~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* SMASHED but survived Hurricane Isabel After thoughts by rb craig September 26, 2003 Although we hear about hurricanes nearly every year this is the 1st one that actually affected us in any significant way. This one gave us more than a weeks notice that she was coming to a community near us but after much consideration we decided to stay around and welcome her advance with as much preparation as one can make. By the time we knew exactly what avenue she’d be traveling it was too late to make a hasty departure so we stuck it out. Isabel came with all the bells and whistles as advertised. I will do my best here to record for who knows why the intimate details of our bout with her wrath. Glenda and myself decided on September 16th that we would stay with Roger and his family. Our decision to do that was based on any number of things. 1) Roger’s home is a one story older structure and encased with brick. 2) Roger has dogs and we felt that Chopper would find acceptance there. Chopper was more nervous than us and had no idea what was happening. Ever wonder what a dog thinks when all his surroundings become strange, conflicted and unsettled? If you would have been able to watch this family pet you could almost write a book on the subject. 3) Both Roger’s and Jeff’s homes have magnificat and substantial foliage all around – very tall trees of pine and oak. Jeff’s home is more than substantial in structure but is two stories high and is surrounded with huge bay (sliding) windows. He had boarded them up but I have seen what happens to even covered windows when a hurricane makes a direct hit on a home. There is also the danger of tornadoes that accompany a hurricane and those monsters are no respecter of windows, covered or not. Covering a window with plywood helps if there is flying debris but little else is avoided in a storm. Boarded up windows also help protect a home right up against the coast when sheets of water are hurled at them. 4) Jeff had available motel rooms in Richmond, VA that he was holding for crews he had working there but then there was the problem of our dog Chopper. What would we do with him? 5) We could have stayed in our mobile home here on Cherokee. Many of our neighbors indicated they were going to stick it out but I have seen what happens to a mobile home after a hurricane makes her visit to these. As well, our mobile is surrounded with dozens of magnificent old trees that any one of which could splatter us all over the community. So that is it. We had a number of options and we chose to stay at Roger’s. We had a number of days to pick up everything that was loose and secure them in the flimsy sheds and so forth. We have a beautiful metal cover over a large porch that sides most of the North side of our trailer and it is built better than the home itself so I tied much of what was on the porch to steel supports for the roof. Glenda gathered up what few things she wished to keep and I packed up my Presario 6000 along with the spare hard-drives, software, keyboard and mouse and left the monitor to fate. It is ironic that when we returned after Isabel had passed very little around our mobile home showed effects of any storm at all. None of the large beautiful trees were down. Our electricity, phone and cable is all underground so we felt sure that our power would be back on momentarily. That was a foolish expectation as it turns out. Glenda and I had planned to leave home and go to Roger’s Wednesday evening, stay the night leaving sometime Thursday – the day Isabel was due to cross near Cape Hatteras, NC. When we awoke Thursday morning signs of a huge storm threatening was all around and the word from Roger was that we needed to get there soon if we were coming. Therefore, we finished up packing the car and truck and left midst sheets of rain and wind. Although we have heard from assorted weather men on TV that the East side of a hurricane is the most dangerous place to be we didn’t have the reality of that warning make a better impression of the fact than was shown with Isabel. By the time we got half way to Roger’s home traffic lights were already down and branches of trees were being swept across the ghostly stretches of 4 lain streets that had very few travelers on them. Just us and a few other procrastinators. When we arrived at Roger’s the electricity was still on along with the TV stations on cable and for a few moments we watched our fate. Graciously the power soon went out and there was no longer TV. Roger found a battered old radio and we searched for any station that was keeping up with the storm. Unfortunately we only found music and talk shows at first but after several scans up and down the bands we came upon a station that broke in a few times to give a progress report on the path of the storm. We were mostly, at that moment, concerned with where the eye of Isabel was headed. Little did we know that the Tidewater area was to witness the WRATH to come and therefore suffer the effects the most. Through the entire storm we only heard of one possible tornado as reported by a local Sherif somewhere not far from Newport News, VA. I used the word “graciously” above