Hi - this is Lisa P. from Pass Christian, writing from my Camille-Katrina-Gustav-tested home complete with electricity, restored by our fantastic power company last night. (MS Power rocks!) Mike - so sorry to hear about the 20 hour trip. What a nightmare. But I hope your home is okay. Let me know when you get back home. We had only 60 mph gusts here, but they went on for about 6-8 hours. Small trees and large limbs are down and some minor issues, but overall we are fine. I have family that lives in Slidell and St. Bernard - all evacuated so are safe, and I'm hoping that none flooded, but we don't know yet for sure. We may have a house full of people later today as they drive here and wait to get back home. General update from the local news: Some of the worst storm surge hit Hancock County in Miss, which unfortunately was also the worse surge area in Katrina, so there are a lot of folks who got hit again. The emotional toll is going to be heavy. The just rebuilt harbor area here is a wreck. I don't know about the city services (which are still in trailers) yet but we are going to drive to town in a little while to check on a friend's place. Pass Christian, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pearlington all got hit pretty bad. Pearlington had a report of a 19 ft. storm surge, but I think that may be exagerated. It was more likely 14-16 ft. but that is bad enough to wipe them out. A friend from the Bay reported a nearly 11 ft. surge at his place about 1/2 mile from the Bay. He is a scientist and probably has that pretty accurate. Power is coming back pretty quickly to places that didn't flood. I don't know what is going to happen here when so many people who have barely recovered have now flooded again. We are lucky - I joked with my husband that after only about a day of yard clean-up, we could get back to our normal Katrina repairs. But the truth is it isn't really a joke. We still aren't back to normal yet, but that isn't unusual if you flooded in Katrina. Slidell, New Orleans, and St. Bernard - reports are that there is still flooding in low lying areas of Slidell (Palm Harbor), but it is isolated. Several friends on the east side of Slidell - Cross Gates, Quail Ridge, have power and did not flood. The surge may have been as high as 9-10 ft. on the most southwestern part of Slidell, where one friend has a ft. of water in her yard. The storm moved fast enough that water didn't pile up in Lake Pontchartrain as it could have. They are saying the sewerage system in Slidell is out. Reports are the the levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard held although water was at the top of the Industrial Canal levee at the 9th ward. A couple of levee leaks in St. Bernard (one right near my sister's house) were plugged and prevented flooding. One report said that near Paris Road and St. Bernard highway did not have water. Terrebone Parish (Houma area, Brian lives there I think he might have flooded) flooded pretty bad, but I am hearing very little details about the damage. They had 10-12 ft. storm surge. Gustav was a high cat 4 storm with a bad surge predicted for LA and MS we were expecting a lot of damage. It went down to a 3 and even a 2 at landfall, but still had a solid 3 storm surge. It could have been much much worse that it is, but it is still bad enough, especially for the folks who got whacked by Katrina. This was nothing like Katrina, but it's harder than it would be if Katrina hadn't happened. Regarding the question of 'Why don't ya'll just move if you live in a flood-prone area?' I can say that personally, my husband and I moved from LA to MS where there is some high ground, and we did choose someplace that was never expected to flood at 23-25 ft. elevation. Well, it flooded in Katrina anyway, and nobody ever thought that could happen. Now if we want to move, we can't afford to. Insurance is so expensive here that nobody will buy your house. Some places can't get insurance. Also, our town isn't the most attractive place to live right now and probably won't be for decades. So unless we want to take a huge financial loss and sell our house for practically nothing, we are stuck. That is true for many people in the towns that got wiped out by Katrina. Who wants to move to a town with no grocery or pharmacy, trailers for city buildings, beat-up trees, perpetual road construction, and unaffordable insurance? Actually the people here are great and we have some beautiful areas so it has its good points, but outsiders won't necessarily know that and want to come here. I think more people who flooded are going to move away now, and that is going to make things even worse. The other reason, and perhaps the main reason people don't up and move away is that nearly all of New Orleans, St. Bernard, and Slidell are in flood-prone areas, at least for a bad hurricane, so unless you leave town, you can't get away. And people don't want to leave their hometowns where they work and have family and friends. I live within a hour of my 2 sisters, and I won't move away from them, so unless we all decide to move together, and we all get new jobs somewhere else, we can't leave without breaking up the family. It's unfortunate that cities got built in flood-prone areas, but way back when, people didn't have the knowledge they have now about oceanography and weather to help choose places to settle. Also, the terrible destruction of our wetlands and barrier islands due to decades of oil canals being dug, and the levees built along the Miss River stopping sediment flow have contributed to the flooding problem. As Mike said, New Orleans is sinking due to the Miss levees, but it is still an important city. Sorry to ramble, but I want to try to explain that it isn't as simple as it seems from the outside. New Orleans, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany are telling people not to come back home - that you will be prevented from going home even if you have electric and your home is fine. That is creating a lot of problems. Also, schools in all those areas are going to be closed until Monday, or at least that is the latest I've heard. Hope this is useful to somebody. Thank you all my friends for your concern for me and everyone down here. It means a great deal to me. I'm fine, my family is safe, and more importantly, my roses are mostly okay. Let's hope to hear from Brian, and Mike again soon. Lisa

You know, as much as it was yucky to have snow this early...it was actually really pretty against the backdrop of colored leaves. In a normal winter, I get lots of deep snow so I am used to the white stuff but I can't recall ever having snow this deep with leaves still on the trees. I did lose power overnight but it was restored this morning which is fairly quick since the more rural areas are usually last. I got close to TWO FEET of snow in my yard. It just kept coming all night. I measured it and it was 22 inches here. The weird thing is that the snowfall totals around my area varied significantly. Just off my mountain and into town they only got about 8-10 inches and other parts of NH depending on elevations, it ranged from 6" to 24". I knew I would get a lot because my place is a magnet for snow...LOL. I'll be posting pictures from the storm in an off-topic thread, if anyone is interested. Celeste

I'm surprised Jeff hasn't chimed in on this post. I saw several things there that appear to be lifted from the MTPS site.

