My family and I are OK, many miles north of the devastation. Everything we owned except for two or three changes of clothes is almost certainly gone forever, including one of our two cars and ~ shame on me! ~ my guitar.

Our house is probably standing, but definitely full of sewage and mud, and as likely as not crushed by a fallen tree or two. We bought the place because of its wonderfully shady lot with four very huge and very old trees all over 100 feet high ~ three pecans and a "bull" pine whose trunk is/was so big I coudn't get my arms even half-way around it.

In a month or so, we might be able to get back there to see what actually happened. The main living area is a full story above the ground, in a part of town that is relatively high, so our belongings just might have stayed above the high water mark ~ if not stolen or vandalized by looters, or slammed by a tree trunk or two.

It's actually kind of liberating to cut loose of all that stuff and start a new life from scratch. Or it would be if I was a few years younger, anyway.