Time to reflect...

[Rayvyn]

I am not a deeply religious person, nor am I promoting religion of any kind here on the site. But having witnessed enough destruction and death in the past year to last a lifetime, I felt I had to say a little something.

I know we have a few folks on the RRT that hail from the Alabama/Mississippi/Louisianna area, and I couldn't help but think the trouble they are going to be facing there in the next few days from Hurricane Katrina.

Having weathered 2 tropical storms going over my house last year, and seeing the catastrophic damage that occured from Hurricane Charley in Southern and Central Florida, I can't imagine the nightmare that the folks in the New Orleans and surrounding areas will face in the next few days.

Knowing how alot of you folks live in the Midwest and are prone to tornados, tornados cause extensive damage in a short period of time. Imagine a tornado with 25-30' waves, 175 mph winds stretching 150 miles across and taking 8-10 hours to pass over. That's what this storm is going to hit those folks with.

I hope that no one on the RRT in that area is reading this because they have evacuated already, and I wish only the best to ALL the people in that area. So while we're out washing the car, having a BBQ, relaxing in front of the TV, or spending time with friends and family at a rod run somewhere, take a moment to think how precious life is and how lucky we are to do what we do everyday.

My thoughts and prayers are with them.

[jaybee]

Amen.

[phat46]

I'll second that. I have a neice living in New Orleans. she is a Marine Engineer; we were relieved to hear from her other today that she is home with her family in Houston today, but they have told her that everything will be gone when she gets back to New Orleans.  She owns a boat that was taken out of the water and chained to a tree, just to make her feel better. The company she works for told her that they expected to be destroyed by the storm and may not be able to come back from the damage. She was able to take only what she could get into her car and had to leave the rest behind; Everything else will be lost. Only one story; think of all the people who have home/jobs/family there! We are grateful she got out when she did.

[purplepickup]

...take a moment to think how precious life is and how lucky we are to do what we do everyday.

I just thanked God for that very thing. We're having a beautiful day and I just came in from the shop where I'm putzing around with all the doors open and a gentle breeze blowing thru.  The TV is on Fox News and I saw what is in store for the areas where Katrina hits land.  I hope it's not as bad as they're predicting but it looks like it's very likely to be a huge disaster.  I hope everyone is evacuating instead of staying and "tuffing it out".  My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with them.

[Dave]

...take a moment to think how precious life is and how lucky we are to do what we do everyday.

I just thanked God for that very thing. We're having a beautiful day and I just came in from the shop where I'm putzing around with all the doors open and a gentle breeze blowing thru.  The TV is on Fox News and I saw what is in store for the areas where Katrina hits land.  I hope it's not as bad as they're predicting but it looks like it's very likely to be a huge disaster.  I hope everyone is evacuating instead of staying and "tuffing it out".  My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with them.

Geeze I been out in the garage all weekend but i havent had the tv on much. Im heading back out and im going to polish the honda so ill check out the news and the weather channel.
Good luck to all that are in its path.
Dave

[Dave]

I am not a deeply religious person, nor am I promoting religion of any kind here on the site. But having witnessed enough destruction and death in the past year to last a lifetime, I felt I had to say a little something.

I know we have a few folks on the RRT that hail from the Alabama/Mississippi/Louisianna area, and I couldn't help but think the trouble they are going to be facing there in the next few days from Hurricane Katrina.

Having weathered 2 tropical storms going over my house last year, and seeing the catastrophic damage that occured from Hurricane Charley in Southern and Central Florida, I can't imagine the nightmare that the folks in the New Orleans and surrounding areas will face in the next few days.

Knowing how alot of you folks live in the Midwest and are prone to tornados, tornados cause extensive damage in a short period of time. Imagine a tornado with 25-30' waves, 175 mph winds stretching 150 miles across and taking 8-10 hours to pass over. That's what this storm is going to hit those folks with.

