Does anyone else find it slightly ironic that we give hurricanes people names? I guess we can't imagine nature being so cruel, so we have to humanize it to justify the destruction?
In any case, for anyone worried about my safety, I think we got a single raindrop from Laura. She ripped up Lake Charles, which is in the mission, but didn't come as far west as us. All of our eastern missionaries got evacuated, so we had a companionship staying with us for Tuesday through Thursday. Luckily their area wasn't affected, so they were able to head home. Some of our missionaries won't be home for awhile, until power is up in Lake Charles and Beaumont again. We were definitely lucky to be spared from this one.
Two days after the storm, we packed up for our first work crew. Arriving in Lake Charles was like arriving on the set of an apocalypse movie. Trees just snapped right in half, entire roofs torn away, electric poles and power lines laying in the street, street lights just gone. I mean, wow. It was tragic just to see the swath of destruction. It is lucky that is was moving as fast as it was...had Laura been a slow moving storm, there might not have been a Lake Charles left to go help. There was no flooding, so our service consists of tarping roofs and cleaning debris, mostly. This is going to be one for the professionals to handle, in the long run. There are huge crews of electrical trucks ready to start working on the infrastructure.
Sunday we were going back to work, so we had an early sacrament meeting in our grubbies, then loaded up for the long drive back to Louisiana. We had to rush back from that one a little early, because Saturday night I was asked to play at a fireside Sunday night, so we had to get back. We barely made it with time to change, no shower or food, but at least we made it. And the fireside went well, although my piano solos sounded like I hadn't played them in a month...which is true, I didn't even have time to run through them before the concert. So that was an exciting little trip.
Other than that, Elder Gregory and I made another unsuccessful gator-hunt nature walk. This is his last week, so we will have to try again.
I am sure there was more, but Laura definitely overshadowed everything else. What a drama queen.
Signing out, safe but slightly burnt,
Elder DeFord
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