9.02.2005

Some Good News

Kenny is back in Atlanta, with his mom, stepfather and grandmother. They got back here late last night. Kenny drove through the night to get there--it took him about 16 hours to drive what normally takes about six, but I'm still surprised that he made it that quickly--we figured it would be a while before he made it back.

The fact that he made it there so relatively easy is incredibly frustrating to me, considering that there’s still no help coming into the area from the government. No food, no water, no nothing.

Kenny drove up to his aunt's house, where his family was staying, and all that was left were three walls--his mother was asleep in a chair next to where the fourth wall used to be. He said that his aunt's boyfriend was obviously in shock--he was in the yard, picking tiny pieces of insulation out of the grass, even though his house was pretty much destroyed.

Anyway, they're all safe and back here in Atlanta. Kenny has an uncle that lives in Memphis, so he's coming to get all of them tomorrow and take them back with him, as we don’t have room for more people and another dog in my sister’s house. Virginia, Kenny's grandmother, is in shock as well, as one of her dogs died in her arms earlier today. He was an older dog and just couldn't take all of the stress, I guess.

Kenny is still reeling from what he saw down there. He said that it's many times worse than what you see on television. His sister's house is in splinters and is now located on someone else's property, and his grandmother's house is completely gone, nothing left but the slab. His mother's apartment is still standing, but there's no roof and everything in it is destroyed--he said it looked like someone had run everything in the apartment through a blender with a truckload of mud and then poured it back in through the top of the building.

Mom and Nicks's house is still standing--Kenny wasn't able to get close enough to tell if the house is still structurally sound, as he said that the mud in the street was knee-deep and, of course, there's debris everywhere. Nick left for Bay St. Louis earlier today to try to get to the house and find out if there's anything left to salvage.

Kenny had taken extra water and gas with him to Bay St. Louis. After seeing the desperate need there for the most basic supplies, he gave away everything he had. He saw an elderly man walking along the road, headed for Highway 90 in search of water, so he gave him all of his bottled water. He donated his extra gas to the Waveland Fire Department; one of the firemen cried when he did. What in God's name are we all going to do now?

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