Posted by Diana on September 27, 1999 at 13:48:10:
Heeeelllloooo MohicanLand,
At the risk of sounding a little like Chicken Little...."The river's falling, the river's falling!!!". This is indeed good AND TRUE news for Eastern North Carolina. IT IS SO GOOD TO BE BAAAACCKKKK!!!! I couldn't wait to get back to my office and try to catch up on the board goings-on. Marcia had filled me in some, but thank goodness (and Rich and Elaine) MohicanLand is still here!!! Mine and Cecelia's tears would certainly have compromised the flood recovery efforts if I had come in to a "URL NOT FOUND" this morning. Thank you Rich for perservering and finding a light at the end of the Mohican Tunnel. I can tell you that my mohican family, in phone calls to Marcia, phone calls from the Canadian Trader, and words of well-wishing from Scotland and Holland and California(Thanks you guys) and others have meant more to me than I could ever express in words.
I am SEW lucky to have come out of Floyd's wrath virtually unscathed, because so many of my friends, neighbors, and co-workers did not. At the highest point, we had 16,000 people in shelters and the death toll has climbed to 47 in NC alone and officials are expecting it to go over 100 - it's too soon to tell. Two towns suffered total loss and will have to just be bulldozed. One is Princeville (2100 pop.) which used be called Freedom Hill and was organized by freed slaves after the Civil War. The other was a small community of several hundred called Tick Bite (yes I spelled that right)in which they found 11 bodies Thursday. Our farmers were dealt a terrible blow to crops as well as livestock (100,000 hogs, 500,000 turkeys, and 1.2 million chickens, and hundreds of cattle). Because of this thousands of migrant farmers from Mexico have no jobs and no means to go home, not to mention the difficulty they've had in understanding what was happening. Of course, this is just a small sampling of the grim recovery our area is facing. There is a positive side to all this however, and that is the outpouring of assistance and donations from all over the country, but especially from North Carolinians. I couldn't be prouder to say I'm a part this great state. I have just been in awe of the depth of giving of some people - I have so many stories, but there just isn't enough space to do it justice. Some of the most poignant moments were seeing the people who lost almost everything, giving what little they had left, be it laundry money in a wadded up kleenex, or two canned goods, or volunteering at shelters when they had other places to stay.
I read Elaine's post regarding SC Floyd victims and am sorry to hear of others dealing with same thing we are. If anyone is interested in contributing to the flood relief efforts, items needed are large size women's clothing (I knew there was a reason I was putting off that yard sale), baby items, non-perishable foods, and of course money. You may contact your local Red Cross or Salvation Army and specify Hurricane Floyd flood relief on your items and they'll be happy to handle that for you. I have a renewed respect for these two organizations. They were in our area at a moments notice handling EVERYTHING other than law enforcement. I woke up to Red Cross and armed forces helicopters at dawn five days in a row. They are truly angels!!!
Sorry to sound a little melodramatic, but it's been a trying week and a half and I've seen things I hope I never see again in my lifetime. So like Marcia said in an earlier post - Hug your family - just because you can. And say a little thank you when you step out of your shoes on to your dry carpet, and when you flick a switch, electrical energy is tranformed to light energy, or your kids are having their usual evening brawl instead of getting tucked into a cot in a shelter.
I do have one word of wisdom that sustained me through 5 days of no electricity. I'd take a pen and write WWHD on my palm (that's where I write all my reminders). That stands for "What would Hawkeye do"
Missed you all and thrilled to have received my mohican fix for the day,
Diana