because it was likely good that we didn’t see or hear what was going on. It would only have made 5 people, 4 dogs (3-Roger’s) and a cat more fearful than we already were. Darkness was soon to arrive due to the heavy over-cast skies and the long all night vigil of souls were left to the popping, cracking and thumping of everything around us . . . My calculation was that the immense number of huge trees all around us would break the effects of the wind on the house and after all was said and done that turned out to be right – at Jeff’s home, Roger’s and even our own humble little mobile home here next to the Newport News - Williamsburg Airport. Although the trees protected us from the full fury of the storm they also provided us with many hours of continuous on-going cracking and thumping. Several large branches from high limbs landed on the roof but none were large enough to punch through the roof. As well, they all seemed to hit us with the leaf side rather than the sharp torn or blunt end and they all soon blew off. Chopper needed to go out side to do his business and it was then that I could hear that haunting sound that is descriptive of a tornado. A sound I’ll never forget. A freight train likely is as close to anything I have ever heard that comes close to expressing the noise that filled the air above and in the trees that surrounded us. Some of the darker photos affixed with this Isabel Storm, “SMASHED” description I write were taken in the late hours of Thursday evening as the eye of Isabel was making her way inland from the coast of North Carolina. Awesome! What a display of power Mother Nature gave us in a sympathy of sound impossible for man to duplicate in any way. And, it was continuos. The thunderous sound and whirl of wind all around with no let up of any kind. We spent as few seconds outside as possible and Chopper had no desire to linger as he quickly did his business and came running back to the door. Roger’s main entrance to his home has a little cove or protected area in which I was able to stand while Chopper was out and I stood there in amazement at it all. I could see in the dim shades of darkness that this wasn’t going to be a good experience in any way. Prior to the storm all sorts of warnings and suggestions were available all over the air waves as to how to prepare and get ready for this sort of thing. After it arrived there was nothing. Absolutely no connection with the outside world. Somehow to me that was the most astounding thing about the entire experience. I suppose that everyone was gone to ground for their own safety as we had – but there was simply no one on the radio letting us know where, what, when, why and how was going on – would go on – and what to do now that it had arrived. All this foolishness about a preparative kit and what to have in it was useless information. Everything, except for can-goods and batteries for light, were meaningless gobbledegook. If one had a storm shelter underground likely drowning would result. If one is in ANY structure above ground there was the likelihood of getting blown away. One of the strangest things of the entire event was that we had no thunder or lightening through any of the storm. I find that quite amazing in itself. I know they do what is humanly possible at the local yokel TV stations to get as much information out as possible concerning storms. But, when they tell you that their super-doper-pooper radar can tell you what community and even Street any particular part of a storm is in or approaching they are stretching truth to the endth degree. One of the first things to go out is the station they are broadcasting from. Then, when the lights go out it goes out for everyone. Can you believe that one of our most popular radio stations didn’t have generators to keep them up and running. The same company that owns that station own 4 other stations in our area. That alone is alarming. I feel uncomfortable that one entity or corporation owns 5 radio station and likely one of the only two local rags – newspapers. No competition is the reason we had no one willing to be out there getting the news. I am sure we had the brave souls sent by CNN and other network stations to stand out on Virginia Beach, and show the rest of the country what was going on as brief bursts of wind swept they from side to side and an occasional side shot of a sign swinging back and forth. But little good that does to those of us that are in the storm . . . we can’t see or even care about there shock heroics in reporting the news about the storm. Someone get on the radio and tell us what when and where! Please! Of course, what was the difference. It would likely only made us more nervous than we already were. Oh yes, if we had gone to Richmond we would likely have suffered even more. All the nearby local so-called ‘shelters’ were out of power before we were. Can you imagine being in a school gym with a bunch of smelly springers of the sort that lives around Hampton Roads and no lights, water or food? If I am to be taken out by a storm I’d rather be near my family when it happens. At one point in the dankness of night Roger and I decided during a lull to go out and take a peak ourselves at