Tom and I left our home in Fair Oaks Ranch (Texas Hill Country) on 1 September in his truck loaded with food, water, the emergency generator from my orchid house, a chain saw with extra blades, 17 gallons of gas, and a Coleman stove and headed for Hattiesburg. We had heard from her son-in-law that Linnie (Mower) and Jack Garner outside Hattiesburg on the Jackson highway, had a tree down on their home, no electricity or water, and that food was running low. Having to take the northern route, we reached them on the afternoon of the 2nd. We stayed the week, and by the time we left they were in pretty good shape, with one drive to the house cleared, ample food supplies, and ahead on boiled water. They were luckier than most, so we are all grateful, and Tom and I are glad to be back home.
a p.s. from later in the day:
I just talked with Linnie, and the electricity came back on this afternoon (crews from Michigan!) and the tree was coming off the house as we spoke. They will contact their water company tomorrow about the potability of their water. Hattiesburg water is OK, but they're not on that system. Linnie sounded positively ecstatic just now, so all is well. Sara

from Hattiesburg, Mississippi - known as the Pine Belt - where the wind and rain hit us horizontally with Katrina at Category 2 for 2-3 hours straight causing a 2 ton tree to fall on our garage, and an entire forest on our 34 acres to be leveled. There are 37 trees on our driveway alone. We managed to clear the delivery road at the fence line which only had about 6 trees on it. What once was a deep shade old forest of pine and tall oaks, trees that were 80-100 feet tall and over 70 years old is now leveled to a few spindly young trees and lots of short magnolias that we  never saw before. It has taken 40 pickup loads of debris just to clear our immediate yard. It took cranes and cherry pickers and professional tree experts to hoist the tree off of the garage. Gratefully the living portion of our house was undamaged. The wind was a constant moan during the height of the storm and it was truly awe inspiring and jaw dropping to see giant pines and oaks simply fall over roots and all like a house of cards. We were in the northeast quadrant of the eye of Katrina. We had no power for two weeks and we just got our phone back Sunday night as well. In the beginning, we could not even communicate by cell phone as many of the towers in the area had been snapped off. But having been a Girl Scout in my Houston and Lamar High School days, the old primitive camping skills and know how kicked in. We had been prepared. Then like an answer to prayer, one of my best friends from Lamar and my whole life, Sara Ince Hamilton and her husband, contacted my son-in-law in town and said they would come from Boerne, Texas and help clean up. They arrived the Friday after the storm with gasoline, chainsaw, non-perishable foods and work clothes. They had to take the northerly route from San Antonio and head toward I-20  and then drive south on US 49 from Jackson, Mississippi since I-10 was closed all the way from border to border. That was a moment when a friend is a treasure beyond measure. They came knowing that the situation might be rugged and hot and primitive. As we had a small black and white TV hooked up to a car battery borrowed from one of our cars currently not in use, we were able to see the devastation wrought upon the coast and New Orleans. All in all we seemed truly blessed and rather luxurious in light of what others were suffering. So we got to work clearing and piling, raking and resting when the heat got too high in the middle of the day. We stayed hydrated and hung laundry on the magnolia trees to dry. I felt like a scene from Gone with the Wind. Sara and  Tom stayed a week! And got poison ivy for their troubles!

Gratefully Mother Nature has not rained on us since the storm. We live about 5 miles out from town. All the homes in town also lost numbers of trees and suffered tremendous loss of crushed bedrooms, dens, living rooms, etc. The streets are still not fully passable because debris is in piles 8-10 feet high or more and sometimes only one lane wide. Power and telephone is still being restored in some places where power lines and poles fell. We are still under a boil water directive out in the county. Many people lost their jobs when businesses and homes were destroyed on the coast, but businesses that do roofing, tree removal, flooring, dry wall, construction, landscaping, or interior design are booming. Even the company where my husband is newly employed, Howard Industries in Laurel, just received an order for 1 million transformers. Loggers are now looking for large poles for telephone poles. So hopefully we can have a timber expert check on our property, both here and the 140 acres of pines in the next county, sometime this week to see if maybe we can recoup some of the losses we have in timber. And we are just a microcosm of what has hit the state of Mississippi. The further south, the greater the damage.

The number of volunteers that have come from neighboring as well as distant states to help at all the various churches and community centers, helping people clear immense piles of debris and put temporary blue tarps on gaps in roofs, has been an amazing thing to witness. Hattiesburg is a city of houses with blue tarps now. Home Depot and the like are doing a booming business. The university where I work, Southern Miss, is back in class this week despite the loss of trees and inaccessible areas. Traffic lights are out for long stretches of road , but people are patient and grateful that Katrina was not any worse than it was. I am unaware of any loss of life in our community due directly to Katrina which speaks highly of people's preparedness and perhaps our good fortune. And we are gaining many new residents for at least a while - real estate is being snatched up right and left by coastal residents who lost everything and may choose to live elsewhere while they rebuild. Many might just stay - particularly those who are well-to-do retired not tied to any business. Or businesses may relocate here. Only time will tell the full impact that such a storm has on the demographics of an area. But meanwhile, the past two weeks have given time for contemplation of what matters most in life. It is the people - the family, the friends, the neighbor, the community, life itself - that matter deeply. Houses can be replaced or rebuilt, but life is a precious commodity. We can never repay all the kindnesses that have been done in this city, in this state. All we can do is answer the call when we see someone else in need elsewhere and pay it forward.
 Hooray for the class of '58. Hi to you all.

