Hurricane Katrina

Katrina.

What can I say, she was the mother of all storms. She missed Fort Pierce, thank God, but we felt the feeder bands days after. What a monster. I have been watching T.V. almost non stop and I cry a lot. At work I have to turn off the T.V. because I find myself becoming angry listening to the pathetic people who call 911 over the most trivial annoyances. We survived 2 hurricanes last year. Francis and Jeanne made a mess and we are still repairing and rebuilding, but neither can hold a candle to Katrina. We suffered no casualties. The deaths from this storm will be counted in the thousands. Just in Gulfport alone the count is unbelievable.

We have a radio team that left last Wednesday and arrived Friday morning. They were lucky they made it, there was no gas to be found anywhere west of Pensacola. They will be there for a week setting up the portable radio trailer and trying to get radio communications back up. We sent 3 men up there and they are miserable. When we do hear from them they describe total destruction and they told us there are still many dead that are trapped in the rubble of there homes, there ran out of body bags days ago and had to request more. There are refrigerator trailers set up to receive the dead. I can’t bear to repeat how many are already full.

My husband volunteered to go but they have decided to send officers that are single and have no children. I am relieved in a way. I do not know what kind of man would return to me after witnessing so much destruction. I pray every day for the people who are still suffering. I can not imagine the horror they have been through. Fort Pierce had a small taste of what mother nature can bring to mankind and I pray that hurricane season passes quickly this year. I hold my breathe and wait.