West Coast Built In Fridges stole $2715 and I am not the only one! My parents own a small business and I am the first to support small businesses but this is not a reputable mom and pop shop. They will steal your money and not feel bad about it. They no longer have a paypal acount because paypal closed it for too many charge backs. I wish I would have read these reviews before I gave them $2715 on 1/21/14 and as of 8/11/14 no refrigerator, no refund, not even a call back or email response. They will provide excuses and put you off past the time that your credit card company will reverse the charges. If you use them (and I truly hope you do not) check with your credit card company and see how long you have to reverse the charges and have the refrigerator delivered before then. If you do not have the refrigerator, reverse the charges and do not listen to their excuses and promises of it will be delivered in just another 3 weeks, or on Monday, or whatever they will say to put you past the point where they have your money and there is nothing you can do but sue them for it back. Here is how it happened for me and after reading similar stories, I am not the only one. I have all the emails documented. I have too many calls between these that went either unanswered or to a voicemail box that is full. I would love to get together with others and have a class action lawsuit against WCBIF to get the $10's of thousands of dollars this company stole. 1/21/14: Paid via Paypal $2715 for a 36” 550 rt opening sub zero, no panels, new compressor, 1 yr sealed system warranty plus custom professional grill. 3/13: emailed Kayla on status of delivery 3/17: email from Brandee Humphrey that Kayla no longer works here and she will get back to me with delivery this week. 3/18: Brandee said she is waiting for the grill to come in. Also, an FYI that she is recovering from surgery and to forgive us for being slow. 4/2: emailed Brandee for status 4/3: Brandee said her father passed away 2 weeks ago and we are behind on orders ��" working on yours next. Had to order the cold control. 4/21: Emailed Brandee for status (no response) 5/5: Emailed that since I have not heard anything on the status of the refrigerator in over a month, I was going to call the credit card company and reverse the charges if I did not hear back from them. 5/5: Emailed and requested a refund. 5/6: called over 4 times and emailed over three times in the past 2 weeks with no response. 5/6: spoke to Candy (new office assistant) who said she would have Brandee call me back when she gets in in the afternoon. No call back ��" asked for a refund. 5/7: Candy offered a $200 creditif I didn’t charge back the credit card and they would ship on 5/19 and deliver between 5/24 and 5/29. 5/21: emailed if refrigerator had been shipped and if the delivery company will call me first before delivery. 5/21: Response was “yes they will call first.” 5/23: Called and left a message regarding shipping status. 5/27: Called and left a message again because I did not receive any call from the shipping company ��" need tracking. 5/27: Called again and left a message. 5/27: email response from Brandee Humphrey ��" the owner. The office no longer has phone staff to answer calls, please email for updates. I know I have made promises that have not been kept in the past. Unfortunately I cannot uphold the promise of delivery this week as of today. The one we we set aside for you is not good enough. I am refurbishing another for you. Please allow another 3 weeks or less for the order to be received. If not, I can understand you wanting a refund. 5/29: Emailed and asked for a 6/17 delivery of the fridge. 5/29: Emailed and asked for someone to call me since I have not heard via email or phone the status of the order. 5/29: email that Candy no longer works here. 5/30: no word on delivery. Demanded to hear back by 6/2 that the refrigerator will be delivered on 6/17 or refund my money on 6/2. 6/1: email from Larry. Yes your fridge will be shipped out before the 10th of June. Thanks for your patience. 6/2: emailed Larry back asking to let me know when it ships including the tracking and carrier info. 6/2: Larry responds: Will do. 6/12: emailed and asked for tracking 6/12: Response back is: Thank you for your patience. Let me get back to you later today. 6/13: Email saying carrier is picking up on Monday (6/16) 6/13: Emailed and asked for a delivery date since it was to be shipped out today. 6/16: Emailed and asked if the refrigerator shipped and when was the deliver date. 7/28: Called and spoke to Brandee saying we submitted a chargeback with paypal and if she would pay the paypall chargeback. Brandee said that paypal closed their account due to the number of chargebacks. She will talk to Larry and call me back within 24 hours. 8/5: Called and mailbox full 8/5: Emailed them to say that since I have not heard back that I will begin legal proceedings and also contact the BBB, place reviews on every site I can find, and flag their craigslist ads for fraud as they continue to advertise products on at least 11 sites around the country collecting money without providing the product. 8/6: Called and mailbox full 8/9: Called and left message that I am not in a position to just throw away $2700 and pleaded for them to call back and refund my money (no call back)