Arrived

I arrived safely. Yes, I have a place to stay. I was able to get into a Fairfield Inn in Hattiesburg, which is halfway between Jackson and Biloxi, so it will reduce my drive tomorrow, which is nice. They don’t have a room for tomorrow night though. I’m going to try to extend it in the morning. Otherwise I’ll have to figure something else out. It will all work out.

Interesting though, Hattiesburg is still 70 miles from the gulf coast. The hotel parking lots are filled with Electrical company trucks from all over the south (North Carolina…Missouri…Georgia…). It is the crews staying in the hotels, not necessarily refugees, though there are probably some of them too.

On the drive down, at 120 miles from the coast, I began to see trees down. From 90 miles out to Hattiesburg (70 miles out) the trees were down on the side of the road almost continuously. At the 90 mile mark I began to see roofs off of buildlings and signs blown out by wind. Here in Hattiesburg, 50% of the road signs were bent down or blown over. Made finding the right exit a challenge.

I saw several power poles knocked over too.

The town here seems crowded. Lots of cars. I suppose because people are away from the coast.

Tomorrow I’ll be up and on the road by 7 or 7:30am and on the road. I'll try to update with photos as I am able.