OK, over concern for palebluedot and others, I decided to use the internet a bit and do a little snooping. First I looked at his profile, and reminded myself of his home town and the fact that he works for Telcom (interent and other tech services in the area from what I can tell)
I typed in Laurel Mississippi newspaper and found that I have to be a member to read more than the home page, not up to that frustration at the moment, I went back to my search and typed in Hattiesburg Mississippi newspaper and went here:
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/a...ategory=NEWS01
If you search around on their web site, which requires NO sign in procedure, you will find a long list of people trying to find others. There are also photos of Hattiesburg, and news stories, talking about 2 weeks before power coming back, even a story about Telcom. They let you read a lot of stories from past issues, I spent only a few moments, but you can find articles from August 30th, by DATE. Snoop around a bit.
The photos look bad in this area, but after looking at some of the stuff they have been showing on national tv, these don't look quite as bad, and give me hope that Bill is just working hard but has no interent access and maybe no power.
Continued prayers for those affected by this monster storm.
Checking the Jackson Mississippi papers found this:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pb...0110/509020339
which lists the damage to areas of Mississippi, Laurel is not included in this list.
ONE more link, there is some data here on Laurel conditions, it is a forum like MOC, many postings, people asking for information and others offering up any tidbit of data they have heard, specially from people in Laurel. OK, the link does not seem to work, so go to:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
and look for "Discuss Hurricane Katrina in our User Forums"