New Orleans

Joni and I found out on Thursday that Hattiesburg is just an hour and a half from New Orleans. We decided that since Anniston was doing so well, we would take a little trip to check out the condition of the area since Katrina. It has been almost exactly a year since the hurricane and we were amazed at the devastation that is still there. There was a huge storm that got to New Orleans about the same time we did. It only seemed fitting it would be raining so hard. It was very heartbreaking to see the way that those people have to live their lives. The most obvious thing was that the people that were most affected were the people who were extremely poor. As we drove around through some neighborhoods, we saw that most of these people were still living in the houses that certainly should be considered unfit to live in. There were FEMA trailers everywhere. It would have to be so depressing to live there and see those horrible conditions day after day after day. It was good to get away from Hattiesburg for a day. However, I realized that even though the last week has been pretty crazy, I don't have any huge problems. It really helped me to keep things in perspective.

We did see one thing that was really funny. Since it was raining so much, there was water standing everywhere. We were downtown and there were plenty of business people walking around. We were stopped at a light and there was 2 ladies standing on the opposite corner from us. A bus drove by and hit this enormous puddle of water and water splashed all over both the ladies. It was pretty hilarious!