Dearest Friends,

We are alive! As you have possibly heard, we survived. I apologize for no contact. It touched my heart so much that you cared. No power, no phones, no email=no way to contact you. Then, after we got the ability Wednesday Sept. 7, I was so heartsick just living it, I could not talk, much less write about it. It has been so very hard, and after 2 weeks of no less than Hell, even sunny-dispositioned me (Nancy) has suffered some depression over it all.

I was 15 when Camille hit us in '69. The winds were terrible and the water surge of 22 ft became our benchmark for the Worst Storm. We have built many homes, etc., to the level of 13', as required by the government. Katrina was worse, maybe not in windspeed, but in size--even Panama City had 65 mph wind gusts--that is a huge storm! We, in Gulfport, had 12 hours of 130-170 estimated mph winds. The winds lasted from Sunday about 9 PM until late Monday night. In addition, the surge at my parents' beautiful home on the bayou was 23-27 ft for over 15 hours with 6 ft waves with whitecaps breaking on their 2nd floor porch. My nephew Louis has a video of a 34 ft twin engine cabin cruiser going through the back yard. If I can get that out to you I will. You will not believe the amount of water and the waves that far from the Gulf of Mexico. Click on Google Maps - 49 Shoreline lane, Gulfport Mississippi and scroll right to see just how far from the Gulf the water came.

Anyway, we like idiots, always stay with Mom and Dad because their home is "safe". Well, this time we jumped out of the fat into the frying pan. Their 6000 sqft home shook under the onslaught of constant winds. Dad had thought ahead and had 35+ gallons of gasoline in containers in the garage under the home. Well, the water came in and did not stop. NEVER had they had water within 50 ft of their home. Now we had water up to the 2nd level where we were sitting. The 3rd level was above us. An option? We were slipping outside onto the porch to see what was happening. Once when we came back in, the gas fumes were so strong! Everyone inside had slowly been overcome by them--did not even notice! We quickly propped the doors open, even though the spray from the waves and the wind driven rain was so strong. Thank the Lord, this hit in the daytime, because at night we had all manner of candles lit. Had we had a flame, we might not be here. The fumes were overwhelming from all that gasoline until the waves and water and all that was in the ground floor battered the walls out. Once the sheetrock and all the insulation was gone, the salt water washed the gasoline away and we could breathe again.

Kim and Kent hung over the 2nd floor balcony to try to see what was happening underneath us. Kim's glasses were torn off by the wind and lost in the water. uh-o...no 2nd pair.

The W.W.II German motorcycle with sidecar, the upside-down-slate-topped pool table, the W.W.II American jeep, Dad's fancy BMW motorcycle with 810 miles on it, all became floating battering rams against the floor we were sitting on. Dad was literally lifted up along with his lazyboy chair by whatever kept hitting under him. Again, we stayed like everything was okay, with devastation 3" away from our toes. Eventually, we realized the house might not stand, so I had Mom & Dad get their medicines in a bag and we all moved to the front of the home. But between the fumes and the immense heat/humidity, we could not stand it and moved back to the den that had the open door. The wind from the hurricane was better than the fumes and heat. Eventually, the water started going down. Slowly. By Tuesday morning we were able to walk downstairs. You must realize, water was still up in the lower part of the yard next to the bayou. It took forever to go all the way out. We have someone's expensive roof and boat lifts in the yard, 2 docks about 150 ft each broken up, booze from a restaurant across the bayou, a downed live oak Kim & I planted 20 years ago, in the driveway about 3 ft deep pile of washed up sticks, tables, cans, boards, a stuffed bear, photos, old love letters from "leon"...refuse from peoples lives. Kim found his glasses about 20 ft from where they were ripped off. He was thrilled!! Sight!!

This whole time my nephew Louis and his wife, Aaron, are trying to be strong. The last phone call they had with her parents was they had 3 ft of water in their home (a home on stilts) and are moving up to the attic to survive. Then, no more cell signals. They are dealing with this while we are all dealing with the rising water. Mom, Dad and I had prayer for them. Everyone else was busy trying to protect us from fumes and the storm. Aaron's dad and mom, JC & Kay, 50 years old approx. and JC's dad, Horace Necaise, 78 plus a 19 year old niece were in trouble.

Tuesday morning around 11:00 Louis came in & told Aaron her parents were at our (Mom')home. We all ran out. It was bittersweet. Barefoot, muddy, in a borrowed truck, they told their story.

Something swept by in the water and knocked a hole in their roof and they climbed out. JC cannot swim. He told his dad to jump. His dad instead pushed JC onto a cushion in the water first and then jumped. Kay and the niece jumped and they all swam for oak trees in about 30 ft of water with 6 ft waves and horrendous winds. They climbed into trees. The trees are still marked with rubbed off bark where their arms and feet clung. Horace, 78, never surfaced after he jumped. After the water went down, they found him at the bottom of the tree in which JC and the niece were clinging. His funeral is Tuesday.

Our sturdy little home made it with minimal damage--roof, soffit and facia.

We lived at Mom's until the 7th. We had no water. No water=no baths. Fortunately we used bayou water to flush toilets. We used a tiny bit of alcohol to wipe down at night. After a week, friends brought a camp shower and it is amazing how many people can bathe with 4 gallons of water. You never realize how little you can do with until you have nothing. Once the water came on, it was unusable except for flushing. The water is horribly tainted. We must use bottled water and ice. You plan your day as to where you can get it. Military MREs are our food.