what gifts the rage had wrought upon us. In the early stillness we walked down an embankment below his home and as we approached a wall of roots and dirt snatched out of mother earth we heard a loud hissing sound. Talk about the hair standing up on the back of your neck! We stopped in our tracks as we began to notice what was the tell-tail smell of natural gas. It filled the air. We both hurried (ran) back up the hill as quickly as humanly possible. Many people were firing up portable generators all around and one spark could have set the entire valley off. As you likely know, natural gas is heavier than air and lays in low places. All it takes is a spark and that would have been tragedy on top of what was even then tragic. Roger went to his neighbors and warned of the danger and after a time was able to find one that still had phone service. He called the Gas Company’s emergency number and reported the line brake. It only took them about 45 minutes to get out and cap the line. That is something! I have no idea how they even found us much less were able to traverse the road in. Later that morning we were able to get out to the street and like other idiots went riding in his Mustang to take stock of the road situation. We had to step over numerous downed power lines just to get out to the street. Then as we drove we had to zig-zag around and through downed trees and power lines so as to navigate out to the school parking-lot where we had parked our other cars. As it turned out they were safe from any damage although trees were down all over the place. Business signs, or what was left of them, were hanging awkwardly in telling angles and conditions writing a testimony as to how they suffered over the night. It was so amazing as the pictures attached give witness to that trees were down all around Roger’s home but nothing but a stray branch had ever touched his house. We were, as though, covered with the protective hand of God. I hesitate to use that description and even be weak-kneed enough to suggest that God would spare us and destroy others in such a heartless way. I hear so many say that the Lord protected me or us. If that is the case, why didn’t he protect others? I am sure some didn’t survive the storm that had cried out to the same God you or I know and you saw what happened to their lives. I just don’t know about that cliché any longer. If you are going to credit God for saving your physical life or property, ask yourself why God failed others. If your God chose to spare you, why didn’t he chose to keep this storm out in the Atlantic? I’ve simply got to leave the theology of that subject where it is left here – for the time being. Don’t get me wrong, please. God does answer prayer. God is no respecter of persons. He causes rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. Prayer would seem to be the connector that keeps one in a right relationship with Him and is for His glory and His glory alone. One cannot understand the purposes of God. The Apostle Paul seemed to put it best when he prayed that the flaw or thorn be removed from him. It wasn’t yet Paul saw too it that his purpose on Earth was to the Glory of God. If your prayers seem to go un-answered do not fret. It will all turn out good in the end if only your life is devoted to pleasing Him that gave your life. Some rain will fall on your parade. Now. Where were we? The storm . . . Yes – the storm for me lasted 7 days. It was sometime in the afternoon of September 18, 2003 that the lights went out and they didn’t come back on until yesterday, September 25, 2003 about 2:30PM. On the 19th Glenda and I decided that it might be best to return to our humble abode on Cherokee Drive. I made the maiden journey first and came to check out what was left. Met my son Jeff and grandson, Kyle, just as I turned into Cherokee Drive. They turned around and followed me in. Jeff had checked everything out – the refrigerator and freezer and conditions outside. The only thing that happened here was a limb had fallen about 50 feet and landed softly on the roof. He climbed up on the ladder and pushed it off. That was it – other than the thick carpet of leaves and small pieces of limbs all over the lawn that Glenda had just raked and picked up on the 15th. Just as soon as I walked in the door, Jim, next door, called to tell me he was glad to see me back. He had just had a leg amputated the previous week and told me that he had sat on the edge of his bed and kept his eye on our patio roof and felt secure as long as it held up and didn’t blow away. They had no damage at all to their home. Only one neighbor had any damage – a limb had poked through the roof of his bathroom not long after he had exited it and would have hit him on the head had he been in there. We are always told that the safest place to be is in a small central room. That was his and he left for a cup of coffee. That was a stroke of luck for him. So much for the safest place to be. Before Jeff left he told me that all that had happened on his property was one of his trees had been felled on his neighbors yard. He borrowed my ladder and returned to his home. On the trip home and back to Roger’s I couldn’t help but notice that there