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Post by Dee on Sept 1, 2005 7:05:02 GMT -5
I heard on the news last night that Slidell, where judyb is from has lost 90% of the houses in that town. :'(I sure hope Judy is okay.
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Post by Don on Sept 1, 2005 8:13:23 GMT -5
Quote from CNN:
Across Lake Pontchartrain, in Slidell, Louisiana, Mayor Ben Morris was among thousands of homeless residents who have been unable to communicate with anyone outside Slidell.
Morris estimated 90 percent of the city's residences were destroyed or damaged and that half of its 30,000 residents will be left homeless.
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Not good, not good at all.
The rest of the nation feels numb at the scope of this thing, people are scrambling all over each other trying to figure out ways to help. There's even been mudslinging at my office about what can be done. We got neighbors trying to get something together. The churches and such are in the act to.
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Post by Graciedonovan on Sept 1, 2005 13:20:27 GMT -5
This is definitely NOT off topic. Judy is one of us and we are all worried about her.
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Post by Dee on Sept 1, 2005 18:54:52 GMT -5
You're right Patti, I didn't mean that Judy wasn't important to us. I just know I'm concerned and when I heard that I just went numb.
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Post by MK on Sept 1, 2005 20:12:34 GMT -5
If she can survive this without a smoke she has it licked.
Slidell was wiped out. I hope she evacuated. She works at NASA, right?? Perhaps there was a shelter there.
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Post by Don on Sept 1, 2005 20:22:28 GMT -5
You know...it's the bonds of our camaraderie that allow us to fight our own beasts.
Yet, in doing so, we grow closer and more personal to each other.
We really are a family here.
So yeah, we're all worried.
That in itself speaks volumes about the power of a support group!
I'm confident that we'll hear from Judy again. But I do fear that her life is in chaos.
When one hurts, we all hurt.
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Post by Graciedonovan on Sept 2, 2005 5:12:06 GMT -5
I know you're worried Dee, we all are. The CBS Evening News had a brief story about Slidell last night. They were interviewing some of the people. I looked at every face, but couldn't see Judy. I'm sure she and her daughter are safe, but until we hear from her, we're all going to worry. It may be months before we do though. You're right Don. I fear her life is in chaos too. I wish there was a way we could help her. I'm going to "sticky" this thread so that when she does log on again, she will see right away that we are thinking of and praying for her. And yes, we are all family here.
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Post by Ann on Sept 2, 2005 8:26:05 GMT -5
"I'm going to "sticky" this thread so that when she does log on again, she will see right away that we are thinking of and praying for her. And yes, we are all family here. "
Thanks PattiB. I'm sending prayers and good wishes her way (and all the thousands of others).
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Post by jpkwitter on Sept 2, 2005 10:45:11 GMT -5
JB is one strong woman and no doubt her daughter is like her too. She will contact us when she is able...like the bird in the peace post...that is Judy. Prayers for all the people that they get the help they need so desperately right now.  JP |
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Post by ncpops on Sept 2, 2005 15:24:58 GMT -5
Judy ... wherever you are, we all pray for your safety & health. Hopefully it won't be long until life begins to seem "normal".
Jimpops
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Post by Dee on Sept 3, 2005 17:58:33 GMT -5
Got word that Judy is alive and well and has food and water. That is all the info at this time.
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Post by Graciedonovan on Sept 5, 2005 13:27:04 GMT -5
THANK GOD!!!!! Dee, thanks so much for letting us know.
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Post by jpkwitter on Sept 5, 2005 13:31:47 GMT -5
 ;D Thank heavens! JP
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Post by judyb on Sept 9, 2005 12:05:23 GMT -5
Hey, Y'all!!!! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Yeah, Slidell got slammed big time. Lake Ponchartrain floodwaters travelled at least one mile into Slidell. It's a sickening mess.
Out where I live was massive tree damage. None fell on my house and I only had one tree uprooted and lost the top of a cypress tree. Lots on fence damage. But we were lucky. We rode out the storm at home (never again) and the day after we walked thru the neighborhood in shock. Every street was blocked with downed healthy pine trees (this is pole pine country...those big tall pine trees). Incredible.
We didn't get electricity back on till Tuesday of this week. The day after the storm we stood in line at Home Depot for 4 hours to get a generator. It helped, making sleeping at night a lot easier. But generators run on gasoline and there was more waiting in line for gas (a few hours), waiting in line to shop at Walmart later in the week (2 hours) waiting in line to get ice/water/MREs. All in all we did a lot of waiting, but kept our sense of humor.
Lots of families in Slidell have no homes to go back to. They're gone. period. Billy & I are counting our blessings every day. We cry every day too. The pain of what we see on TV and other places is overwhelming. But we will survive.
My daughter slept thru the storm thanks to 1/2 Xanax I had from my divorce 4 years ago. Thank God, because the house was literally shaking. The storm had sustatined winds of >100 mph. That sounded like your A/C running. And every once in a while the gusts would come thru and shake the house and knock down trees and throw pine cones onto the roof. It was so noisy we didn't hear all of the pine trees around us breaking or uprooting. My house came within 6 inches of getting water in it. My ex wasn't so lucky. He live a mile away, closer to Bayou Liberty which feeds into the lake. When the eyewall passed Slidell, the winds shifted and forced that lake water into the bayou's and canals. My ex had waist deep water in his house - which is 4 feet off the ground.
10 days after the storm, St. Tammany parish is open again. I still don't have a phone at home and cannot call out or receive calls on my cingular phone. But I can text message!!! If you want to contact me, text me at 985-290-0949. I'm at my boyfriend's house right now. He has phone but no electricity, so we brought the generator over here and signed up with AOL to get online. We both have DSL and that's gone.
It's funny - the little things we take for granted in our day to day lives. I bought my first newspaper in 10 days and am looking forward to reading it. We only have two local TV stations broadcasting from borrowed studios in Orlando and Baton Rouge. Ice water is a wonderful thing if you haven't had it in a few days; Domino's pizza opened up on Wednesday and we got a large cheese pizza. Yum!!!! The MRE's are actually very tasty!! I'm looking forward to finding a coke machine that works. I'd love to down a cold coke right now.
One good thing this storm did was to help us lose weight. The week after the storm we had no appetites. We're only drinking water (lots of it) and are doing a lot of manual labor - clearing trees, fixing fences, cleaning up the yard, toting coolers full of ice, etc.
One of the most frustrating things we've found is not being able to communicate in any way except for driving around and seeing things.
I am going to go and see if I can find aerial shots of where I work. Have not seen anything about it on TV and need to find a way to GET to work when they re open on Sept. 26th.
I'll try to pop in later! Love you all and thanks again!
judyb
still smokefree!
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Post by Don on Sept 9, 2005 13:35:49 GMT -5
Juuuudddeeeee!
Glad to "hear" from you finally!
I had heard that the NASA plant made it out ok and that they were trying to locate all of their employees...
Now, how you're gonna get around the big lake is another issue.
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JP
;D Thank heavens!