New website and personal updates.

I started another Yahoo group (go figure). It's for Hurricane Rita victims, more specifically Louisiana residents. I think the reason is obvious but if you need some clarification, that's where I'm from and where my family still lives. I was going insane trying to find them and find out what is going on there. So I started this group so that I could get more information from others who evacuated and have seen or heard about what's going on. In my efforts of reacting more selflessly, I'm also posting a lot of helpful links and phone numbers for those who will now have to recover and rebuild their lives and homes. I'm also inviting people who can to post pictures and questions about their area. A few residents do have power and some have phone service in which they are calling relatives around the country to let them know what's going on. So it's working out well. If you live in Louisiana and have evacuated and you want to know about your home or a friend's home, this is a good website. If someone here can't help you, there are links to websites and phone numbers to organizations that may be able to help you.

For those who have sent kind words and said prayers for my family, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I got a voicemail around 5PM yesterday from my stepmother. It had been left on Sunday night around 10 PM, but for whatever reason didn't show up on my phone or in my voicemail box until yesterday afternoon. At any rate, they ended up staying in Toledo Bend where they had evacuated to because they had heard from my step-brother, DJ. DJ had stayed in Sulphur with his boss and rode out the storm. He is now there helping to clean up the city. He is working from dawn until very late hours every night helping. He had called my step-mother to tell her that the National Gaurd is there and they are not letting anyone in the city. So they decided to wait to return to Sulphur until later this week. He also went by my dad's house and it seems to have been miraculously untouched by Hurricane Rita. However, the damage on their street is spotty at best. Their neighbors, on either side, homes are both fine and undamaged. But, a neighbor's home two doors down is completely flattened. I'm getting reports of the same kind of damage all over the city. The mayor says it looks like a bomb hit the city. They should be allowing residents back in, with the proper ID of course, starting Wednesday or Thursday. But they are warning that you enter at your own risk. There are police patrols and National Gaurdsmen everywhere. But it will take a while to get infrastructure and utilities back in place.

Hopefully, I can post something more positive and light-hearted tomorrow. Until then God speed to those affected by the Hurricane.

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