Hurricane Katrina Update

Hello all, Ken here filling in for my wife. I just spoke to Alicia and her mom around 8:30am Wednesday and they are safe and sound. They were in the Veteran's Hospital in Biloxi, MS during the storm and suffered minimal structural damage or flooding. Mary, Alicia's mom, is a shift nurse there and is required to be in 'lockdown' along with the other staff during any kind of adverse conditions that might prevent them from being available to work their shift. Due to the severity of Hurricane Katrina the families of the hospital staff were also allowed to stay.

Currently, the Biloxi VA hospital is one of the only buildings in the state of MS that has full power, due to the huge emergency generators in the complex. Alicia and Mary have been staying in one of the many small clinic offices in the hospital, but they will soon have to leave as the hospital will need to open the clinics again to patients.

Alicia drove by her mother's house in Biloxi yesterday to survey the damage and was glad to see that all was still very much intact, with the exception of some branches and roofing shingles littering the yard. The house, miraculously, didn't flood even though it's only a few blocks from the Back Bay of Biloxi; known to locals as The Bayou. Truly all the prayers that went up spared this little red brick house!

Both girls are preparing to leave the hospital and move back to the house, though they are still without power there. With current temperatures above 95 degrees and 100% humidity, it's going to be difficult. FEMA is supposed to move in and help the local residents pretty soon, providing food, water and other much needed resources.

Communication with Alicia will be sporadic for awhile as the land lines and cell service is still mostly disabled. She was able to locate a cellular signal this morning by driving around town until she had a single bar of service on her phone. I will keep everyone posted as information becomes available to me. Thank you for your many prayers during this difficult time and please continue to pray for the safety and well-being of others still in need. So long for now...

Headed out...

We're headed to the hospital for the night and day tomorrow. Should be OK until the power goes out. Then nothing to do. At least watching a storm is captivating ... and one like this, much more than any TV show! Wish us well...

And so the rain begins. It's about 3:30 here and the rain and wind have started. Hard to tell from this picture, but the sky is pretty gray.

No ice

I just made a run up to get ice, and all the stores are closed already. WalMart and the grocery store are boarded up. Looks like I missed Walgreens by a few minutes, but they probably didn't have anything left anyway. So, we'll do without cold stuff.

I added a pink dot where we are; clearly not a great spot. Mom's hospital requires staff to be on-site during hurricanes to be sure they have enough to cover several shifts, so we'll have to be there by 6 p.m. for lock-down. They're in about the same position as our house relative to the water. Maybe two miles to the beach as the crow flies, but backs up to the bay behind, so flooding could be an issue. Today we've been preparing the house as best we can and getting ready to go. We hauled all the lawn furniture and such into the garage and bathed the dogs since they have to come with us. We put the patio table in the dining room and turned the good dining table upside down on top of it in case of flooding. If there's severe flooding, the table will be the least of concerns, but it made us feel better to do SOMETHING. Now I'm going to run up to the store for ice to pack a cooler. If they have any left. We'll see.

Looks like the neighbors have boarded up, preparing for the storm. Our house is brick, so I'm not sure how we would board up even if we wanted to. Guess we'll take our chances.

Now that the privacy fence is around the entirety of the back yard, the lot seems SO much bigger.

Mom traded in dad's truck for this 2001 Honda Passport.

Mom's re-doing the kitchen. Cabinets are partially installed. Should be nice!

Katrina

I decided to surprise my mom in Biloxi, Mississippi, with a visit this week. A death in the family spoiled the surprise, because she was considering going to the funeral out of state. Such is life. So I arrived Thursday morning. My return trip, scheduled for Monday morning, is uncertain at this point because hurricane Katrina is bearing down on us. I'll miss some important meetings and a retirement dinner for a much beloved co-worker if I don't get back on time, but I really want to be here to make sure mom is OK during the storm. She's scheduled to work, and they make all the staff stay in the hospital during hurricanes to make sure they have enough to cover shifts in case roads aren't open. So, if Katrina heads here, she, the dogs and I will probably end up in the hospital Monday, waiting the storm out. I think I'll run up to WalMart tonight to pick up a card-reader so that I can upload photos to the blog from my camera. It's sunny and HOT right now — about 94 with high humidity means a heat index of 105ish. Ick. Thank goodness for air-conditioning. Wish we had a pool! Or I could go down to the beach and run around in the background of the The Weather Channel's live broadcast with Jim Cantore. Hehehe...

Magazine Cover

Magazine Cover
This it too cool!

We recently went to Sacramento to celebrate Ken's grandma's 90th birthday. She doesn't look a day over 70; it's incredible! Following are a few pics of family during the trip.

Cousin Shelley and Ken.

Niece Lauren and nephew Brendon.

Worn-out

Had a really fun weekend. Friday morning we rode the horses for the first time in at least a month (it's been too hot til now). That evening, we joined Christye and Kevin at Jeremy and Michelle's for supper. Nice to spend some time with busy friends.

Sabbath we went to The Place. Had a two-hour, late-afternoon nap, then went to a farewell party at BJ's. I'd invited Christye and Kevin, and it turns out Kevin knew half the people there from PUC. Small world, especially with such a sanguine guy. We knew we needed to get up early today because we were scheduled to paint the barn at Ventura Farms at 8 a.m. Had lots of Diet Pepsi with supper, so we had a hard time falling asleep. I finally drifted off just after midnight, but Ken was still up playing his guitar until close to 3 a.m. Obviously, he wasn't thrilled when the alarm went off at 6:20.

So the barn painting went really well. I was so pleased that 26 people volunteered (and most showed up!). They worked really hard in the hot sun. We lost a few each hour as the morning progressed, and the final four of us wrapped up the project about 2:30 this afternoon. I'll post photos as soon as I get them.