Our friends

Since we have not been able to contact our friends who lost nearly everything, I decided that I'd just pop in to talk to them in person.

The big reasons we haven't talked to them is that A)their cell phones were flooded B)no one we know has a land line anymore C)nearly all cell service is down in the disaster areas D)our friend who they're staying with lives close enough to the disaster area to have cell service affected. Good reasons all. But I wanted to hold them and reassure myself that they were alive and not just sitting around crying. I wanted to make sure that they had gotten all their carpet and fluffy furniture out before the mold takes over the whole world.

Despite the fact that my house and all my significant places in life have received absolutely zero damage, this disaster has really upset me. So much so, that I've grown a zit this week. For those of you who know me, that hardly ever happens. My sister who is not so lucky in genetic skin quality usually says we need to take pictures of my zits just to remind her that they DO happen to me.

So we go out there during a long lunch (baby is at daycare because what do you do with a baby at a disaster area). Folks were in a remarkably good mood for having lost half or more of all their possessions. Because they have no TVs, internet, or cell service (not really anyway) there is a lot of mixed information out there. Do we need to separate our trash into 3 piles or not? Yes, or the they won't pick it up. No, we've got a private contractor slated to collect for us. It's confusing to me and I'm not even dealing with trauma.

River funk is pervasive. Even on things that look clean. Their upstairs bedrooms were not affected by the flood, but might be affected by the moist funky air if they don't get things out. Take your average comforter. Do you really want it adjacent to river funk? After a while it will start to feel sticky just from the humidity. So they're trying to move things out from upstairs and store it.....somewhere.... as soon as they can.