There are about 150 people from the coast staying in the BankCorpSouth Convention Center here in Tupelo, MS.

My wife and some of her co-workers are going to cook and serve food to the people there tonight. Her boss had arranged a deal with a local Kroger grocery store to donate some groceries. My wife got to the store and found out that the grocery store was only going to donate $25. They had put together a spaghetti dinner based on 150 people.

Luckily, while we were trying to figure out how much spaghetti sauce she would need, a complete stranger came up and saw our basket full of bread and gave us $40. She nearly broke into tears, she called the office and all the women there cried about it.. She was only able to get spaghetti and bread at Kroger with the donations, but she got the meat and sauce at Sam's Club. While she was there, some other stranger donated some money. She used my debit card, but we'll be compensated for the difference by her boss.

She and the other girls are cooking spaghetti with meatballs right now and are prepared to serve it.

My wife and I have been depressed for the last few days, we have some kin down south that we haven't heard from yet. I'm glad she had an opportunity to contribute.

I meet lots of displaced people everyday that don't know what they are going to do, nor do they know where they are going to go. They don't know when they'll be able to go back home, if they even bother to go back.

Every radio and TV station and church is getting trailers together full of whatever the people need down there. They did the same thing last year for Florida.

I've also met people who are loading up trailers to head down there themselves to rescue, relieve, or replenish their family members down there. I guess we're stubborn enough and generous enough to realize that it's better to do something yourself instead of waiting for the government.

It's good hear reports like these. As Paul already said, the liberal media sure does't seem to be covering them.

Quoted: There are hundreds of such efforts going on unreported by the liberal media who only want this diaster to be blamed on Bush and the Republicans. This is America and we'll survive this better than anyone else on the planet possibly could.

+1. These people will be taken care of better than they would anywhere else in the world. I will be going down there in the next couple of weeks to help rebuild the natural gas distribution infrastructure. It will take years but the mess will be cleaned up, the infrastructure restored, housing and commerce rebuilt, and it will be a sad page in the history books but life will go on for the survivors. I kinda hope the president will come up with something like the WPA to put the displaced and jobless to work helping with the rebuilding, preferably not totally financed by the government but require the contractors to hire a certain percentage of people that were affected by this.

One of my wife's cousins is on MSNBC's missing persons list and my father hasn't heard from some of my cousins in Carriere, MS.

When they left the convention center last night, they heard that another busload was on it's way.
Most of the people there are people that were staying in hotels, but ran out of money.
She asked me if we could go to the coast at the end of the month for our 1st anniversary, since we had reservations at the Beau Rivage hotel in Biloxi...Luckily the Beau Rivage wasn't damaged as much as the other casinos, it did get hit by the 28-40 foot surge of water(depending on what channel you're watching).

New Orleans sort of reminds me of post-global warming Manhattan in the movie A.I. where the bottom floors of buildings flooded and were abandoned, so they built them higher and used personal aircraft and elevated walkways to go from block to block...

My wife is tentatively planning on going to the coast to look for her cousin in Pascagoula, MS tomorrow morning. She is taking my P94 in .40 and her Stagarms LR-15 and some other supplies. I have to stay behind to watch the children..I've never met her cousin, I wouldn't know what she looks like. We don't want to expose the kids to harm, otherwise we would be going with her. Her parents are going, also, so they can check up on her other relatives down south.

My father volunteered to take RV's to the coast that were donated/bought by Methodist churches, he'll be doing that all weekend. He's also going to swing by Carriere and check up on our relatives there.

I just found out that a distant cousin that's also a member to another board I'm a moderator on moved to the coast 6 months ago. She evacuated to the Tupelo area and is staying in her old house.

I dont know why but I was expecting to see more heart warming threads like this one.
I suppose here in the UK I'd like to think my fellow countrymen would help me in my time of need.
I'm probly the only one in my village with a BO and BI plan. Regardles I'd like to think my neighours would help me as I would them in the event of a natural disaster.

I'm so glad to hear you guys are helping those less fortunate.
Keep up the good work.

You made me smile wittzo
Taffy