Hometowns - you either hate yours or you love it. A lot of people have mixed feelings about my hometown of Brookhaven, Mississippi, but it will always be my favorite place to return to, and it will always be my home. Things that make it home for me are my family, our friends, and our farm on which we live. Nothing beats going home for a weekend to be welcomed by a flock of goats, pigs, dogs and cats. When I was thinking about my hometown, I started wondering how some of my friends felt about their Mississippi hometowns, too, so I asked a few them:

"The fact that you know everything about everyone good or bad. The shopping is good, and just the feeling of home you get there that you don't get that in other places." - Caroleah, Brookhaven

"For Greenville, I love the culture, I love when we have events or festivals in town and the feeling of the place is home & I love that my family is there.
For Brookhaven, I love Sunday's, going into town to eat after church and seeing all different kinds of people in their church clothes coming together with their families to enjoy a meal. It's one of my favorite times." - Jewel, Brookhaven & Greenville

"That's where family is, and it's just a peaceful place for me." - Hannah, Tylertown

"Seafood, simplicity, and community. Simple as that!" - Sarah, Pascagoula

"Community. Even though it is a small community where everyone knew everyone, there is always a helping hand if someone was in need. So it's like I am always surrounded by family. As kids, we were always so free. We never had to worry about being watched by our parents cause the neighbors would keep an eye on us for them, so our playing took place on every part of the street loop and we played non-stop all day. And the people I grew up with are people I still turn to today, even though we rarely see each other." - Katelyn, Cedar Bluff

So, what happens when the place you call home and always look forward to going back to is destroyed by a flood, something you cannot control, and no one saw coming?

I haven't lived in Brookhaven my entire life. I was actually born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and lived in Baker, Louisiana for the first five years of my life. Most of my family still lives in that area.

If you are the kind of person that keeps up with the news or gets on any form of social media, then you know that many bad things have happened in Louisiana over the last few months, and it is completely heartbreaking. My parents grew up in Baker, they lived there until August 2000, when we moved to Brookhaven. I knew that even though we haven't lived there in 16 years, the events of the last few months still broke their hearts. I asked them, along with Mr. Craig and my aunt to tell me how they felt when they woke up one day to find that their hometown was halfway underwater with no end of the raining yet in sight, and here are their responses:

"I remember waking up that Friday morning with no idea what was happening in Louisiana. I remember going about my normal morning routine, and when I sat down at my computer and checked social media one of the first things I saw was a radar image of the storm system over East Baton Rouge & Livingston Parishes. Because it was August, my first thought was that someone was “remembering Katrina,” as many people do this time of year. It took a few minutes for it to dawn on me that it wasn’t a recollection, but a current radar image. The revelation was disorienting, because the system looked and acted exactly like a tropical storm or hurricane, rotating over the affected area, and my next thoughts were “Where did this come from? Where have I been? How did I miss this?” It was several more confusing minutes before I began to understand what was happening - that this was a “mere rain event" that was pouring rain at unprecedented rates. Baker still feels like home, because everyone in the family was born there, and we spent so much of our lives there. It didn’t take long, once the gravity of the event started to dawn on us and everyone else, for our thoughts to turn toward family and friends in the area. We were glued to Facebook, watching for updates from friends and family, and discovering that WAFB Channel 9 out of Baton Rouge was broadcasting live on the platform. Facebook earned it’s keep during the whole thing, especially for those of us outside the viewing area, who really had no other way to keep up with what was happening. The news was stunning. Having been a police officer in Baker for so many years, I wanted to badly to go there and be a part of rescue efforts, as I would’ve done had we still lived there. But for days, I could not go. At first, it would’ve been impossible anyway due to road closures. After that, I couldn’t go because of other responsibilities. Instead, I found myself doing from afar what I likely would’ve done from the ground had I been there: doing my best to match resources with needs. I monitored Facebook for mentions of need, forwarded requests, shared needs, and took some small bit of satisfaction from making needed connections on a few occasions, but not enough. It was stressful not being there." - Tommy Alderman