I hope that no one on the RRT in that area is reading this because they have evacuated already, and I wish only the best to ALL the people in that area. So while we're out washing the car, having a BBQ, relaxing in front of the TV, or spending time with friends and family at a rod run somewhere, take a moment to think how precious life is and how lucky we are to do what we do everyday.

My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Been watching the news and the weather channel all day and man this sucks. I feel for everyone that lives near the storm track. Of course the news couldnt leave out the fact that we have refinerys there and the price of gas is surely going to go up from the impact of the storm. Just after we kind of leveled out on gas priced the news media will help it go higher yet .Id rather they report on the actual storm and the health and welfare of the people involved.  I found it very interesting that most everyone covering this says there is going to be big time damage and losses of business and housing. I pray for better.
Dave

[SKR8PN]

We have Sea-Doo'ing  friends that are only 60 miles from where it is supposed to hit land...........I hope Jerry and family make it out OK
This one looks to be ugly..........

[alchevy]

I live in Vicksburg, MS that is on the West side of the state about 200 miles above the Coast. The forcasted track will put the storm East of us. The motels, interstates, & highways have been full all day. Some folks are sitting in line on the highways moving a mile an hour. They are forcasting over 100 mph winds up in Central MS as the storm moves Northward.
AL

[40]

We also had a gorgeous day.....I am working straight thru trying to meet a deadline and was thinking to myself how it sucked to be working on Sunday.After turning on the TV and seeing the news reports.....I'm thinking I'm not so bad off after all! I too,wish the best for everyone involved and suggest,if you're so inclined,to make a donation to the Red Cross to help with the disaster relief.

[GPster]

I find it hard to type and listen to the weather forcast at the same time. Last year a hurricane gave us the highest water in the Ohio River in 40 years. And it filled the hole in the ground in our yard that was going to be a pond. Now the liner is in and 5,000 gallons of water is circulating and filtered in it. In preparation of this hurricane coming this way the weather is going to drop 1/4" of rain today and 1" tomorrow. I'm going to have to pump water out of the pond so it will stand the rain without overflowing it's banks and flowing under the liner. If we get another flood don't know what will happen but we can be happy that we won't loose any fish or plants because we haven't got that far yet. With two floods in the last year we still haven't gotten everything back in order (dis-order?) so there's not as much settled in the low places. The truck is still without a carb though so I won't be able to drive it accross the street to higher ground (I did put differant tires on it Enjenjo but it didn't raise it up that much). There is a reason, we're just not the ONE smart enough to know what it is. GPster

[Mr Cool]

Although Im on the other side of the planet, I can relate to the howling winds at the moment, just checked the anemometer and its telling me current average windspeed is 86 kph, with gusts of 140+ kph (about 88mph), and they are certainly strong enough, so I can only imagine what some of you are currently experiencing with more than double that......
Best of luck guys, hope all is not too bad when you return to whats left.

[TJ's Dad]

Hard to imagine .... we are in our 7th year of drought and these poor blighters are gonna get washed or blown away .. lets hope forecasters are wrong !

[HotRodLadyCrusr]

40Chevy, do you have any family or friends that are left homeless and jobless from this?  I can offer a family a roof over their heads, clean, dry beds to sleep in, food in the fridge, schooling for the kids, and probley a couple of decent paying jobs for mom and dad, alll here in Michigan.

I haven't been able to sleep very good lately thinking about what all these folks down south are going thru.  I don't have any extra money to send right now but I've been mulling over how else I could help and came up with offering my home to live in and everything that goes along with it.  All they would have to do is get here.  

My offer stands for anyone that you might personally know.

[alchevy]

40Chevy, do you have any family or friends that are left homeless and jobless from this?

Thanks, Read my post in "New Stance". I said that I have heard from one family in Gulfport and I think they will be ok. They have a Daughter in OK and a Son in VA and us here. There is another one of my Mom's siblings, a Brother that lives in Franklinton, LA. We have not heard from them yet.
AL

[rooster]

Good to see ya post again, thought you may be without ele! Hope it all works out for your relatives.  Ater watching the news on whats going on in the South its hard to believe the responce time of FEMA! :x