were NO Dominion Power Trucks anywhere to be seen in the 20 or so blocks between his home and ours. I was wondering how that could be. There were no stop signs or lights anywhere and some evidence that an accident or two had occurred by the remnants of glass and red reflector plastic at two different intersections. I wound my way in and through the trees downed and power lines that laid on the pavement back to 20 Normandy Drive (Roger’s). The only life I saw was an occasional person standing outside of a ruined home surveying the damage. Oh, yes! I saw a postman making mail deliveries! How amazing. No news available on the radio. No lights. No phones (cell or home). No nothing anywhere – except for this amazing mail-man. What a tribute that is to valor and dedication. As of the time of this writing, 9/26/03, electricity to Roger’s home will likely be restored in another week. There is a good two miles of twisted streets and huge trees and tangled wires all through those beautiful homes that lay back in through the massive wooded area in which he lives. At Normandy Drive there are as many as 15 or so trees down. The ground was soaked by a many month long continuous rainfall in Newport News. This softened the soil considerably and when the wind hit there was little to keep them up except for the ones surrounding them. That again is why we chose to stay with him. All around his property there are mangled trees and roots and leaves and limbs – it is tragic. It will take a year or more to clean it all up. I made at least 6 trips between our house and his – about 6 or so miles – and I NEVER SAW ONE ELECTRIC POWER TRUCK OR CREW ANYWHERE! When Roger and I finished using my F-150 to pull limbs out of his drive and we finished pulling down a number of threatening trees leaning at about 45 degree angles we drove to the parking lot were the cars were placed and one at a time brought them home. Back and forth and NO POWER vehicles anywhere. On the last trip there were about 20 prisoners in all white uniforms using chain saws to make way for emergency vehicles – and as it turned out an endless line of sight-seekers. Still no radio stations offering alerts as to conditions. Everyone seemed to be in a daze and walking around as though in a dream. About four houses down from Roger’s a man had just moved into his new home – a beautiful try level home. Tree large trees fell in from all sides. The first two severely damaged his room and the third, as though for emphasis, fell and the house simply collapsed. One of the amazing things at Normandy was Roger’s work-shop. A pine tree of about 150 or so feet high blew over and fell between the branches of a larger tree next to the shop. It sets there today. If you get close you can hear it cracking and it falls a bit more. No one knows how to selvage it. How to you cut a tree down (as shown in one of the photographs attached here) that is hanging precariously over two sheds, a shop and a car? There simply is nothing to do but take the chance and run in and drag out what you can. He hadn’t got up the nerve to do so while we were there. I did notice my last trip over there that he had moved the Pontiac out from under the car-port. He had moved it in there because when the storm started up a dead limb had fallen on the back window and broke it. Roger thought he’d try and limit the damage by moving the car in there only to be made to take the chance and try and remove it. It will surely fall and all his tools and equipment in the shop will be lost. That is the only damage – yet to be – we have really suffered atthis point. That is – other than the food. Jeff and us now have electricity . . . telephone service is spotty and right now I have Cable Modem service. Roger has nothing. As you can see Roger also has a Camper parked under the trees. It appears that there is no damage to it. However, the night of the storm we tried to get the generator started and it would run for about 25 or 30 minutes and cut off. Likely stale gas had gummed up the carburetor. Jeff had a generator to see him through after the lights went out. On Wednesday when his lights came on he took the generator to Roger’s. I have no idea at this time how much food he lost. It must be quite a lot. He has two freezers and two refrigerators that all had much food in them. Last night he called and was proud to announce that he’d figured out how to disconnect his water heater and hook the generator to it and had his first hot shower since the storm. For the most part I stayed at home sitting on the front porch watching people. Noisy neighbor, huh. I can’t tell you what day it was – the seven days all became one. The time came that I began to wish for a simple ice-cube. Our food was unawed and had to be dumped. The stench was already beginning to build around the demister and it smells bad even now! Tons of food spoiled — no respecter of persons. When you have a freezer it is generally the practice to store food and buy specials in order to save. Glenda had just frozen 4 nice steaks she had found on special, 8 pounds of hamburger – same sale. Now, I can’t speak for you (you could be a Vega), but I love nothing better than a nice T-bone steak, a potato and