Rhongepooh
09-15-2005, 04:15 PM
I just wanted to personally tell anyone who has contributed to Red Cross for the Hurricane Katrina disaster thank you from someone in that area. We live in a very small town in Southwest Mississippi about 120 miles north of both Gulfport , MS AND New Orleans. This has been the worst disaster that ANY of us have EVER lived through.
We have been through many hurricanes before. Infact many of us planned things to do on Monday afternoon planning on being home from work on Monday. Just like people in California learn to live with earthquakes and people from the heartland learn to live with tornados, we learn to live with hurricanes. This one was bad though!
Under normal circumstance we were expecting winds that (when they hit the coast were 130 miles per hour) to be close to 100 miles per hour. None of us are really sure what happened with this one. We were hit with winds of 135 miles per hour! In our county ALL power lines were down 100% of them. The hospital and 2 small nursing homes had to be evacuated because EVERYONE was without power for over a week. I live in the city limits and my power was out for almost 2 weeks. There are still people in the county with no power. This is bad because we are also in the hot and humid days known as 'dog days" of summer. The heat had been close to 100 degrees. In our small community there were over 300 homes totally destroyed (my parents house being one), 2000 severely damaged and another 3000 particially damaged (mine being one). Schools have been closed for 3 weeks and many won't start back until the beginning of October. All campuses of our schools, 6 in all, recieved major damage from the roofs being torn off to actual walls collapsing.
I have NEVER gotten food stamps, financial aid, welfare or the like. Today I went and stood in line for an hour to get FEMA relief to help buy groceries that were lost. Many people here, being in a rural area, plant and harvest food from our gardens to keep for food for the winter. All of this was ruined after the first 3 to 4 days without power. There were nurses, teachers, elders, young people . . . all in the line waiting with me. In a way it brought our small community together. There is no more monetary classes. We all are left with little so. . . we all have pitched in to help others.
Many people, like those of us here, will give a dollar or two to this charity or that charity and never really think of what happens to it once it's out of our hands. However, today , this week, these past 3 weeks, my eyes have been opened. Food, clean water (drinking water ), help of any kind has been overabundantly welcomed. The people who have brought these major life saving objects have been a true blessing to all of us. Things that once seemed so trivial now are worth everything.
I have worked before overseeing fundraisers trying to make money and help those less fortunate than me before. I never thought I'd be in this position. I'm sure you never think of yourself in that position either. However, I just wanted to let those who HAVE contributed that we, those of us on the taking end, thank God for you. Our lives are changed because of your gift. Thank you.
My family started this past Mother's Day planning our first Magical Gathering with 14 family members going. Thankfully we had already paid for our trip. In the direct aftermath on of the things that kept us going, believe it or not, was our planned, already paid for trip to Disney this Thanksgiving. This year will be especially special. We have much more than just our trip to Disney to be thankful for. Thank you all who helped!
We have been through many hurricanes before. Infact many of us planned things to do on Monday afternoon planning on being home from work on Monday. Just like people in California learn to live with earthquakes and people from the heartland learn to live with tornados, we learn to live with hurricanes. This one was bad though!
Under normal circumstance we were expecting winds that (when they hit the coast were 130 miles per hour) to be close to 100 miles per hour. None of us are really sure what happened with this one. We were hit with winds of 135 miles per hour! In our county ALL power lines were down 100% of them. The hospital and 2 small nursing homes had to be evacuated because EVERYONE was without power for over a week. I live in the city limits and my power was out for almost 2 weeks. There are still people in the county with no power. This is bad because we are also in the hot and humid days known as 'dog days" of summer. The heat had been close to 100 degrees. In our small community there were over 300 homes totally destroyed (my parents house being one), 2000 severely damaged and another 3000 particially damaged (mine being one). Schools have been closed for 3 weeks and many won't start back until the beginning of October. All campuses of our schools, 6 in all, recieved major damage from the roofs being torn off to actual walls collapsing.
I have NEVER gotten food stamps, financial aid, welfare or the like. Today I went and stood in line for an hour to get FEMA relief to help buy groceries that were lost. Many people here, being in a rural area, plant and harvest food from our gardens to keep for food for the winter. All of this was ruined after the first 3 to 4 days without power. There were nurses, teachers, elders, young people . . . all in the line waiting with me. In a way it brought our small community together. There is no more monetary classes. We all are left with little so. . . we all have pitched in to help others.
Many people, like those of us here, will give a dollar or two to this charity or that charity and never really think of what happens to it once it's out of our hands. However, today , this week, these past 3 weeks, my eyes have been opened. Food, clean water (drinking water ), help of any kind has been overabundantly welcomed. The people who have brought these major life saving objects have been a true blessing to all of us. Things that once seemed so trivial now are worth everything.
I have worked before overseeing fundraisers trying to make money and help those less fortunate than me before. I never thought I'd be in this position. I'm sure you never think of yourself in that position either. However, I just wanted to let those who HAVE contributed that we, those of us on the taking end, thank God for you. Our lives are changed because of your gift. Thank you.
My family started this past Mother's Day planning our first Magical Gathering with 14 family members going. Thankfully we had already paid for our trip. In the direct aftermath on of the things that kept us going, believe it or not, was our planned, already paid for trip to Disney this Thanksgiving. This year will be especially special. We have much more than just our trip to Disney to be thankful for. Thank you all who helped!