. I don't know how to explain it, it is just not the same as talking to them on the phone.

MPT

On Tuesday September 13 I went back to work to help with the clean up efforts. Tony came with me to help as well, because he hadn't heard anything about his job yet at all!! It was a mess, mud on the floors, water in the drawers, mold everywhere. But we had a lot of people all working very hard to get it cleaned up (a lot of these people have lost everything in there own homes and still manage to find time to help out here), and by the end of the week we had all of the sheetrock and insulation ripped out, we had removed all of the stuff that was salvagable and trashed what wasn't, and pressure washed all of the floors to get the mud out. I never realized that place was so big without all of the desks and equipment everywhere!! It is looking up, we are getting things together, and hopefully we will be back better than ever before you know it!!!

All I can say is that I don't know how we got so lucky, but I am grateful and I hope that I can help people out who weren't as lucky as we were with this storm as much as I can