Mood: Somber

Hey,

I got power back on sometime this afternoon. I had already been by twice today and still no power...came back a third time to take care of some yard work and there was my front porch light on!! I was sooo relieved. You know we were all VERY lucky here. I will NEVER stay in another hurricane again---and I will make sure i have all my trees trimmed and landscaping/house repairs DONE before hurricane season. Most of the cleanup is oak and pine trees that were either blown over or snapped in half by the reportedly 100 or more tornados that touched down. It's amazing how there aren't more homes destroyed and people killed by fallen trees. AMAZING I TELL YOU. Imagine a half acre filled with 30 trees...now imagine it with only 4 left barely standing. THAT is the power of this storm. I heard on the news that Ivan was a Cat 3 Hurricane--I beg to differ. I just can't imagine the type of destruction we have out on the beach (Perdido Key and Grand Lagoon) where the worst of the devestation was to be had.

There were at least 30 poeple pulled from Grand Lagoon (waterfront community) next to my parents yacht club...a lot of members lived in there and stayed for the storm. We don't know if they are among the dead yet. Our other friend lives across the street from the entrance to that community and said he saw them pull out about 30 of the bodies and loaded them in two large ice trucks. It's crazy that this has happened here. I really can't write that much anymore as it's all just crazy to even relate. The past week of discussing these deaths and why the media hasn't been reporting to us accurately has been really stressfull. It's just weird to be going through. Hell, our own local newscasters weren't even broadcasting a news show but the station was able to broadcast Barbara Walters!! Here we are listening to a radio just HOPING for some news, and we get (for the first few days) MOBILE or Baldwin county news reports (those are both in AL, which didn't get NEAR the amt of damage we did) and how they were without water and power and phone and waa waa waaa where could tehy get supplies..and we're devestated here with NO resources AND NO INFO on WHEN resources are coming in!! blah blah blah--It's just frustrating when I know they don't have it as bad as us and we have to hear about their 'plight' and nothing is mentioned about us!! Even still!!

Ok well i'm going to get outta here and get to bed. Thanks for thinking of me and i'm sorry that I had to write a form letter to all of you but I really don't have the energy to relate this too many times!! Keep in touch and put out a good vibe for us down here.

Tara

People I am not too embarassed to admit I talk to on D.A. are as follows:


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