The Herndons in 2005 [ to the pictures ]
We are doing fine. Slowly but surely our immediate area is coming back to normal in appearance. The piles of debris are diminishing. There are still a lot of heartwrenching stories of people without homes, living in tents, waiting for FEMA trailers to arrive, etc. Those who lost everything or had major damage will be a long time feeling a little more normal -- if they ever do. I visited the elementary school this week where I used to work. St. Vincent De Paul gave each of the teachers/ assistants who lost everything or had severe damage (12 in all) a Wal-Mart gift certificate for $100. They were all very appreciative of the cards and I know they will come in handy getting them some things they need whether it be clothes, food, or whatever. It made me feel good to be able to deliver the cards. I still find it hard to believe that they came out of the storm with their lives but no home or material possessions. Just can't imagine being in that situation. We have been so blessed and I thank God everyday for that.
I've also kept busy sewing. Just finished a dress today for Haley to play
dress up with. She still likes to do that.
Love ya,
Mary
Hi to all,
We finally have our land line phone back in working order. The repairman was
here late this morning and worked for over an hour, close to
two hours. Glad he found the problem and we are up and running again. Imissed
being able to communicate especially via email. Talked to Brian and Teri last
evening via my cell phone. They are both supposed to be back at work today.
Brian said his pain pills are gone now but the pain hasn't been too bad. Be
careful Brian not to re-injure it. Glad to hear Don's biospy results were negative.
Prayers are definitely working.
Sorry to hear about Nikki's news of celiac disease. Now at least you know what the problem is and can do something about it with your diet. I'm sure you will feel a lot better once you get yourself gluten free. I'm sure Peg and Phil can help with hints and good advice. Good luck getting used to the diet. It will probably be quite a challenge. Mike and Rayell got their phone back yesterday. Had their cable back too for a few hours but then a truck caught the line and now they are without it again. The debris piles are still very prevalent. As soon as the trucks carry the junk away more is brought to the edge of the street. We'll be a long time getting all of it taken care of.
Thanks to all of you who have donated to St. Vincent De Paul or to the special collections that your churches have taken up for the storm victims. Catholic Charities is supposed to be at Sacred Heart on Friday this week to pass out checks to the families who have had so much damage. The Red Cross and FEMA are still taking applications and also applications for Small Business Loans are being filed. Many people are still in shelters or tents or staying with other people in their family or with friends. Many are still eating MRE's and drinking bottled water passed out at the points of distribution throughout the different areas of the coast. Some organizations are serving hot meals part of the time. Major equipment is being used to clear the debris of destroyed homes and fallen trees, etc. I've gone through the newspapers over the past weeks and clipped some of the pictures and articles about the devastation. I'll be sending them up to Dad in the next few days. Seeing it in person is much more heartwrenching but the pictures tell a lot. I pray to God we don't have another storm this year or ever for that matter. I can't explain the trauma that comes with them. Take care. I love you all. Thanks too for all your prayers. I think my sanity has been preserved. Love ya, Mary
Hi again from Mississippi,
We got lucky with Hurricane Rita. We've had some heavy rain at intervals and wind gusts but that's about it. We didn't need anything more after Katrina. Just to let you know. Father Bob told us in church this afternoon that due to the situation at the church offices (they are working out of a camper trailer on the church parking lot), we have rented a post office box for the coming year. Please address any correspondence to the church, priests, or office staff to: Sacred Heart Catholic Church, P.O. Box 6819, 10446 Lemoyne Blvd., D'Iberville, MS 39540. I'm passing this information along to those of you who had expressed a desire to send donations to St. Vincent De Paul. You can still send them directly to me if you would rather. I'll make sure they get to the right place. Hope everyone is well. Take care. Love ya, Mary
Hi to all,
We had a St. Vincent De Paul meeting tonight. Some of you wanted me to let
you know when you could send donations to our organization. The rectory is in
bad shape but the church office has been set up in an RV. They are receiving
mail now. The address is Sacred Heart Church, 10446 LeMoyne Blvd, D'Iberville,
MS 39540. Make your check payable to St. Vincent De Paul in care of Sacred Heart
Parish. Or if you would rather you can send your donations to me and I'll see
to it that they get to our organization's treasurer. It is believed that about
80% of our parish lost everything or had major damage to their homes, making
many of them not livable. I saw pictures of what was left of one couple's home.
