Salvage Operations Continue
We will be here in Brandon until we get the paperwork all done for our insurance, then we plan to use some of our banked timeshare weeks and get away, though this will be home base until we have made some major decisions on where we want to spend our future. We can assure you it will not be on or near any body of water.
We have made three trips back to the coast to retrieve whatever we can from the mud and high shelves. The largest piece of furniture we have salvaged is a large rocking chair, as all major furniture is too damaged to try to save. Even solid wood bedroom furniture is too swollen or broken to try to save. In some cases we pried drawers open with a crowbar to retrieve the contents. Some chests laying on their face are too full of wet clothing to lift. Other pieces are underneath wet mattresses and box springs. Two walls are washed in and in some rooms the current was so strong it ripped off the door facings with the doors and even the faceplates off wall outlets. Then among the rubble we found some remarkably fragile items intact, like a few crystal goblets. Dishes in wall cabinets that did not fall were full of very silty mud and water to the brim and no water there to wash it away. We just used the mud as packing and as time allows will hose away the mud and then know if the item is something to save. We have washed the clothing we found, but some have stains we probably won't be able to remove. Clothing on wire hangers are ruined as the hangers rusted quickly with the salt water and it was a week before we were allowed back in. (Lesson--buy better hangers.) But we did have small things we can salvage. Our long time General Physician lost everything down to the slab for both house and office, Joy's retired dentist has only a broken slab, and the retirement home of our long time orthopedist was also wiped out, all within a couple blocks of us. No news as yet on Maurice's cardiologist who had a fantastic beachfront home in Ocean Springs.
A couple days ago the talk in the neighborhood was that they were going to bulldoze our area later in the week, but that was only a rumor. I think it was misunderstanding the intention of the Seabees or National Guard, as they did bring in bulldozers to clear some debris from the worse streets. Sometimes it is hard to get into the area as they keep finding propane leaks and yesterday it was a chlorine tank that kept us out until noon. To cross to the south of the railroad you must have a daily pass and curfew is 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. The talk now is that all buildings south of the railroad in Long Beach are to be condemned after insurance adjusters are through. That is a strip from 4 to 6 blocks wide and 7 miles long.
