Hurricane Katrina aftermath - VF

I thought I would post a quick note as several people have e-mailed asking about Jamie's family in Mississippi.

Jamie's brother Jon and his wife Andrea survived the hurricane. Jon had been working at Laurel where he is an ER physician in one of the hospitals there. Andrea evacuated with the 4 dogs and drove for about 30 hours, eventually ending up after a circuitous journey in Jackson, Mississippi where she put the dogs in a kennel and then found accomodation in Indianola. Her brother phoned us last night around midnight and amazingly I managed to get hold of her in her hotel there this morning! She sounds VERY tired. Might have to stay there for a couple more days. Most roads in the gulf area are closed and no-one can get back to the Gulfport/Long Beach area apart from emergency personnel but when Jon finished work on Tuesday he managed to get back to check the house. Miraculously, it is still standing! Some damage to the roof as well as flooding/water damage, but it seems that it is salvageable. Amazing!

Unfortunately, the same is not true for Jamie's mom's house. Apparently, when Jon went to check on it (it is between the beach and the railway line - the area that they were calling on TV 'ground zero') there is nothing left of that section of her street. There are pictures on the local news site http://www.wlox.com including an 'aftermath' slideshow which shows how horrendous this part of the city is. Poor Joan has had a terrible month (see our previous postings on 26 August).