I've been wanting to let you all know my family and I have survived. I've been trying without success to log onto Mudcat for the last day or so, and finally got through just now. I have posted a couple of messages at tweedsblues.net, if anyone wants to look.

Let me paste in a copy of the message I sent my brother last night:

We're OK ~ at the home of an old friend way
up north here in extreme western Kentucky.

Spent the storm in Covington ~ Peggy's friend Donna
had keys to the home (the palatial country estate) of
her employer, who had flown to New York. We were high
and dry, on the western side of the storm (the
relatively "safe" side), and spent the daylight hours
Monday watching 100mph winds snapping trees in half
through two-story high picture windows ~ without
power, water, or phone service (not even cellphones).

Before we left New Orleans, we were relayed a message that we
were welcome to come here to Paducah. At the
time, it seemed unnecessary and ridiculously far away,
but by Tuesday morning it seemed like a great idea. We
couldn't stay where we were, certainly can't go back
home for another month or so, and would not be able to
find motel rooms anywhere within hundreds of miles,
even if we could afford to in a hotel for more
than a night or two. Plus which, we have two dogs
along for the ride!

Peggy's car was temporarily out of order this week,
but she's been able to use her friend Debbie's car
while Deb is in the hospital. Donna had car trouble,
too, so we caravanned out of town in two vehicles, my
Toyota and Deb's Olds Bravada SUV.
Part of the deal involved taking responsibility for
Deb's beloved little doggie, and Donna also has a dog
she's pretty attached to, so we've been traveling with
the two pooches. So, our group includes two animals in
addition to (granddaughter) Avery, (daughter) Maggie and (common-law son-in-law) Andrew, (son) Mike,
Donna, and Peggy and me.

I left with three changes of socks and underwear, one
pair of shorts and one pair of long pants, and a
handful of t-shirts. Everyone else is similarly
unencumbered; of course, we had no idea we wouldn't be
back within a couple of days. Even if the town took a
direct hit, we figured we'd be back to reclaim more stuff
even if the downstairs had flooded and even if power
remained off for a week or two.

Of course, it's much worse than that, unimaginably
catastrophic, and we're looking at starting over from
scratch. We might go to Mom's in New Jersey to live for a
while; I don't know, We'll stay here for a couple of
days and think about our options.

We're thankful to OK, and I am intrigued by the idea
of a fresh start. My *only* real regret is that I left
my guitar ~ as we were packing the car to go, I had a
flash that I would be able to squeeze it into the trunk of
the car after all, and momentarily thought about unlocking the
house and running back in for it, but said "naahhh"
and took off. It's sitting in its case on top of my
bed on the main floor, about 12 feet above ground
level, which I had thought would have been plenty
safe, but now I'm not at all sure about that.

Everything else we own(ed) I can live without, but
that instrument is truly irreplaceable. Even if I were
to collect the two or three grand that it's worth,
there's no way I could spent that kind of money on a
guitar while we're trying to build new lives. Oh well,
maybe in another month or so when we can get back into town to
reconnoiter, it'll be safe and sound an inch or two
above the high water mark. On the other hand, maybe it
has been punctured by the limb of a tree that may have
crashed through our roof. Won't know for a while.

The poor folks who stayed behind are in terrible
shape. We could have been among them ~ Peggy had been
adamant about not evacuating ever again after the
fiasco we experienced last year fleeing town for the
Hurricane Ivan false alarm. It was really a
last-minute decision to bug out, and obviously we're
glad we did what we did.

More later. This was supposed to be a "short" note,
and I did omit a lot of stories and adventures, but
I've gone on long enough already.