Katrina's Rath

Yesterday after work I checked my mail and got in some rosary making supplies and then headed for church (which ended up being the feast of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist), I got about a mile down the road before it was raining torrents. On my way, about 7:00pm, the weather service was already confirming 3 deaths further south; it would raise another 50 by midnight just from reports in the county including Biloxi, MS. On my way back from mass there was just a light sprinkle (pretty sporadic). Well, after eating for the rest of the night I watched TV and started teaching myself how to make a rosary while listening to my ham radio to find out where all the damage was and just in case I needed to report any of my own. About 10:30, the power went out on Monte Sano (a foothill mountain on the edge of town) where many antennas are located. That incident took out my cell phone tower, a couple of TV stations were out, and the emergency weather net on the ham radio had to migrate to the backup frequency. The TV and radio towers were back online after midnight (I think the individual crews probably got out there to get each of their generators back up and running).

The climax of the storm hit around 1:00am with lots of rain and definitely high winds; my power never totally went out, but it would flicker off quite a few times. The morning report was that the wind got up over 50 MPH around here. In northern Alabama, there are approximately 50,000 people with out power. The brunt of the storm here stayed mostly west of I-65, and there are some schools closed today in the northwest section. In Madison county (Huntsville and surroundings), it seems that most of the damage is a bunch of tree limb debris. I did here someone say that they saw a large tree on top of someone's house on the way in. Tropical storm Katrina was definitely more powerful in this area than Dennis (which I also got to experience back in July), but not as much damage as some people around here were thinking.

Although luck seems to have been a lady (even though Katrina was no lady) in this area, there are many unlucky people further to the south and southwest. Please continue to pray for them, for it will take a long time to rescue people (some even had to spend the night after the storm on top of their roofs hoping the water wouldn't continue to rise before the morning came with rescuers), drain the water, bury the dead, clean up, and then begin to rebuild. The storm is following a path taking it mostly along the Ohio River valley, and as anyone in Louisville knows, all that added water will flow down the Mississippi into the affected areas causing the water level to continue to rise. It always feels good to be fortunate, but it is so tragic what is happening to others. If you can't donate the money, blood, or volunteer, remember that a donation of you time in prayer is just as important in these times of crisis.

Paix du Christ!