Things are kind of strange here in Valdosta. Gas prices shot up 30 to 40 cents per gallon today then dropped back at a few stations. There's long lines everywhere even at the places where prices are still over $3.00/gallon. I think someone started a rumor we were about to run out of gas.

The news from the kids friends in Mobile is that they will be out of school at least three weeks and that's from the eastern most city frequently mentioned as a disaster area. The kid's friends say trees are down all over mobile and power is a problem, but most of the houses suffered little damage. The news recently reported only 2 died in Mobile. Frank is most likely safe, with a big mess in his yard and no power.

Our friends in California with the beach house on the FLA/AL border had family in Mississipi as well. Most of her family flew to CA, but her father and a nephew stayed. The father was plucked from a roof and the nephew was just heard from an hour ago so they had been worried sick. Their house on ONO island suffered only minor damage, but they wisely decided to forgo rebuilding their Ivan damaged pier until afte rthis hurricane season. The estimate for Slidel schools just outside of NO is three to 4 months before schools reopen.

We went out to celebrate my wife's first paycheck from her new job, but had kind of a pall hanging over thinking of the people in our old city and westward. So after dinner we went to Lowes which is collecting money for the red cross and donated $300. The clerk who collected the money almost cried and explained it was because she had family in the devastated area.

Regards,
Mark