Sept 1st......and then the days after that.....

On this Thursday, we finally heard that they had opened a drop station for food and water in Gulfport. I jumped in the car and headed down to the location that was given out. When I get there, hundreds of people are already there lined up. Everyone is yelling and pushing and it looks like a riot beginning to start. I just kept driving. Later I heard that there was no food and water when everyone got there, and people were just really upset and angry because they had wasted precious gas to get down there and then not receive any help. I went back home and all of a sudden my cell phone beeped. It was back up. I looked at it and there was a text message from my friend, Pam, in Alabama. I tried to call her but kept getting the fast busy that means the circuits are all tied up. I kept trying phone numbers just to have something to do. I was going down the list of my friends numbers when all of a sudden I got a call through. It was the voice mail of my friend Karen in California. I breathlessly started talking as fast as I could. I told her I was OK and for her to call my sister Kathie and tell her that I was OK. I knew that Kathie would spread the word to the rest of the family. Unfortunately, I did not realize that Kathie had come home from Florida where she had evacuated, and she was in the same situation as me.....no phone service.

I kept trying numbers and eventually got through to Pam. I was so excited to talk to someone from outside the area that I just poured my heart out to her. I told her about the worry and stress and fear. I told her how lonely I was without Brad and how I was afraid of the riots at the food lines. After I spilled my guts to her, I felt better. I had no idea that I would not be able to get a dial tone on the phone again for several days. I still had not talked to Brad since he had left. I did not know it, but when he got to Chicago he started seeing the reports of the looting and chaos and the lack of any food or water. He was terrified for me. When he could not get any message to me through his bank, or any other way, he went to an internet site where he knew I sometimes posted. He appealed for help from anyone who may be close enough to get to me and give me a message. He got a lot more than that. Several wonderful ladies on the site called him and spoke to him on the phone. Pam saw the message and she called to say she had talked to me and told him everything I had told her. Another friend of mine who was near Brad in Chicago, called and offered to cook him a homemade meal. He was grateful for all of the help and support, but he was even more worried about me now than ever. Pam told him that I was afraid and he felt guilty about letting me stay home when he went to Chicago. He had tried to get me to go, but I had nobody to take care of our animals and I would not leave.

Meanwhile the heat index down here was 105F to 106F every single day. I finally got a little sleep....but just a little. I started sleeping three or fours each night, but never more than that. My head hurt constantly from the lack of sleep and lack of caffeine. I would drive down to the bank headquarters each day hoping to get a message from Brad or at least pick up some food, but find neither of those things. The bank had hoped to get supplies for the employees and their families, but all they had was water, soda and snackfood. I was thrilled just to get the water each day, and Calvin was happy with the junkfood. One of his friends was staying with us for the week after the hurricane and feeding two 15 year old boys was a problem. I let them fill up on the junkfood. Calvin refused to eat any of the cold cans of food that we had at the house, and he started losing weight fast. Even his friend, who is thin like him, joked that Calvin was anorexic.

The next day, I think it was Friday Sept 2, I picked up the house phone to check for a dialtone. I had been doing this everyday and suddenly on this day, there was a tone. I could not dial out, but I shouted for joy and told Calvin that we had a dialtone and that maybe we would be able to call out later on. Calvin looked at me and said "When it starts working, can we call and order a pizza?" I had been so stressed out over the past days that I just lost it. I yelled at him and told him that almost the entire city had been blown away. There were no stores, no restaurants, no banks, no gas stations.......nothing. I told him that it would be a long long time before we could just pick up the phone and order a pizza. I felt so bad for yelling at him, but I could not believe he had asked me that question. A few hours later, my neighbors came walking up with a stack of boxes from Dominoes Pizza. It was a surreal moment. Somehow, Dominoes had found a generator and started cooking and selling pizzas on the side of the highway. My neighbors bought several to share with everyone. Calvin took a piece and gave me a very smug look. He will never let me forget how I yelled at him. I was just happy to see him eat.