Salem Katrina Team Report - January 20

I wanted to comment on the strange feeling as I arrived in Tampa and looked around.

Something is wrong! These streets are clean. The fences are upright. The homes don't have blue plastic covering the roofs. The trees aren't broken off and crashed all over the place. It smells clean. No little signs stuck in the ground at each intersection hawking roof repairs or discount electrical work.

It looks normal. It looks like what this entire country looked like the day before Katrina. Suddenly seeing "normal" really hits you after a few months in the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I've been working here in Tampa on insurance papers, bank stuff and details about replacing our burned motorhome. It is necessary, and we have to do it to replace our loss and not suffer the loss of our investment, but boy, do I feel I'm wasting time! Here I am in Tampa, playing with my "toys" instead of working. I learned that our RV sales rep's aunt lives in Gulfport and lost her home. The sales rep's company sent her a motorhome and it pulled a travel trailer which was donated elsewhere.

I certainly missed the crowd at evening and morning devotions back at Christus Victor.