Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The True Evacuation Experience
The fiance and I had for the most part missed out on the true evacuation experience, until today that is. We started out the day with a reservation at a hotel on the West side of Jackson, MS in the hopes that we could return to the city tomorrow, or at least to Lockport.
It was soon apparent that wasn't going to happen.
We left Tallahassee around 7AM, and headed out west. Once we got into Mississippi, we were quickly amazed at how much wind damage there had been from the hurricane moving through. We saw downed trees and signs all over the place, however the roads were amazingly clear. We had made good time, and were looking forward to getting into the hotel around 3pm.
We stopped for gas around 1:00 on 70 miles on the East side of Jackson, and the gas staions were out. All of the stations at the interstate were out, as well as the two a few blocks down. We got word that there was gas in Philadelphia, MS, but that was about 35 miles out of the way. We decided to head that way, and check it out. Most of the next few small towns were all out of power, and we ended up waiting in line for a few cars in order to fuel up. At that point, we decided that we should head further north, and made plans to drive up to Chicago to be with my fiance's family.
We stopped tonight at a hotel in S. Memphis, and will leave early tomorrow for Chitown. Upon walking in to the hotel, it's apparent that the hotel is filled with evacuees, who are posting notes that people could glean from the news on a big white board that the hotel provided. There will be a prayer service at 10pm tonight for the evacuees, and I will try to make it by. There's a lot of news to catch up on, and we are anxious to learn more about when we will be able to make it back into town and survey the damage to our little place. All of a sudden, carrying all of that furniture (or having friends carry it to be more specific) seems a lot more worthwhile in light of everything that has happened.
More soon,
JBoo
It was soon apparent that wasn't going to happen.
We left Tallahassee around 7AM, and headed out west. Once we got into Mississippi, we were quickly amazed at how much wind damage there had been from the hurricane moving through. We saw downed trees and signs all over the place, however the roads were amazingly clear. We had made good time, and were looking forward to getting into the hotel around 3pm.
We stopped for gas around 1:00 on 70 miles on the East side of Jackson, and the gas staions were out. All of the stations at the interstate were out, as well as the two a few blocks down. We got word that there was gas in Philadelphia, MS, but that was about 35 miles out of the way. We decided to head that way, and check it out. Most of the next few small towns were all out of power, and we ended up waiting in line for a few cars in order to fuel up. At that point, we decided that we should head further north, and made plans to drive up to Chicago to be with my fiance's family.
We stopped tonight at a hotel in S. Memphis, and will leave early tomorrow for Chitown. Upon walking in to the hotel, it's apparent that the hotel is filled with evacuees, who are posting notes that people could glean from the news on a big white board that the hotel provided. There will be a prayer service at 10pm tonight for the evacuees, and I will try to make it by. There's a lot of news to catch up on, and we are anxious to learn more about when we will be able to make it back into town and survey the damage to our little place. All of a sudden, carrying all of that furniture (or having friends carry it to be more specific) seems a lot more worthwhile in light of everything that has happened.
More soon,
JBoo
# posted by Jude Boudreaux @ 8/30/2005 07:55:00 PM 