It was just a pile of rubble. It used to be a brick home with shed built of
concrete blocks. Nothing remained of it. It's so hard to believe.
I asked if there was anything in particular that we are in need of. Was told
that many need bed linens, blankets, pillows, bath towels, kitchen
towels, washcloths, etc. I'm sure I can pull some out of my stash and send them
over to one of the collection points. The need is staggering and some of the
stories you hear are heart wrenching. People living in tents and glad to have
them even in this heat. It got up to 95 today. Hurricane Rita will bring us
rain in the next few days. The odor from the piles of debris that had been soaked
in the surge waters is overwhelming. Hopefully Texas is making preparations
for the arrival of Rita. She looks like a bad one, too. If you have any questions,
just let me know. Take care. Love ya, Mary
Hi to all,
We have been so blessed by God with our safety and the safety of our family
and friends. We have heard of several more families that have lost everything.
Our church is self insured (whatever that means) with LLoyds of London and Father
Bob indicated yesterday that the long process will begin this week. The building
where we met for St. Vincent de Paul Society had 10 feet of water in it so all
the food supplies we had in there were a total loss. We do plan to reorganize
and eventually meet again but it is going to be awhile until we can find another
meeting place or wait for the gym to be cleaned up and ready for use again.
We used a room in the back of the gym for our meeting place and area to store
the food supplies. We hope to be able to start again because now there will
be even more need. I talked to Bunny Lechner, our President, last night after
church (she was one of the people who lost everything) and she said we would
like donations to the society but to hold off sending anything yet because we
have no place to meet or store the food supplies. She and her husband and the
other grandmother are living with her daughter and her family. They are glad
to have a place to lay their heads at night. They went through a similar thing
when Camille hit in 1969 -- lost their house contents. This time they lost their
house, too. Three other people who are involved with St. Vincent de Paul lost
everything, too. Our organization gave each of the families $500 to help them
until FEMA can be put in place. No one ever thought a storm would be worse than
Camille but this one was.
Our family seems to be doing okay. Just dealing with the trauma has been quite
a feat. I feel like Mike & Rayell are doing okay moneywise for the present
time. They will qualify for FEMA assistance, too. Andy and Bill got their assistance
for their house and Andy has applied for his business. I'll let you know when
St. Vincent de Paul gets up and running again if you want to send a donation
to it.
Time for bed. Will talk to you soon. We got mail delivered again today and the post office was accepting mail to send out so got my bills paid. Guess we are finally getting it all together. Take care. Love ya, Mary
Hi Aunt Tee and Dick and everyone,
Thanks for your note. Yes, I'm sure Mom was watching out for us, too. There was damage all around us and we came out okay. Pretty much a miracle to my way of thinking. We were truly blessed. Went to church this evening. Our pasor couldn't hold Mass in our church. Too much damage. He told us it had 8 feet of water in it during the storm surge. We'll be at least a couple of months getting it repaired. They'll have to tear out all the water damaged areas and then disinfect everything before it can be built back. Professionals have to do it because of the liability involved. So today the Methodist church let us use their building. Some of their hymns are the same as ours so it wasn't much different. Just no kneelers. Father Bob said the rectory and the gym had 10 feet of water in it. The school had about 8 feet in it. The church, gym, and school can be repaired but they aren't sure about the rectory untill they do some of the tear out. The rectory/church now has a cell phone. Two of the Catholic churches down on the coast are completely gone -- supposedly hurricane proof. I don't think anything is hurricane proof.
The post office must have made history today because we got mail delivered today. First time I've ever heard of that. Slowly but surely things are coming back -- not to normal yet -- it will be a long while before that happens. Heard at church about several more people that lost everything. Such a sad time for them. No one, to my knowledge, that I know lost their lives because of this storm but lots of folks had major damage.
Time for bed. I've snoozed
in front of the TV but just in snatches. Still can hear those howling winds
when I close my eyes. Guess I will for
awhile. Keep the prayers coming. We all have a long recovery time. Take care.
