Gulfport Day one

Hi from the HandsonUSA base camp in Biloxi MS. We made it in today with no real problems (One student missed his plane, but will be coming tomorrow).

If you can get a window seat on the plane in. You can see some of the destruction. We must have really looked like out-of-towners as we came in from the airport snapping pictures of signs and trees down etc. Dave picked us up from the airport and despite traffice, we had no trouble at all getting to the Volunteer shelter.

We got in too late to do much today (Sean helped cook and I did dishes, but that was about it as far as I know). The others got acclimatized and met our new neighbors.

Since there was little for us to do at the time, I ran for about 35 minutes. I did not get very far since I had no idea where I was going and did not want to get lost so I kept circling around Military housing and a local park, but will say that very few houses that I saw did not have damage. Many trees are missing large branches or are down all together and few trees escaped without some damage.

I stopped at one point to offer help to a lady who was putting a tarp over her damaged home. While she refused the help, she must have said thank you about a zillion times. Then 10 minutes later I came around the loop again and she again yelled out thanks.

The people here are very nice. Amazingly so. Almost too nice. After dinner there is a meeting where the new people introduce themselves and each group leader tells of what their group did that day. It was very impressive (and pretty funny with so many SBU people. A very good showing :) It became a joke, even those who were not frim SBU stared saying they were) Some of the stories those who have been here for a while tell are amazing. And heart warming.

If you plan on coming down (highly recommended) I would suggest not bringing as much as you fear you might need. Food, water etc. are plentiful in the camp and you don't have time to change clothes much anyways, so why bother carrying it? But bring a flashlight!

Tomorrow is an early day--6 AM run, 7 AM breakfast, 8 AM work. The Bona crew (Annie, Bridget, Christine, Meghan, Sean, and I) will be helping cut and haul trees and debris from homes. So I am sure it will be a full day.

My sister Mary and Andy will be arriving around noon to help as well.

Stay tuned for more updates, but it is now time to sleep-- (2 nights in a row of 3 hours of sleep make today a catch-up night)