My family made it to Georgia.
Dept. of Corrections of GA is having hotels and motels at her specific exit call around for hurricane refugees.
They are being fed and taken care of. They even received a WalMart gift card. Not an enormous amount, but enough to get essential items or a board game for the children (or gasoline!). They are very appreciative and mentioned how nice the people are.
A woman staying in the same hotel was notified this morning that her entire family of five was found drowned in their home.
The men left this morning because they think they are going to survey their damage in Gulfport.
I think we have serious denial going on with the whole area, and when this is all over, the pain and suffering is going to be enormous and affect folks for at least two generations. I hate to bring up the Titanic yet again, but the denial is unmistakeable.
If the men get in, I will post a follow-up when they return.
My sister was talking to a woman the other day. Her son evacuated to Jackson from Biloxi and was OK. He argued with his neighbors about leaving and almost had to physically get his wife out of there. They all stayed.
My sister talked to her again today. The place he left was the apartment building where 30 people died. She said they lost everything but my sister pointed out they still have their lives.
"the pain and suffering is going to be enormous and affect folks for at least two generations"
Nah, about 30-40 years. When I was a child I remember teachers and relatives telling me about Camille and Betsy and the associated horrors. I guess granny's stories of Betsy don't count.
Don't underestimate human capcity to live in denial..."It can't happen to me", "That was back then, houses are stronger now" , "The media is all hype"
I remember when East New Orleans contained nothing abandoned shacks from previous storms and marsh. Developers came in, filled in the land and built on top. Within a decade all the flooded neighborhoods will be rebuilt with a new generation of homeowners, younger ones, who'll say, "Yeah, but during Katrina the pumps and levees weren't nearly as good as they area now."