"I woke up on and off during the night of the beginning of the flood to rain, lots of rain, hard rain. No problem. We are high and dry in Brookhaven, no worries. But when I got up and heard of flooding in Louisiana, I was alarmed and thought of my mom in a nursing home rehab center here in Brookhaven. We usually get the same weather as Baker, and it was flooding there. The nursing home is not on a hill like we are. A quick phone call to check on her put my mind at ease. My thoughts then turned to our family in Louisiana. Text messages and phone calls were answered and everyone accounted for, none of my loved ones were flooded… Yet. Seeing the devastation on Facebook made for an anxious few days. It is hard to put into words the feelings I had watching it all unfold over the computer screen, there were so many emotions. Watching people’s houses that I grew up with flood. Some of them had been through so much the last few years, and it was heart wrenching. Seeing my best friend Kelli, who I grew up with, having to evacuate. Hearing my 93 year old aunt had to be evacuated in waste deep water by her son. Knowing my brother-in-law is out rescuing people in his personal boat with the sheriff’s department. Person after person that I personally knew losing everything and it was unfolding right before my eyes and there wasn’t anything I could do to help. I wanted to go and do something but there wasn’t even a way for me to get there, if I there had been anything anything I could do. Talking to my aunt on the phone & she’s telling me the water was to the door and the water had also had a current, finding out another aunt had flooded, then my cousins house flooded, then my brother-in-law Craig's business flooded. It was just so hard hearing it all and I was completely helpless here. Safe and dry along with all of my stuff. It was almost a feeling of guilt. I wanted to help so much and couldn’t do anything but I did pray. I can’t imagine how I would feel if we still lived there. I’m so proud of my hometown folks though. They are standing strong facing this head on. I would hope I would have been so brave." - Patti Alderman

"There was total devastation in Baker and surrounding areas. I was pretty much heartbroken to see my office and my grandmother’s house next door go under. But thanks to all that helped with the clean up of my office, Tommy and Patti putting together a team to clean out my grandmother’s house.. There has been no fighting, but all hands on deck in the entire area to pull together with one common goal of getting back on our feet and a sense of normalcy. We all know it will never be the same after losing everything, but many others and myself do feel God's presence and love throughout this whole ordeal." - Craig McCulloch, Physical Therapist in Baker, Louisiana.

"Its different for me. I've lived here my entire life, I never left Baker like most people I know. I work in the public works department, I've been the administrative officer, and my roles have everything to do with disaster and rebuilding. The best words to describe this is devastation & heartache. I have tried to help in anyway I could. I spent my time out advising people to evacuate because the water was still rising and it would probably rise four more feet, and letting them know which roads were open. It was more water than I've ever seen in my lifetime. It was the most helpless feeling I have ever had watching the water rise. Hurricanes are different. A tree falls on a power line or over road, we can get it up and fix that, but there is nothing you can do when it comes to flooding. absolutely nothing. A friend of mine told me that out of approximately 10,000 homes in Central around 9,000 houses were under water. Denham Springs and Walker were worse. I was so worried that people would just pack up and leave, but I was taken by surprise that so many people are staying and rebuilding their lives even though it’s harder to do than leaving. Working for a City for so many years of my life and then seeing over half of it destroyed, I was just overwhelmed with thoughts of what's next? What's gonna be left? Clean up efforts are going to take a long time, so its a daily reminder at the end of your driveway of everything that was destroyed. I know that whatever happens is suppose to happen, and through all of this, God has a plan, and that makes me feel like that we will come out on top one way or another." - Aunt Julie

At the end of our conversation, I asked Aunt Julie if she could let the outside world know something, what it would be, and her response was this:

"You don't realize how quickly things can change right before your eyes. You never know what will happen one day to the next, or even hour by hour. It was just rain and no one knew what the magnitude would turn out to be. We should just be thankful for every day we get and also, take heed of warnings. Once it the water comes up you don't have many options after that. And it was amazing to see how God's love brings out the best in people. It was incredible how the people at City Hall have pulled together because we are a family and we do whatever we have to do to help our people. I am so proud of my town."

My favorite thing about Aunt Julie and Mr. Craig's response, having experienced the hurt of it all first hand, was that they knew through such a hard time that God's love and grace was still surrounding them. I went down a few weekends ago and rode around town with Aunt Julie, and it was amazing to see people continuously working so hard to clean out their homes, with smiles on their faces. I just couldn't believe it, but it was so evident that they were just thankful to be alive.

I hope that this might provide the "outsiders" an inside look into the devastation, and also serve as a reminder that the people of Louisiana have made it through the shootings, the horrible, heart wrenching deaths and this flood in under 6 months, and that their healing and rebuilding process is far from over.

My prayers continue to be with all the families effected.

# LouisianaStrong #unBRoken