From C (this was from the morning of Sept. 1, before they knew their mom was alive):

J,

We are all here, except my mom and there is no word on her right now and the death toll in Harrison County where she lives is on the rise. We are just hoping that her house stood or she was able to get to somewhere safe but it was pretty bad there when we last spoke and the eye wall hadn’t even hit.

The photos and coverage of her area are grim but we are hopeful. My sister and brother-in-law and the girls are now totally homeless. They are gonna live at my dad’s until, well until. And they had to leave 3 cats behind. It’s all so awful that it takes all I have to keep from just falling to pieces. They are all handling it pretty well but my sister feels really bad about my niece’s cats that her dad couldn’t catch. The levee breach was right at their street so if they are alive it’s a real miracle. I just can’t stand not knowing where my mom is though and I feel really helpless.

I’m going to give blood tomorrow and try to volunteer with the Red Cross with the rest of my school, but some of my classmates are now either dead or homeless too. It’s all so surreal and there is no telling when anyone can get back to the city to check on things or collect what’s left. We suffered power outages at mine and dad’s but mine came back on after about 12-13 hours and dad’s the next day. However mine has blown again. I guess they were working on it because some people in my hood were still without. My neighbors had a cord running from my house to theirs but now we are all screwed so I’m bunking at my dad’s tonight. It’s hard to call in and it’s hard to call out, sometimes it works. We are all thankful for all we have and appreciative of your and everyone else’s support. It really means a lot to know how much people care about us. Tell G thanks for his concern and if he has any info on J please let me know. C was worried about her too, and thanks to W, too. I’m hoping the red cross can get a database together so I can search for my mom at the shelters.

We can’t even get into Mississippi right now. I really miss and love you too.

C