I know Joe will not mind if I paste this letter. Magnificent news:- Hi all. I am okay, my kids are okay and my house is okay! Thank you all for your concern, thoughts and prayers. Here is my story. I had decided to go to my sister-in-law's house in Mississippi, which I thought was a Lot further north than it is. My kids decided (wisely) to go west, to Texas. Once we were in Miss. and we saw how fierce the storm was and where it was heading, we left our vehicles and myself, my wife, my sister in law, her husband and their two kids piled in their Receational Vehicle and headed north to Jackson Miss. on Sunday night. We slept in the RV at a truck stop on Sunday, and all day Monday the weather worsened, with extremely heavy rain and winds probably gusting to 60-70 miles per hour. The RV was shaking and it was rather scary. Once the storm passed, we began our way back to their house, or tried to. The roads were all filled with fallen trees and while there was just enough room for a regular car to pass, the RV was very hard pressed to stay on enough road to make it past several areas. Once we got off the main highway, we were prevented from driving down the small country roads as they were filled with trees and downed electrical wires. My brother in law and I got a ride to his house and were amazed that, although there were several large trees down in his yard, none of them hit his house Or our cars!! We got our stuff and the others from the RV and went back to his house. Of course his electricity was out, and his fresh water comes from a well, which runs on electrical power. He has a large pond on his property, about 100 yards from his house, so we used that water to flush the toilet, got fresh water from a neighbor to take sponge baths and after a few days were able to get food, drinking water and ice from a government group staffed by the Army. We weren't unable to obtain gas for many days, it was about 95 degrees, and miserable. There was no communication possible with anyone. Cell phones and land line phones did not work at all. We stayed there for two weeks, then finally I got in touch with my daughter who told me to come to her friend's house much closer to home. This girl had full electric power, phones and Air Conditioning!! Finally, I was able to make my way to my house yesterday, although we are not supposed to be in this area yet. I have all utilities and best of all, my home was virtually untouched by the storm. The large pecan tree in my backyard fell over onto my fences, but did not hit my house and the only water i had in my house was from wind-driven rain, not flooding........amazing! If the circumstances had been just a tad different, I too would have had water up to my roof. As I drive around and look at the devastation here, it is very, very sad. I feel so lucky and at the same time I feel so horrible for all those who have lost everything.... It is rather overwhelming right now for me. Please forgive me, but I don't plan on trying to read all the Fractopia messages while I was away.... it is just too much, and I have a lot of clean-up work to do. Fractals are the last thing on my mind right now. I have attached a pic of the highway coming home and of the tree down in my yard. As you can see, it is quite large. I plan to try and cut as much as I can by myself then have a professional do the rest. The top of the tree is resting in the branches of a 35 year old oak in my neighbor's yard. I pray that none of you ever has to deal with such a disaster.......and the worst part........we are still in the middle of hurricane season!! Peace and Love, joe