The Hurricane

As anyone who watches the Weather Channel would know, our lovely Gulf Coast was pounded by the late Hurricane Ivan last week. Ellisville was spared any damage beyond a few felled trees, some blown over business signs, and lots of limbs and leaves in yards. Our church operated a Red Cross shelter for evacuees; I volunteered the night of the hurricane's landfall. We had relatively little excitement other than a loss of electricity in the early morning hours; I understand someone tried to break into the cars in the parking lot, but I was asleep at the time. The police maintained a good presence throughout the county, and quickly apprended our would-be theif.

I understand there was a total of nearly one hundred people in our shelter- some of whom were from this area (trailer home residents worried over the forecast- but non-materializing- hundred mile an hour winds), but most were from the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida coasts. The latter two areas were hit pretty hard; fortunately, Mississippi escaped the brunt of the damage.

My absence of late has nothing to do with the hurricane, by the way: my home computer internet connection has been down since Tuesday, and classes were canceled Thursday and Friday. I'm hoping to get the durn thing back working this week, now that all the hurricane excitement has died down. Oh, and speaking of hurricane excitement, if you are in need of batteries, bread, or bottled water, the citizens of Jones County have them in overabundance in their pantries and basements...