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From the Baresden (www.baresden.com), website of Fran and Mike Willumitis\r\n\r\n\r\nThis is our story. Here you will learn who we are. We are in the process of rebuilding our lives in \r\nthe aftermath of Katrina. Bear with us as we go through the pictures and attempt to put together our\r\n Katrina story.\r\n\r\n \r\nAfter hurricane Katrina, due to the almost total destruction of our town, and the loss of all four \r\nhouses in our family we were considering relocating. Our daughter and grandchildren had relocated to\r\n North Carolina and my mom\'s from Smithfield. I had spent quite a bit of time here growing up and \r\nalways loved it. We had family here so we relocated my mom too. \r\n\r\nMike is originally from New Orleans, a Firefighter / Emergency Medical Technician, retired after\r\n 30 years with the City of Bay St Louis Mississippi Fire Department as a battalion Chief / Training \r\nOfficer and, concurrently, 20 years with the Diamondhead Fire Protection District as Captain of the\r\n Rescue Unit. \r\n\r\nI am a Cajun, from the bayous of Louisiana, a registered nurse, retired after 34 years as a surgical\r\n nurse, specializing in orthopedic surgery. I worked part-time in a local nursing home, until the\r\n hurricane blew it away. I was also a volunteer with both of Mike\'s fire departments and designed \r\nand maintained the web pages for both departments.\r\n\r\nOur home sustained heavy damage from Katrina, 3 feet of water and 1 foot of mud! Basically,\r\n everything below waist level was a total loss. We have many great memories of the Gulf Coast, \r\nbut there are some recent things we would rather forget.\r\n\r\nKatrina made a lot of changes in our lives.\r\n\r\nWe went from living in an 1800 square foot home to a 27 foot camper trailer where we lived for 9 months.\r\n\r\nOur well furbished almost commercial kitchen became a 3 burner propane stove, a BBQ pit and an oven that will almost hold a pan of biscuits\r\n\r\n\r\nWe moved from wearing shorts and T shirts 80% of the time to boots, down coats and hats\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nOur highspeed internet connection has been replaced by dial-up that uploads at 2 kb/sec \r\n\r\nWalmart is 20 miles away. There is no Hudsons Discount Store\r\n\r\nOur evenings of sitting in the hot tub have changed to sitting out by an open fire\r\n\r\nNo one here has heard of coffee and chicory, beignets or crayfish\r\n\r\nSeasoning is salt, pepper and pork fat-but they do have Tony\'s seasoning and Tabasco\r\n\r\nOur Nextel phones worked up to 1/4 mile from our house. Nextel with it\'s nationwide coverage is apparently unaware that Grantsboro North Carolina is not in a foreign country and charged us $400.00 because their towers do not work here.\r\n\r\nWe spent four months fighting Allstate who told us we did not need flood insurance because we were in a FEMA designated no flood zone\r\n\r\nSo now with our few remaining possessions dirty with mud and packed in a storage unit here we are.