Stories from Gulf Coast and New Orleans Refugees

Just in case anyone is interested, I'm jotting down a few stories I've heard from displaced people now presiding in the delta.

1) A lady said she had not heard from her daughter who lives in Gulfport and didn't come with the rest of the family. The daughter was pregnant and due on Tuesday. She also has a one year old child with her. My prayer is that she got out and had her baby safely. But she doesn't know where the rest of her family is to contact them either.

2) I watched a home video today of a family who went down to Gulfport to check on their home. After walking blocks to get there they found out that several containers had been swept into their neighborhood. These containers contained frozen chicken. Can you imagine what the place smells like now. Also, the water level was 5 feet in the home. Everything beneath this was destroyed, yet all the pictures above it and all the stuff on the mantle were in perfect condition and had not moved an inch. How eery.

4) A family from Bogalousa is staying in a cabin they can't pay for because their credit and debit cards won't work. Their house is not too damaged, but they've been told they won't have electricity for months. They are trying to find odd jobs to survive.

5) Others are in fairly good spirits even though they know they have nothing left to go home to. I wonder if the shock has worn off.

6) I have heard through the grapevine that a couple friends from Pass Christian are alright. I have yet to hear if my friend Roy Pearson, who's the pastor of Laurel UMC, is alright. As of yesterday, it was said that 50 UM pastors were still unaccounted for. May that number be much fewer today and tomorrow.

Well that's it for a long day today. God bless anyone who has been affected in any way by Hurricane Katrina.

In the love of Christ,
greg