nobody asked…

The utter devastation of New Orleans and the entire Louisiana and Mississippi coastal areas has left most of us numb. The pictures, the video footage, the sad descriptions we’ve all seen and read…there are not words in our language to adequately describe the feelings.

Here in the Nashville area we’ve had some high winds, lot of rain — much of it blowing horizontally — a few trees and limbs down here and there, but overall we’re OK. Got up this morning to discover a roof leak on the second floor that was beginning to show on the ceiling of the first level below. No major damage — yet — just a bit of a mess to clean up and a problem to deal with as soon as we can get a roofer over (they’re going to be pretty busy for a while).

I just returned to the office and read the mail, including the one from Roomie’s son in Jackson, MS, which is quoted below. While awaiting permission to put it online, I jumped around and read the latest from a couple of the major news outlets. That’s when I went rigid and the tears started to come. I’ve never blogged through tears, but I’m going to try. It was not the email from my stepson, not the horrible details of what has happened is happening to New Orleans. It’s the culmination of feelings from events and stories of the last couple of days. The almost unbearable grief from such horrible, tragic loss. The hundreds, perhaps thousands, who have died, are dying, and will die. The many thousands who survived but have lost everything. My heart aches and my tears spill for all of them. And for us.

Here are my stepson’s words, emailed from Jackson, MS, far from the coast:

We’re not expecting to have power restored until September 10th….Entergy’s official target date for Flowood/Brandon.

This is absolutely unreal. In central Mississippi, 85% of us are without power….the entire city of brandon, pearl, raymond, byram, clinton, richland, ridgeland, 95% of flowood, 90% of Jackson, and 40% of Madision. We have no communication with the outside world. No television news. Most radio stations lost their towers. No telephones. All but 3 cell phone towers in the area are gone. No grocery stores.

No hospitals. No gas stations. The one gas station that was open on this side of town ran out of fuel and food and ice this morning. No way to get food or water or advil (I have a migraine today, of all days). We can’t drink the water- we’re under a boil water notice for the forseeable future.

Every stop light is now a 4-way stop, making diving a pain in the ass. I think the airport just re-opened under limited generator power for emergency air-traffic only.

The heat index today is 107.

We’re hearing bits and pieces of what’s happening on the coast….mostly from what I get read online, although web access is spotty at best. For now, we have power at my office, but it comes and goes. All of our food is in the freezer up here (at work). We have 4 big water bottles from the cooler that will last us a while. After that, we will have to use boiled water from the swimming pool…I also have purification tablets (that everyone always made fun of me for keeping in my hunting gear).

We have 4 propane bottles and a handful of candles, along with 4 or 5 flashlights. No one was expecting this storm to be this bad. All of our Entergy crews were pre-positioned in the south and only returned this afternoon. It looks like a war zone here. And the National Gaurd in Jackson is shorthanded…. most of them are in Iraq. We do have an 8PM - 8AM curfew for the entire Metro area. And the few radio stations that are operating are using the emergency broadcast system to distribute notices and alerts.

Anyway, if you can’t reach (us) on our cell phones, don’t worry….

(“Don’t worry?” Dude, you gotta be kidding! You know your Mom worries about everything, and if she can’t find something to worry about, she worries that she can’t find anything to worry about!)

Yes, absolutely, feel — grieve — mourn — for those in New Orleans and the coastal areas. And also understand the horrors of this damned storm are felt far inland and will be for weeks and months to come. May their gods be with them all…