Columbia, MS - shelter

Columbia, MS - shelter

After family members left Mandeville afternoon of 8/28/05, they headed north in hopes of finding some shelter. They abandoned the route for Texas due to the gridlock from the mass mandatory evacuation. Several shelters along the way were filled to the capacity thus prompted them to travel further north until they stopped in the town of Columbia, MS and decided to bunker down before nightfall.

They were taken into a brick church which is now a Red Cross shelter. Cellphone reception in the church was very poor for both Verizon Wireless and Cingular/AT&T even before the storm. Not sure if it was due to incoming winds, building or tower signals.

Refugees were placed in the gym area. There was power and food. So that was good to hear. I received update from brother on 8/29/05 around 7 am in the morning. Everything was okay and no damaged during the night. At that point, they only received some moderate wind gusts and rain.

8/29/05 - 10 AM

I lost cellphone communication with family at that point. Text Message were not delivered to both the verizon and at&t handsets. Calls kept getting busy signals. Kept refreshing the National Hurricane Center website to look at where Katrina is head and how fast.

8/29/05 - 2:50 PM

A sigh of relief was released when brother rang again. He reported the shelter lost power, but everyone was okay. Everyone was relocated from the gym area to where the pews were before the church sustained roof damage due to high winds. Parts of the roof was ripped off, but since everyone moved to the center of the church no harm done. They were fed lunch and now just waiting for rest of storm to pass.

8/30/05 - 9-10 Am

Brother and company left the Red Cross shelter at Columbia, MS early this morning to head for a bigger town - Hattiesburg, MS.

When they left the power was still out.