Love ya, Mary
Hi to all,
Praise the Lord we got our water back at 8:55 AM Friday. I could hear the water coming into the toilet and thought I was hearing things!!! What a pleasure to be able to flush with the handle again!!!! We can't drink it but it is okay to use for bathing and washing clothes. You know what I did today, right? Got a shower and did laundry. Can't wait to crawl into our nice clean bed!!! After I got some things done around here, I ventured to Walmart. We were getting low on drinks, fabric softener, and have been out of milk for days. The store was packed!!! The sign on the door said they were open 8 AM to 5 PM. It was about 4:15 PM when I got there. Picked up the few things I needed and then waited in line for 30 minutes at least to check out. The fresh meat area was just about bare. No eggs. All that remained was a single 18 egg crate with many broken ones in it. Decided I didn't need eggs that bad. After I finally got checked out and made my way back to the car, it took me at least another 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot. Finally was on the way home by about 5:45 PM. Next time I'll go earlier in the day. But it will be awhile before that happens. We still are under curfew. Have to be home by 8 PM in Harrison county (where Mike lives) and 10 PM in Jackson county where we live.
You would not believe the piles of debris -- cut up fallen trees and branches,
parts of roofs, siding, insulation, pieces of aluminum sheds, etc.
We will be at least a year getting all this straightened out. But progress is
being made. Andy and Bill got their home phone service back yesterday afternoon.
Our water is back and more people are getting electricity every day. People
are also starting back to work. Tbe banks are opening up, too. We haven't been
yet. They sustained damage, too. The windows and doors were broken at the bank
where we have our safe deposit box. Hopefully everything will be okay when we
get there to check it out. Mike still hasn't applied for social securiity yet.
He needs to get his and my birth certificates out and our marriage certificate,
too, I think he said. He has put that off for several months. Maybe that's a
good thing. His Air Force retirement check goes in via direct deposit and so
does his Ingall's retirement check. That has been a blessing because the banks
were closed for several days after the storm. We still don't have mail service.
Bill said they got a few pieces of mail today so that should be coming soon.
I'm sure they are waiting for the roadsides to be cleared of some of the debris.
So many trees are down -- many huge ones two and three feet in diameter.
We are planning to go see the grandkids Saturday morning. Mike is supposed
to be off from Walmart. They have both been working 12 hour days. The people
are buying up stuff faster than they can put it out. Thanks for all the prayers.
Keep them coming. I feel very sorry for those that lost their homes and aren't
sure where they will be living. We keep hearing the mobile homes are on the
way for temporary housing. Not sure where they will put them. We were so fortunate
not to get any damage to our house!! Andy has been trying to salvage some things
from his
business that was underwater. He lost a lot of it. FEMA should help him. Bill
went back to work Wed. and Thurs. Had Friday off but works again on the weekend.
Grumpy has been staying busy in the garage. I've got some sewing lined up to keep my brain busy. Still have some dishes to get cleaned up and laundry to fold. I made good progress today. Would have finished more if I hadn't had to go to the store. Keep in touch. Love you all,
Mary
9/8/2005:
Hi to all,
Don't know where to start. As you all have heard we survived the ravages of
Hurricane Katrina. It was a very frightening experience to say the least. One
that I will probably never get over. I've already told my husband that is the
LAST one that I will ride out with him. If he wants to be stubborn, bullheaded,
stupid or whatever other adjective would described such a ridiculous stance,
so be it. He'll be by himself if I have to
hitchhike out of here.
We lost power at 6:59 AM on Monday and our water about 9 AM. The winds were horrible. Seemed to be coming from all directions at once if that is possible. I could actually see the swirl in them. We got a fair amount of rain, too, but it was the storm surge and waves that did the damage along with the wind. The good Lord took care of us and kept us safe. The devastation is unbelievable here. Thousands are without homes totally and thousands without homes that are inhabitable because of water and wind damage. I have not personally seen all areas yet because of road conditions and downed trees but have talked and listened to reports that are almost unbelievable. One of the teachers that I worked with at St. Martin evacuated with her children but her husband stayed at their house because the last time we had a storm and they all evacuated, thugs broke in there house and robbed them. Their house used to be on Back Bay. It was totally destroyed and he spent part of the storm clinging to a tree so he wouldn't be swept away. Don't think he'll make that mistake again. I told Mike there is nothing in a house that means that much to me. It's just stuff!!! You can't get your life back. The good Lord takes care of us but he expects us to use our heads, too!!!
