Good Morning,

A thank you to all of those who called and emailed with concerns for
our welfare.

Here in storm-riddled Hernando, MS, we have seen nearly two weeks of
continuous high winds (with gusts in excess of 70 mph), severe T-storms
with straight-line winds, tornados (some touching down and some only
forming funnels in the sky), wind-driven rain and flooding.....don't
you just love the south in the spring.....!

We have lost our power several times in two weeks, some for just a few
hours and twice for more than 24 hours.

The first system of T-storms hit our area hard on Monday afternoon,
April 4th, and trees took out power lines, cars, roofs, and fence
all over our neighborhood. We lost several huge old oak trees in our
immediate neighborhood and one poor fellow lost his car. Yep, the
tree fell on top of it and flattened it. Lost power for 26 hours but
most of our perishables survived. Luckily, the temperature dropped
significantly following that storm and the fuzzies were not at risk for
heat exposure and we regained power before the 80's returned. We were
just one of about 200,000 people in our area without power that day.

Last Friday afternoon, I was at work and Memphis got hit pretty hard by
the next system but nothing like Mississippi. Joe said he watched the
funnel clouds (yes plural) pass over our house again that afternoon and
they dropped down about 10 miles west of us. South of us in Oxford and
even more south, several tornadoes touched down and some folks saw much
damage. We lost our power again for only a few hours but apparently
after Joe left for work that afternoon and before I arrived home that
early evening, our smaller oak tree dropped onto our storage shed in
the backyard where we keep extra litter and paper supplies and our
carriers and smaller sick cages. Still are unsure as to whether or not
the shed can be saved but most of the litter and paper supply survived
and we lost a few carriers and plastic tubing and toys -- but our sick
cages were untouched, thankfully. We don't have any food supplies in
the shed.

All around us on Saturday south near Jackson and west of Jackson
tornadoes were touching down. We just had the dry straight-line winds -
really really strong at times. So we were able to salvage most of the
stuff in the shed and cut the tree off of the shed. We lost our power
for an hour twice that day and we were really concerned since the
temperatures were in the high 80's. But, thankfully, I kept the air
high while we had power that day and the house kept cool for the
ferrets during the few hours we were without power.

Then came the horrible Tuesday night T-storms and tornadoes. I knew
they were approaching so I took a nap and woke up about 30 minutes
before they crossed the Mississippi River from Arkansas. We had our
power for about the first 30 minutes of the storm and then, yep, lost
it. This time the storm was really really scary. Straight-line winds,
heavy rain, and a tornado had touched down on State Line Road about 10
miles north of us and was going east approaching the airport where my
husband worked (he works at UPS located at Memphis Airport) but then we
lost our power (and the TV). I stayed in the hallway near the ferret
room and then I could hear the trees making some crackling noises so I
decided to push the cages together in the ferret room and just about
that time our neighbor's huge oak tree snapped and fell on top of the
roof and into the ferret room window. Glass, wood, and pieces of tree
went everywhere and with the winds, it was pretty scary for them and
for me. And what a mess! My big big cage of personal DMK ferrets were
in the cage directly in front of that window and I don't want to even
think about what would have happened to them if I had not moved their
cage closer to the middle of the room. I had always had a plan for
what I would do in the event of tornadoes--either moving all of the
cages together in the middle of the room or laying them down flat and
covering them with sheets. I would not leave them. I had already thrown
the cats into the downstairs bathroom and closed the door. During most
of the storm, I stayed at the door of the ferret room in the hallway.
Soon after the tree landed on our house, the storm subsided and the
rains stopped. We had some winds for the remainder of the evening but
much much less than the past few days. Of course, the temperature
dropped once again and that helped keep the house and the ferrets cool
and comfortable.

We did not get our power restored until about 10 am Thursday. We had to
cut the tree off the house and quickly mend it and cover the damaged
areas before the heavy rains hit on Wednesday. Since all of the tree
companies were already busy elsewhere, several people from our church
helped us take care of it ourselves -- everyone here has chain saws
and pickup trucks, it seems. We worked all day to get it done before
the nighttime rains began. We just made it in time.

All in all, we are fine. The ferrets are shook up a bit. They are
acting a bit agitated and we will be continuing to comfort them for
days to come.

State Farm has to come out again today. Those folks are busy here. It's
a mess...everywhere.

The shed and the house will be repaired or replaced. We are just
thankful we survived as well as we did. Many, many people in this area
are still without power and trees are still being cut off houses and
power lines days later.

We pray for those that suffered far more than we did in the midwest,
Oklahoma and North Carolina....and we will continue to pray for those
who lost so much these past few weeks......God Bless you all...

Maren Qualls (Joe)
and the fuzzies in Hernando, MS
Raisins From Heaven Ferret Rescue & Sanctuary

[Posted in FML 7041]