[Ravensfort] Checkin....

[David R. Hoffpauir]

If you wanna see a hell hole, drive east.  I've been there for the past
four days.  Livingston is messed up.  The Indian Reservation, Messed Up. 
Woodville, MESSED THE HELL UP!  KIRBYVILLE is just heartbreaking, parts
are wiped out really, really bad. Didn't see too much structural damage
until I got there. That's as far east as I went.  Parts futher east got it
much worse.  Roads were pretty much impassable until Monday.  Grumpy
Highway Patrolmen every where.  Road blocks all over.  I got stopped three
times trying to get back out. Thousands upon thousands of trees down. 
Power lines everywhere, so no electricity anywhere.  110 degree heat
index.  No water.  No ice.  No breeze. Food has mostly been Spam and gummy
worms. The ONLY gas I can find is in Huntsville, so count yourself lucky.
We've been bathing and drawing flush water from the stock tank.  Every day
we worked until we dropped.

Mom lost her roof, a carport, and a barn. That's all scattered for as far
as I could see. Three huge oaks down in the yard.  There were 12 people in
her house during the storm.  All are okay. Trucked them out to Arkansas on
Tuesday. My sis-in-law's house has a tree through the middle with 30 other
trees down around it.  Other neighbors didn't fare much better.  Mom will
be moving to Huntsville as soon as we can wrangle it.

Me?  PO'ed that no one thought enough to include me in the check in,
grumpy, tired as hell.  Finally got a shower, so the ape stink is gone.
The sunburn will take a few days. Anyway, I'm glad all are well.  If you
can find a way, please help your neighbors to the east and count yourself
as really, really lucky.

regards,
dsd