When you have a flood, everything that does not survive in water looks for higher ground. Including bugs – all kinds of them.

It is clean-up time in Mobile. We notice all kinds of "extra" bugs in the house – spiders, tiny flying insects and other critters that I am not familiar with, a fire ant or two (with ant bites to prove it!), etc. Hey, they wanted to survive, too, so some of them found refuge in the house. We and our neighbors are busy getting everything out of the basement (in our case) that was under water, getting out carpets, furniture, etc. in the case of our neighbors.

There is a strange stench in the air, like swamp muck, and it permeates everything. In cleaning up the debris in the yard, you have to watch out for dead creatures (like the rat in the picture). We got our damaged water pump hooked up yesterday so we can run it a couple of times a day to have water for flushing the toilets. However, everyone has been warned to drink only bottled water, so we have a supply on hand that will last a few days. The gas price here has jumped by 30 percent. Indications from the power company are that it will be possibly some weeks before the electricity comes back on. All things considered – like the situation in New Orleans – we are doing fairly well.