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Talked to Charlie yesterday. He is without power.
The hanger and house are fine. They only had a few trees down. Jackson was on
the west side of the storm and still had 70-80mph winds out of the north all
day. Jackson may be without power for up to 3 weeks.
Many of my friends on the coast were not so lucky.
Most of them have lost everything. One of my friends who lives north of I-10
managed to get through to me last night. Their house sustained significant wind
damage and a lot of trees down. They were lucky. He described looting and the
police and emergency svcs running out of gasoline. In his words "We got nuked" A
lot of Hancock county where I used to live has been totally destroyed. The
people manning the county emergency management center are missing. The last that
was heard of them they were swimming out of the center wearing life jackets.
Most of the county is low lying and there is a network of highways and bridges
that link these communities and they are either impassable or destroyed. The
community of Diamondhead where I used to live in is considered "high
ground" being 30ft above SL and north of I-10. It was flooded. Picayune Ms (50
miles inland) is reported destroyed. The eye basically went up the Pearl river.
The National news is concentrating on New Orleans, but the real destruction is
in MS. Entire communities are wiped off the face of the earth. There is no news
from the Pearlington, or port Bienville area. I have also heard nothing of the
communities along old HWY 90 into New Orleans. Access to this area other than
boat or helicopter is non-existent. I hope that most of the people I know
evacuated, but fear some of them who weathered Camille and other storms stayed.
So far my friend Ron is the only person that I have
had contact with South of Copiah county near Jackson.
Please Pray for the people in this area. They need
it.
Monty
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