News Flash from Hattiesburg, Mississippi - known as the Pine Belt - where the wind and rain hit us horizontally with Katrina at Category 2 for 2-3 hours straight causing a 2 ton tree to fall on our garage, and an entire forest on our 34 acres to be leveled. There are 37 trees on our driveway alone. We managed to clear the delivery road at the fence line which only had about 6 trees on it. What once was a deep shade old forest of pine and tall oaks, trees that were 80-100 feet tall and over 70 years old is now leveled to a few spindly young trees and lots of short magnolias that we  never saw before. It has taken 40 pickup loads of debris just to clear our immediate yard. It took cranes and cherry pickers and professional tree experts to hoist the tree off of the garage. Gratefully the living portion of our house was undamaged. The wind was a constant moan during the height of the storm and it was truly awe inspiring and jaw dropping to see giant pines and oaks simply fall over roots and all like a house of cards. We were in the northeast quadrant of the eye of Katrina. We had no power for two weeks and we just got our phone back Sunday night as well. In the beginning, we could not even communicate by cell phone as many of the towers in the area had been snapped off. But having been a Girl Scout in my Houston and Lamar High School days, the old primitive camping skills and know how kicked in. We had been prepared. Then like an answer to prayer, one of my best friends from Lamar and my whole life, Sara Ince Hamilton and her husband, contacted my son-in-law in town and said they would come from Boerne, Texas and help clean up. They arrived the Friday after the storm with gasoline, chainsaw, non-perishable foods and work clothes. They had to take the northerly route from San Antonio and head toward I-20  and then drive south on US 49 from Jackson, Mississippi since I-10 was closed all the way from border to border. That was a moment when a friend is a treasure beyond measure. They came knowing that the situation might be rugged and hot and primitive. As we had a small black and white TV hooked up to a car battery borrowed from one of our cars currently not in use, we were able to see the devastation wrought upon the coast and New Orleans. All in all we seemed truly blessed and rather luxurious in light of what others were suffering. So we got to work clearing and piling, raking and resting when the heat got too high in the middle of the day. We stayed hydrated and hung laundry on the magnolia trees to dry. I felt like a scene from Gone with the Wind. Sara and  Tom stayed a week! And got poison ivy for their troubles!

Gratefully Mother Nature has not rained on us since the storm. We live about 5 miles out from town. All the homes in town also lost numbers of trees and suffered tremendous loss of crushed bedrooms, dens, living rooms, etc. The streets are still not fully passable because debris is in piles 8-10 feet high or more and sometimes only one lane wide. Power and telephone is still being restored in some places where power lines and poles fell. We are still under a boil water directive out in the county. Many people lost their jobs when businesses and homes were destroyed on the coast, but businesses that do roofing, tree removal, flooring, dry wall, construction, landscaping, or interior design are booming. Even the company where my husband is newly employed, Howard Industries in Laurel, just received an order for 1 million transformers. Loggers are now looking for large poles for telephone poles. So hopefully we can have a timber expert check on our property, both here and the 140 acres of pines in the next county, sometime this week to see if maybe we can recoup some of the losses we have in timber. And we are just a microcosm of what has hit the state of Mississippi. The further south, the greater the damage.

The number of volunteers that have come from neighboring as well as distant states to help at all the various churches and community centers, helping people clear immense piles of debris and put temporary blue tarps on gaps in roofs, has been an amazing thing to witness. Hattiesburg is a city of houses with blue tarps now. Home Depot and the like are doing a booming business. The university where I work, Southern Miss, is back in class this week despite the loss of trees and inaccessible areas. Traffic lights are out for long stretches of road , but people are patient and grateful that Katrina was not any worse than it was. I am unaware of any loss of life in our community due directly to Katrina which speaks highly of people's preparedness and perhaps our good fortune. And we are gaining many new residents for at least a while - real estate is being snatched up right and left by coastal residents who lost everything and may choose to live elsewhere while they rebuild. Many might just stay - particularly those who are well-to-do retired not tied to any business. Or businesses may relocate here. Only time will tell the full impact that such a storm has on the demographics of an area. But meanwhile, the past two weeks have given time for contemplation of what matters most in life. It is the people - the family, the friends, the neighbor, the community, life itself - that matter deeply. Houses can be replaced or rebuilt, but life is a precious commodity. We can never repay all the kindnesses that have been done in this city, in this state. All we can do is answer the call when we see someone else in need elsewhere and pay it forward.
 Hooray for the class of '58. Hi to you all.

We are in San Antonio on our way back home, having left Tuesday a week ago for west Texas.  We spent 2 days in Kerrville, one in Fort Stockton, and 4 days in Marfa.  I had spent  the summer of 1946 in Marfa at the Hotel Paisano with my family...getting away from the polio in Houston, seeing the sights, and accompanying my dad on business.  We decided it would be a good time to check out all the art, etc. going on there now, avoiding the storm at the same time.  The hotel has been renovated; but it still has the same friendly, comfortable feel...and the streets are now paved!  According to our neighbors; everything is okay with our house...only lost power for minutes at a time...and now we only have to haul the patio furniture and heavy potted plants back outside when we get home. Bonjour, Katherine