I have been down here several times. Once just after Katrina in 2005. The town was hard hit. A friend and myself drove down with some supplies: water, canned goods, gas, etc.
Laurel is a small town that time has forgotten. You'll see old gas stations of the 50s fallen into disuse and corrugated feed supply buildings, and railroad tracks that snake through the town.
There is new development too, a Walmart, a Lowes, and a great all-you-can-eat place, but alas no Starbucks. I'll have to recommend that to the mayor the next time through.
The town still has a few huge oak trees remaining from the storm. Other oaks that used to line the streets are now long gone. They toppled splitting houses in half like an axe splitting wood. Neither the house nor the trees survived.
Anyway, despite the late notice, our friend had arranged dinner for us and she invited some other dear friends too. We all laughed until 10:00 p.m. and then crashed into a warm bed of pastel colors and slept like rag dolls.
It was the next morning when we were backing out of her driveway, waving goodbye, when I heard a loud crunch. I was looking out the rearview mirror on the right side where the driveway spanned a culvert three feet deep but forgot to check the left side. The van frame now sat on her driveway and the wheel dangled into the culvert below. Fortunately, the van has front wheel drive and after unloading the boxes I was able to scrape forward onto the driveway. I loaded the boxes back into the van and said goodbye for the second time.
But other than that, not much has happened.
...dave
Try to relax and enjoy the crisis. - Ashleigh Brilliant
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