Friends have brought things down, and we are passing them out.

What I really want to do is start driving north, and never stop.

Out of about 700 rentals we manage, I guesstimate 200 are gone. Matchsticks. Many more are flooded with mold overtaking the homes. Mold set in about the 3rd day. It is not covered on any insurance policy. Of those 700 homes, about 30 have paid rent. All have damage. We cannot get tarps on them all. It is supposed to rain Wednesday.

People have left in droves as there is no work. The casinos employed 16000+. So many tenants have come in who lost everything. Their stories broke me like nothing else.

One professional man, Joseph, stoically told me about his beach condo being a slab now, but then choked up when he told me his 13 year old cat had been left there and was gone. He said he hoped she had not suffered. She was a good pet.

One American Native nurse anesthetist, Martha, lost their home, new cars, everything. All that can be replaced if they want. But she broke down when I asked about all her heritage pieces she had shown me with deserved pride: the rugs, feathers, pottery, beadwork, etc., handed down through generations, now gone. Gone. Forever. She is leaving her Air Force anesthesiologist husband and moving to the mountains of Oklahoma. Does Oklahoma have mountains??

So many marriages are splitting. Wives saying they cannot take it and leaving. Husbands bound by jobs to stay.

We now have concertine wire between on the railroad tracks. It smacks of a concentration camp. For our own good, they say. Keeps the ones out who do not belong. I will tell you this. I am a person who needs to see. See where this came from, see what is gone, see for myself so I do not imagine any worse. To not be allowed to go 3/8 of a mile from my home to the beach, kills me. It is ours. We need to grieve. We need to see it. Not knowing is so terrible.

We have had 4 deaths from dysentery. The military sent all families/dependents from here because of the lack of sanitation and threat of disease. I am fearful of school restarting mid-October with water not potable. A special forces tenant told me Friday that they have stockpiled huge quantities of antibiotics and meds in case of cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, and malaria. Also the CDC is concerned about a flu-pandemic with our systems compromised. He told me to constantly wash hands with Purell-like products to avoid catching the diseases from knobs, handles, phones, etc. Scary.

The same tenant served in Indonesia after the tsunami. He said this was much worse. We have been told this by many relief workers who were there. We have been equated to a third world country. It feels like it. Even Mexico is here with troups helping.

New Orleans is wet and now faces an unknown future of bulldozers and rebuilding. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is wiped out. We have no jobs, all the beautiful beach churches are gone, casinos, restaurants, attorneys, schools; only 1 bridge into Biloxi and that is only the southbound lane of I-110. For blocks from the beach everything is wiped clean. To look at photos, go to www.Thesunherald.com and click on September 31 slide show, I think it is called Biloxi to Bay St. Louis. You must constantly think as you look of the amount of water it took to move the casinos, the transport barges, wipe the homes clean off the face of the earth, and to destroy the beach highway and bridges. It is 32 pictures. Worth every minute of your time.

My beach vacation rental business is all gone. I believe 2 houses are standing and the units at the Legacy Tower and Villas. Visit my site: www.VacationInBiloxi.com Select property search, the click on the down arrow next to Choose Unit. You can see what I lost. "My" beautiful Legacy units are still here, but unusable. The sewer lift stations are smashed from the tidal wave. I want to switch to long term rentals and house the adjusters as soon as that problem is fixed...it may be months. My many owners have mortgage notes and are desperate.

It has been 2 weeks and FEMA is not here yet. The Red Cross is here at shelters, but there are no tent cities for the displaced and only a few travel trailers brought in so far. After Hurricane Andrew I remember the tent cities in Florida. Nothing for us. No money has been given out. You can get $200 a day from the bank. If you have money there. So many people do not.

They still find bodies.

Our historical sites are all gone. The Civil War did not leave us with many, and Katrina took the rest away. We have not seen the news you have. I have not seen a single video of the devastation. We have no cable. I have heard descriptions on the radio.

One of our contractor/workers committed suicide. The week before, an employee OD'ed on pain meds. The ambulance worker said we citizens cannot deal with the truth. I got upset and said we could. He said no, because every 12-hour shift they are picking up a suicide. People cannot take it. I guess now I know. I was wrong.

What started out to be a simple apology and signature, has become a complete regurgitation of memories. If you stuck it out fine; if not, it was a mental health treatment for me.

To all my friends, Paul T. from the years in Minot along with Bob and Linda, Sandy-Dandy, Kim's old and my new friends from Lakeview, my JAG friends, my nephews, Wanda in Minot now, my cousins from the Little Clan, dear Kitty and her Keith, Liam in England, my EBay friend Florence, "the General" Ray, Mimi from Gulfport East, and all the rest, Do not forget us. Pray for us. Write!!!! It keeps me sane to hear from you! And, I am not so sure I would give to the Red Cross. If there was someway to designate the money Mississippi Gulf Coast or New Orleans, maybe, but it gets eaten up in bureaucracy. Use a group like Samaritan's Purse and then designate it would be smarter, I think. They are here working.

Brush your teeth and enjoy being able to use the running water, take a warm shower, eat anything but MREs, look a a single home with no damage, a tree with no broken limbs, have clean hair, do not have your sleep eaten up by nightmares, ..........basically be thankful for life itself. Hug your loved ones.

I love you all. Nancy