I live in Brandon which is not too far from Florence. (about 15 minutes) They are o.k. but lots of trees down, etc. just like the other communities in this area. There was only one fatality in the Jackson metro area. More people are getting power back every day but there are still over 50,000 in the Jackson area with no power. We got power back in East Brandon late Thursday night. Some places still don't have phone service even after getting power and vice versa. After the storm, even our cell phones would not work due to so many towers damaged in this area. Our main problem now is getting gas to the service stations. Lines are long if you can even find a station who has gas. This has been an unreal experience. I've never seen anything like it this far inland. Brandon is about 3 or 4 hours from the Coast. Laurel is in terrible shape. About 65% of the homes & businesses are damaged. They are having problems getting water & food as are lots of other communities to our South - - - between central Mississippi and the Coast. Keep them all in your prayers. Debbie in Brandon

My Dad and brother live in Star, about 6 miles south of Florence, and they don't have phone service or power. As for power, it depends mainly if you're on Entergy or Southern Pine. It looks like Entergy has restored power to most of the customers in the area, but Southern Pine is going to take another week or so. Mike Forest Hill, MD -----Original Message----- From: Waddell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 7:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MSRANKIN] Contact in the county I live in Brandon which is not too far from Florence. (about 15 minutes) They are o.k. but lots of trees down, etc. just like the other communities in this area. There was only one fatality in the Jackson metro area. More people are getting power back every day but there are still over 50,000 in the Jackson area with no power. We got power back in East Brandon late Thursday night. Some places still don't have phone service even after getting power and vice versa. After the storm, even our cell phones would not work due to so many towers damaged in this area. Our main problem now is getting gas to the service stations. Lines are long if you can even find a station who has gas. This has been an unreal experience. I've never seen anything like it this far inland. Brandon is about 3 or 4 hours from the Coast. Laurel is in terrible shape. About 65% of the homes & businesses are damaged. They are having problems getting water & food as are lots of other communities to our South - - - between central Mississippi and the Coast. Keep them all in your prayers. Debbie in Brandon ==== MSRANKIN Mailing List ==== List Mom for MSRANKIN-L: Diana Boothe [email protected] ============================== Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx