Hurricane Isaac

Down here on the Gulf Coast, we are taking a beating from Hurricane Isaac.. My town is about 30 miles inland, so we typically don't see too much damage from storms.  Isaac came into town on Tuesday, and everyone thought it was just going to be a breeze. Yesterday, in fact, Josh and I were out and about all day to keep from going stir crazy.  Last night, however, things took a change for the worse.  People in my town lost power for the first time. We still haven't lost power, thank goodness. (Knock on wood.)

There are areas on the Gulf Coast that are prone to flooding due to the fact that they are low-lying and/or close to water.  Never in the history of ever has my little town flooded from a hurricane.  When we woke up this morning, though, my facebook newsfeed was filled with pictures of flooded houses and streets. To make matters worse, Mobile, AL (which is about 15 miles east of us) are opening their floodgates shortly.  They did this during Hurricane George several years ago and caused all kinds of flooding in Mississippi.  Now, they are adding to the flooding that we already have.

While we were out and about yesterday, Josh and I went down to the beach in Pascagoula, MS to see what the conditions were like.  It was barely raining and the wind was barely blowing.  Areas were flooded, however, so we had to park a street up from the beach and walk down.  Once we got to the actual beach, the wind was blowing so hard we could barely stand.  I've never been in wind like that.  It was CRAZY.  There is no beach anymore.  Just water all the way to the highway.  I've been through many a hurricane in my life (including Katrina), and I'd never experienced that before.  It was really neat, actually.  During Katrina, there was a lot of flooding in the flood zones around here due to the storm surge, which caused a lot of people to lose their homes.  We had a storm surge during this storm, too, but not nearly as bad.  Most of the flooding from this storm took place during the night last night and was the result of rain and rain alone.

A store about 5 minutes from my house

The CVS in the main part of my town

Pascagoula Beach. If you look close, you can see volleyball nets sticking up from the water.

Pascagoula Beach Pier

My grandparents' back yard. They flooded the last time the Mobile flood gates were opened, but not to this extent, and this is before the gates were opened.

 Please keep our area, along with the rest of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Louisiana, and all others affected in your prayers.