condiments . . . possibly a fresh green salad. With no appetite for anything we decided to do two steaks. It wasn’t my best meal of the year. Just wasn’t hungry for anything. The next day we did the other two. Rather than throw away everything and in that the meet was still had bit of ice-crystals – we cooked up what we knew was still OK and gave it to neighbors. I know that several were really happy. One family I doubt ever eats at home. With all the Mc Donald closed and every other eatery I know of it was assured that they really appreciated it. Problem in days to follow they were at the door twice a day looking for more and we had none. No one did. It was all gone. Can goods only became the norm. In that we live in a mobile home park (trailer court) all kinds of people live here. When you spend as many hours on the porch as I did (went through CyberAge-Withdrawals) it don’t take long until you get them pegged. One lad got the huge kick out of slipping around in the dark and lighting firecrackers and throw them underneath old-folks open windows. Took all I could to stay calm with that. Then you see the street walkers, and everything else that happens in any area in the city. What a world we live in! Won’t go into that except to say – Roger and Jeff live in up-scale communities and they stand by statements telling me that we have no title or copy-right to anything that goes. In the nice homes it usually goes on inside the homes. In the park it often happens out in the open with no shame. God is no respecter of persons. After living my last years of employment in parsonages, some of them really nice and expensive, it is difficult for me to deal sometimes that I have not been able to proved a better place (house) to call home than our little trailer on Cherokee. But it IS HOME and we ARE HAPPY and love each other every minute of every day since married in 1959! Ashamed – sometimes a bit uneasy about the location – but never the situation. I am in love with Glenda as much as I was on October 17, 1959 and will continue until I die. What a woman God has blessed me with. What a shame so many homes are broken, his ours theirs and whatever. No shame no-where any more. So, why should Bob Craig be down on himself after such a wonderful life with a wonderful woman – Glenda Ann – love her more than all the daisies in all the world. What a bunch of trash – even in our Newport News family and all the world? How can it be. No one really ends up happy in broken relationships. Something I have had the time to ponder while sitting on my front porch watching the trash go by. Speaking of trash . . . It has grown and grown for 7 days. As before, I can smell it all the way in the house with the windows closed and the AC on (Air Conditioning – Praise the Lord!), and I can still smell it. Yesterday a flat-bed truck with one of those hydraulic scoops attached came by and picked up one load of yard trash, leaves, limbs, and etc. He got back into his truck and drove off. The ONE SCOOP was the only thing in the bed of that truck. I haven’t seen him since. Today, a trash truck came by and picked up the demister and dumped half of it in the body of the truck and dropped the demister (Word Perfect don’t seem to know how to spell dumpster) back down. All that did was stir up the rotting garbage and made things worse. I suppose he was trying to make a little more room for us to put the rest of our spoiled food. I’d rather have heard a suggestion for us to dig a hole and burry it. It smells like I recall grandad Flemings hog pen – worse! As I spun the dial on my little pocket radio I finally came on a station a day or so into the travesty that finally got the idea. It seems that they finally figured out how to get diesel fuel to power the generator at their transmitter and was able to get on the air. You could tell the folk at the station were frustrated as I and more tired. They got quite silly after a time but gave as much information as they had, and that was quite little, and put it live on the air. We got to hear from all kinds of folk . . . rich, poor, drunk, sober and anything else humans are likely to become or aspire to. Anyone that had telephone service seemed to delight in sharing their dilemma with anyone that might be listening. I must have gone through about 15 double A batteries listening for some kind of news that would fit into the good and exciting column. One man, Steve, had two sound effects that he used delightfully well. One was a 5 second buzzer that would give the talker notice that their grumbling was unwelcome. The other was of Black Power Fame, a song where a black woman sings at the top of her lungs, “I’ve Got The Power!” I found my nerves were served best when I simply kept my finger on the volume button and cut it down during those episodes. Couldn’t stand the buzzer or the Power noise. Wasn’t much else worth listening too – except one young lady that manned the station mike for a time. She was kind and consoling to everyone that called and used no sound effects. It was amazing how few grumblers called while she was on. It was Steve that bought out the worst on both sides of the isle. The problem with the “I’ve Got The Power” outbursts was that many of the folk that called in celebrating having the power on called back at a later time bemoaning the fact that they lost it again. This gave me little inspiration. I should have, and intended to, got a pencil and pad and wrote down the 7 days of many hours of frustration all around. Somehow I am now glad I didn’t. It would be even less inspirational that this has been to this point. I got into a conversation with Jim on the phone – it did recover and revive from time to time – and we discussed the lack or how invisible the Dominion Power Company was. We wondered among ourselves if there were 2 or maybe even 3 employees working (lineman, etc.) Jim loves nothing more than the telephone and spends hours a day talking to anyone who will pick up and answer. After ‘forever’ he finally got a PERSON LIVE on the line. They told him on Tuesday, the 23rd that we would have power at 11:00PM that evening. It never happened, not even a flicker. I suggested that if he ever got another LIVE PERSON that he ask if they needed some extra help – we knew of a number of un-intensional-un-employed persons on our block and we would send them down to hold a screw-driver or something. They might even be able to carry a shovel for a time . . . Well, there are so many antidotes one could include in this much too long endeavor to share our exciting experiences that came our way as a side benefit with Isabel – but for now I’ll quit and spare you the pain. When I turned on the computer it didn’t know where or when it was. I was warned that the internal battery was low and would have to give it the time and date. It was August 15, 1980 at 3:35AM when it booted up. The time-zone was somewhere in Europe or France, might have been Asia. I brought it around, woke it up, told it about the date and time and where it was located, etc., and all seems to be fair to midline. ***************** September 27, 2003 (10:30am) Was out on the porch a while again this morning and was listening to WCMS Country on my little pocket radio (as I did all day yesterday) and it occurred tome that my plug in table radio had electricity. What a jolt. Habits drawn up over a week are even hard to brake. Yesterday I turned on the faucet in the bathroom expecting cold water and was surprised when hot water came out! Speaking of water. For the first 4 days following the storm we were warned more times than there were hours that the water was unsafe to drink. It needed boiled! Well, guess what – when water is the only thing you can get (we had plenty of water in jugs) and you have no electricity, tell me: How on earth do you boil water? We have a LP Gas stove so if it came to that we could have boiled our water. But, reports had estimates of anywhere from 1,000,000 - 10,000,000 people without electricity. How is it that no one could give an accurate count of how many million people around here were without electricity. Roger still don’t have, and won’t have electricity for an estimated week. There are still multiple power lines down all over the streets and road-ways, yards, and all. Constant warnings not to touch them but most know that there is no way there could possibly be electricity in any of them. We drive over, under and through many to and from Roger’s home and I have yet to see a suggestive spark from any of those down power lines. Also, no one working on them. People in homes have taken plastic shopping bags – white usually, and have tied them to these downed power lines so as to warn drivers not to snag one of them with their vehicles. Back to the Do Not Drink The Water bit: After 4 days we get announcements on the radio that there was never anything wrong with the water. Several samples had been tested and there was simply nothing wrong with them. One guy had ‘dry ice’ he was giving away. The limited supply he had would have been snatched up quickly simply by word of mouth. However, when one of the nice folk had got theirs they called the radio station and the announcement went out that there was free dry ice for the taking and no telling how many thousands of vehicles rushed to the scene to find they were out of dry ice . . . Some fled to the hills when we were warned that it might be well to evacuate. When the got to the hills (wherever that would have been) they found all the motels full and no where to stay . . . and, yes, Isabel knew where the hills where and found them there. Others that drove long distances away from Tidewater (Hampton Roads) found that getting back to their homes to survey the damage was difficult because there were no Service Stations with power. They needed to refill their gas tanks to make it home and no where to get gas. I have gone into some detail here for two reasons: 1) A reminder that the wisdom of man is but foolishness to God. And, 2) If we are ever hit with a terrorist attack any where around our great land we will find that we are not more prepared for that then we were for Isabel’s Terror. What a sobering though. A storm that last about 8 or so hours can disable the East Coast of the USA for 7 or more days. What would happen if a dirty bomb slips through the cracks? It will take infinity for the local governments to deal with it. If you can’t get ice