[Muncle]

Anyone hear anything about our little sister city in Mississippi? Looks like the hurricane primarily went west of there, but it can still cause a lot of damage. Ocean Springs is a nice little industrial town just east of Biloxi.

For those new to TV, we kinda adopted Ocean Springs after Katrina and raised quite a bit of money. For several months well into the next summer, villagers and high school kids went out there at the own expense to provide hands-on help. Then, when we got hit by the tornado, the Ocean Springs mayor contacted Gary Morse and Doug Thorpe immediately offering whatever help we needed.

[tbsoccer]

I think the storm surge and damage was minimal. There was probably more damage from the wind than flooding.

In January 2006 and January 2007, I spent a week in Ocean Springs working on homes. The Lutheran Synod here in SW PA had three crews (one per week) that went down by bus in January each year. (I drove my truck down both times.) This past January they said that they were looking for more craftsmen (not just grunts) so I didn't make the trip.

We were in TV in a three weeks ago and drove back home via MS, AL, TN, KY and OH. We stayed in Biloxi for a couple of days and drove over to Camp Victor in Ocean Springs where I talked to the new volunteer coordinator. This winter they will be looking for regular workers again but they like each group to have some experienced construction works to oversee the work. Camp Victor only has two full time project superintents and they get spread pretty thin if there are a 100 volunteers with only one or two seasoned handymen.

[Niels]

There is an article on Ocean Springs in the online version of today's Villages Daily Sun. The headline reads "The Villages’ Mississippi sister city spared by Gustav". Sounds like they received some flooding, minor wind damage and power outages but it doesn't sound too bad.

http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/a...ews/news02.txt

[graciegirl]

I am so glad you brought this subject up, Muncle. It was good to hear about it and good to hear that Gustav didn't harm them too!