Bill had to check in daily to see when he was to go back to work. When he called
Wed. afternoon to check and found out he was off until Tues. he said he was
ready to go someplace to get cool, have a shower and see about getting some
gas. We were still without power, water, phone service, and cell phone service.
As you all know I still had been unable to get in touch with any of you to let
you know we were all okay so that was added to the motivation to go east. We
again tried to convince Mike to come with us without success. We left here Thursday
about noon. Some of the gas stations in Mobile were open but the lines were
very long. We continued east to Pensacola. I knew a friend of mine, Debbie Mauer,
was staying with her sister and brother-in-law. One of the first stations we
encountered in Pensacola had gas and the line was forming. We got in it and
began our wait behind about 15 cars. They are also having a shortage over there.
People had barrels, 5 gallon gas containers, etc. to fill. It took us an hour
or thereabouts to get to the pump. That is where we were when Bill received
the text message from Julie. His cell phone was finally working so we gave her
a call. I can't even describe what it was like to finally be able to talk to
family and let them know we were all okay. Julie and I were both crying out
of relief and happiness. We called Debbie's sister's house and talked to them
and got directions to their house. Also asked if we would be able to leave any
extra gas with them that we were able to get. They told us yes so we got the
six or seven five-gallon cans that we brought with us from Mississippi filled
and went on to their house. Debbie had tried several motels to see if anyone
had vacancies. She hadn't had any luck when we got there but we persisted and
finally got a suite at the Ramada Inn
Bayview in Pensacola just 15 or 20 minutes from Debbie's sister's house. We
ate some leftover pizza with them, I called Helen, tried to call Mike (no phone
service still), tried to call Teri and left a message and talked to Clyde, Mike's
sister's husband. By that point we were exhausted. We made it to the hotel just
after dark. Had to stop and get directions once. Can't describe how great that
shower felt that night (Thurs). Hadn't had one since Sunday evening. It was
so great to be cool again and be able to flush the toilet. Things you just take
for granted.
We spent Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sun nights in Pensacola and left Monday about 11:45 AM. We met up with Andy's and Bill's friends (Steve and Shelly King and their daughter, Faith) while we were in Pensacola. They and some of their family had evacuated to Birmingham, AL for the storm and came to the same motel where we were on Sat. Shelly is scheduled for a C-section on Sept. 12. Anyway they were able to get some more gas in Birmingham and bought it with them in a Uhaul. The good Lord was still watching out for us because we were able to get all the gas in the back of Bill's truck, top off the tanks of the other vehicles and then caravanned back to Ocean Springs without any difficulty.
When we got back here Bill and Andy had electricity and water so they were
set. We didn't have power or water yet but had the generator
here so ran it until bedtime. It was still very hot and humid but made it through
the night. Our neighbor had talked to one of the men who was
working on the power problems and was told we should have power back either
that night or in the morning on Thurs. Praise the Lord it came back on at 10:30
AM on Thurs. We still don't have water at our house but went over to Andy's
and Bill's yesterday afternoon, had showers and a hot meal. Also got our garbage
can filled with water so we can flush the toilet again. Got our refrigerator
cleaned and it running again. Still have the freezer to do but not in a hurry
for that. Anything we had left, fit in the neighbor's freezer but it wasn't
much. I need to cook something for all of us tonight. I have my supply of paper
plates.
We're going to come out of this thing okay but it's going to take awhile. If we don't get our water back we can go to Andy's and Bill's to shower and do laundry. Things could be a lot worse. Thanks so much for all your prayers. I'm emotionally drained just from recounting all these events. Continue to pray for us. I know we all need it still. Haven't heard from Mike and Rayell since I got back from Pensacola. We drove over there yesterday but they were not home. Their neighbor told us they have power now and they had water last Friday when Mike went over to check on them. Need to try to call them again. Not sure if their phones are working or not. Haven't been able to get an answer. Keep in touch and hopefully I'll be able to do the same. Love you all.
Dan take care of yourself. Congratulations to Marti and John on the expected arrival of the fourth Babcock baby. I'm sure Gina, Jen, and Marcus are all excited about it. Take care. Love ya, Mary