into areas where needed like we needed it, how in the world could you get enough doctors, nurses, medicine and all the fringe supporting items needed into a city? We have more advancements in America than any other nation on earth and yet, one simple act of God such as a storm passing through can baffle the elite experts for half a month. We destroy a country like Iraq to route out the evil and the sweet people of America demand it be rebuilt in a month. What is going on with people? It takes time. We are not quite as smart or efficient as we think. If there was as much damage to Newport News as there was in all of Iraq or Afghanistan, who are those people that think it can be rebuild in days and for a small chunk of change? I don’t understand what is happening to America. Well, it may be that God IS INVOLVED and is about to demonstrate to these idiots that make such grandiose statements on the network talk shows that they are but small finite beings with little understanding of the power of our Almighty God. ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ Sunday, September 26, 2003; 02:35:40PM. Everyone in our area seems to have restored power, cable and water. However, Roger on Normandy is still in the dark. Fuel for the generator that supples limited power for a refrigerator and freezer is still without all utilities. The gaping hole vacated by the tree that ruptured his gas line is still an ugly scar in the front yard. Of course, not having Cable TV comes with the same destruction that brought down the power lines in three separate places on his property. His wooded area all around his home is still more like a jungle in South American than one would expect in Newport News, VA. One good thing is that he will have more than enough fire-wood for years to come. Doing the laundry is a major problem that we all take for granted. A funny thing during the past week was the declaration by the Newport News Water department that we needed to boil or treat our water because of bacteria. Then, after that was shot down and we were told it was OK to use the water in any way we were told to limit our use because the lack of electricity meant that the pumping stations were unable to handle the sewage and it was backing up in the pipes and popping some man-hole-covers in streets and backing up in some peoples homes! Don't drink the water. Drink the water. Don't use the toilet because of sewage. As of the time of this writing it is believed that they now have the sewage pumps up-and-running . . . It is all so disrupting to normalcy that it is said some folk have turned off the radios and are no longer listening anxiously for any word that would bring good news. See images below this text line for the latest. We (Craigs in NPN) estimate that about $2,500.00 in food alone have been lost due to power outages. Bob & Glenda

This is our proud ~ our 4 firemen and their trucks. Isabel hit Thursday, September 18, 2003 and this photo of our mighty rescue arrive on scene on Wednesday, September 24, 2003. Hoop, hop Hooray! Then, as you can see ~ The headline on our local yokel newspaper reads, FEMA under fire! It is not FEMA, or President Bush that is at fault. We heard nothing from our locals for nearly a week. I reckon they went to France to escape Isabel! This photo above is as is all over Newport News. I sat on my front porch for most of the week, day and night, and never saw any kind of local government representatives ~ Fire, Ambulance or Police for 5 ½ days. Then one lonely policeman. The Police are, though, to be commended for doing a fantastic job of traffic control ~ standing out in the middle of these crazy streets and directing traffic! Thank you NPN Police!

I have to wonder ~ Did it ever occur to Ms Mayor Mamie Locke or City manager George Wallace that they would have had a much better chance of hearing from officials -- Fed Government or otherwise, not to mention all the local citizens -- had they been in their respective offices rather than standing out in some parking lot or maul looking for free ice? It is simply disgusting. Everyone is standing around waiting for someone else to do the job. One more observation: When you hear your 'local yokals' on TV (Wether) telling to watch their stations because "WE CAN SEE THINGS THE OTHERS CAN'T SEE", pay none of them any mind. They will be off the air if anything happens, nature or terror, . . . or you will have no power to turn them on. It is "look out for yourself!" What a turn off . . .

I forgot to add above that yesterday, just before the power came back on, Roody (relative living with Jim next door) came much faster than he usually moves down the steps and out toward my porch. He was excited, no mistake, he never walks that fast. He began to tell me to make sure all my circuit breakers were off because they had just heard that the power would come on any minute. At that very moment the ceiling fan above my porch started to turn with a youngsters style speed. I had just begun to tell Roody that I only had the power turned on to the outside connections – such as my celing fan. We were both delighted and he almost rolled in the dirt in laughter.

























E-Mail Me Here: Bob Craig