[FanTC]

We drove along railroad street east and west just along the tracks and looked south down the roads, where you would normally see the waters of the gulf of mexico at the ends, now all that could be seen was rubble.
I saw several roads that had boxcars from trains sitting across the roads and atop homes... further down, I saw a barge resting atop an entire block of homes.
The smell of death and rotten flesh filled the air, as 40 tons of chicken had scattered across a few miles of Gulfport, mixing with the smell of death and natural gas leaks,A million pounds of shrimp had been spilled too. The stench burned through everything, stinging my eyes that still poured tears as they had for a couple of days.
I saw a friend I had lived next door to a year or so ago and stopped to check on him. He told his tale of stepping out of his apartment into water chin deep and watching his car float away. He had been forced to swim to the nearest main road fom his apartment and then a few blocks north to the tracks and higher ground. Within 15 minutes of his evacuation, the apartments were crushed by the surge, killing 19 other folks that had stayed there.We made sure he had a place to stay and moved on, running across many other friends that had lost everything too, and were camping in yards along the roadway. I tried to cross the tracks and walk the block or 2 to my house and was drawn on by Nat'l Guardsmen with M16s, so I got my ass back out the way. The area south of the tracks was totally off limits as they did body search and search and rescue missions. It seems there were hundreds of dead expected to be found in my neighborhood
We camped in Steves parents yard that night and ate 3 generic ritz crackers and a swallow of water each that night... supplies were pretty well gone. The next day Steve called his parents house and said they had gotten a generator and food etc delivered that night up in the country.
We headed back that way, and had a delicious meal of potted meat and stale crackers again, but got to watch the news on the lil emergency tv. No gas, no food, no water, no ice anywhere within 150 miles. The generator was running low on gas, so Steve and Lisa headed out to go find some-in Florida. They drove north thru Ms, across Ala into Fla, then back. Before leaving, they tried to talk me out of my credit card and all cash to pitch in. I had refused, not planning on being there long and needing everything I had. They returned the next day with 2 bags of crackers and shit and about 25 gallons of gas...which they claimed had cost 900 bux,but I later learned had been given to them by family.The 900 had been spent on their habit. Steve informed me that he'd sell me gas to get out " if the price was right", to which I told him to go fuck himself slowly.
Later in the day the old man "gave" me 2 gallons of gas, bringing our tank up to a quarter... with only 500 miles to go.
I paid the old man 20 bucks for the 2 gallons of gas and we loaded up our cats and crackers and headed north.
We got as far as 40 miles South of Jackson Ms and saw a gas line.hot damn,we'll have gas and food and get to run the AC! right? 4 hours later we learned that not only was there gas, but there was no plan on getting any for a few days or weeks, and the power was still out. We bought a hot gatorade and split it to wash down a cracker or 2 and pulled out heading north, just hoping to get to somewhere safe before we ran out...I had an 1/8th of a tank now, having wasted an 8th to get this far.
About 20 miles down the road we found a station, roughly 20 miles south of Jackson and got in line,at least 2 miles long. A few hours later we got way up close, as the line was gone,there was no power or gas.
I pulled to the side in a parking lot and set up a spot to camp, close to bushes so we could at least potty in private and we began our wait.Some guys pulled in the lot and gave us 4 bottled waters before they left... water that probably saved my cat's lives, as they were dehydrated and getting very sick. The gas wait ended after 15 hours and finally, we had gas and could run the AC.
About 9 or 10 hours later we managed to get here in Missouri, after recieving a call from Linkster offering aid, and still have no clue whats left of our house if anything.
When we left hastily, we grabbed 2 changes of clothes each and the clothes we had on, our towers and monitors, and mice and keyboards and the cats and their food and litter box... that's what we currently know we own, until we can find out more about our house.
I called the police at home and they still have zero say or knowledge of anything, as the military still controls the city. From what we can gather from news and friends that are still down there or evaced elsewhere, we have about a 3% chance of having anything left.
As for now, we are in standby mode trying to decide where we go from here... FEMA isn't doing shit for us, Red Cross has blown us off and every other aid program directs us to them. The only aid we have gotten is through the generosity of the adult webmaster community.
I just know I want to go home. We had a lil stray cat named Bert that I let in the house before we left to keep him from dying in the storm and I'm afraid he might not have made it. Again, I don't know, as we can't get info on our house.
We had just met the people that moved in across the street from us as we were loading up to leave. The man and his wife and 4 kids, several dogs, cats and birds were planning on staying because the shelters refuse to let animals in. I fear for their safety as well.
Over the past couple of days, we learned that Bert the cat was not found in our house, which stood, but suffered extreme water damage. Other than that, we are playing the waiting game for further news about our house etc.


Thank you one and all!