The Yow's v Hurricane Katrina

(Charles II's graduation from the University of Mississippi School of Law May 2006, last family photo.)

I PRAISE YOU IN THE STORM

(with thoughts by Cheryl Yow)

I am sure by now
That you would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day? But once again, I say "Amen" and its still raining.

I received 3 text messages from Charles, my husband, during Hurricane Katrina, while I was at work at Touro hospital in New Orleans working, "Please pray for us, the weather is really bad", then all of our phones went dead and I had no more contact with Charles and my son Nathan at home until I got home on the third day. During that time the song that was on my lips as I prayed was, "It is well with my soul". Tuesday night as the water was flooding New Orleans, one of the nurses asked me to read the Bible. We sat in the burning heat and dark room with a flash light about 1 am reading the Bible to a doctor, several nurses and a scrub tech that were scared to death that we were all going to die.

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away.

When I got home and found the nice house that God gave me a couple of years ago destroyed , I was reminded of these words found in Job "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord". I was very blessed to find my husband and son had survived, and were going around sharing some of our canned food with people, later we shared food, and water, and Charles passed out Gideon Bibles and New Testaments that were brought to the area.

About a month later while I was working in Massachusetts, while the hospital in New Orleans was closed, I got a phone call from my Mom stating that my Dad had a stroke, and then a week later the Lord took him. I praise the God who gave him to me for all of those years, and the God who took him.

And now this past Thursday, He took my husband, Charles to be with Him. Thank you for giving him to me for the past 29 years.

I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand? You never left my side
And though my heart is torn? I will praise you in this storm.

Thank you Lord for being with me thru the storm and for never leaving my side, even thru the dangers at work when the big strange man showed up on our floor in the dark at 2am and refused to leave when I asked him to and when he put his hand in his pocket and I thought he was going to pull out a gun and we couldn't call security because none of our phones worked.. Thank you Lord for being with me thru the storm when I was in New Orleans and had no way of knowing how my husband and son were doing at home when the hurricane was going thru Bay St Louis. And now my heart is torn with the loss of my husband, but I will praise You in this storm.

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I cant find you..

I can never make it without You, Lord.

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of heaven and earth.

I know where my help comes from the Lord, it comes from the Lord who made the heaven and the earth. I will never forget His power, His comfort and strength. One thing I will never forget is seeing all of the crosses that were left standing after the hurricane. steeples without crosses were blown off, yet when there was a cross on the top, the church would be gone and the supports for the church would be left supporting the cross. I had a cross hanging over one of my doors and the water came up about half an inch from the cross. I will never be the same. I praise You, God even in the storms that you have brought in my life. Thank you for your prayers for me and my children during this difficult time in the loss of our husband and father.

Love,

Cheryl Yow

Water coming in	Wind pushing the ocean water in
Waves pushed against the house as the water rises	Water rising
The Kitchen as the water rises	Water on top of the back deck
Looking at the Living Room from the 3rd Floor (7ft of water & rising)	Nathan searching for food before the water gets it
Nathan's Advertisement for Premium Saltine Crackers and Armour Potted Meat	Trees fallen on the back porch
Another angle of the living room as the water rises	Waves outside of the living room window
More waves outside the living room	Doctor's Office and Winn Dixie Parking Lot as the water rises
Wind pushes waves as the ocean comes in	Water rising on the house next door
Stairs that washed in from Chapel Hill subdivision 2 miles away	Waves out side as the wind pushes the water in
Waves washing broken wood in	Water receding
Water receding	Water receding on the house next door
Water receding on the house next door	Water receding on the house across the street
Water receding on the 2nd floor	Water receding on the 2nd floor and house next door
Another view of the house next door and water receding	Neighbors homes looking down Esplanade Avenue
Water going down from Winn Dixie parking lot and Doctor's Office	Water receding
Water receding	Water receding
Water receding	Water receding
Water receding but cars still floating in the Winn Dixie parking lot	Cars floating in the Winn Dixie parking lot as the water goes down
Cars floating in the Winn Dixie parking lot	Back porch, water and downed trees
Water, trees, and trash as the water goes down	Immediately after the storm Esplanade Avenue
Creek after the storm	Water receding
Living room after things had fallen back to the floor	Couch in the road
Water receding	Water Receding
Water Receding	Beach Blvd immediately after the storm
Beach Blvd immediately after the storm	Beach Blvd immediately after the storm
Beach Blvd	Beach Blvd taking picture of Bay Bridge
Beach Blvd at the corner of Main St, Bay St. Louis	Beach Blvd and Main immediately after the storm (Notice the lamp on the table on the 2nd floor, 3rd room from left and all of the furniture)
Close up of Hancock Bank building office with lamp and furniture still in place	Beach Blvd looking toward the Bay Bridge with the storm in the distance
Homes on Beach Blvd after the storm	Beach Blvd looking toward main
Beach Blvd looking toward Main St.	Beach Blvd looking toward Main St, old movie theater and Trapany's Eatery.
Chapel Hill Subdivision (corner of Beach Blvd and US 90) where the stairs in our yard during the hurricane floated from	Chapel Hill Subdivision (corner of Beach Blvd and US 90)
US 90 at Bay Bridge	Looking down Main St, Bay St. Louis from Beach Blvd
	1st Baptist, Bay St. Louis (In Bay St Louis, every church with a cross on its steeple kept its steeple on top of the building)
1st Baptist Church, undergoing reconstruction. These 3 crosses were not touched by Katrina although we lost our steeple! God is Great!	Rental property
Rental property	Bay Bridge
US 90 and Beach Blvd immediately after the Hurricane	Chapel Hill Subdivision, portion fronting the Bay
Chapel Hill Subdivision	Train bridge crossing the Bay of St. Louis
People walking around after the storm	People walking around after the storm near Bay Bridge
People walking down Beach Blvd after Katrina	Bay Bridge, Bay St. Louis, MS
Bay Bridge, Bay St. Louis, MS	Chapel Hill Subdivision looking from the base of the Bay Bridge
Bay Bridge, Bay St. Louis, MS	Bay Bridge, Bay St. Louis, MS
Portions of the bridge washed into the Bay of St. Louis	Pier and train bridge broken up in the Bay
Foundations.	Chapel Hill Subdivision
Bay Bridge and Beach Blvd as the water goes out.	Bay of St. Louis as the water goes out
Bay of St. Louis immediately after the storm	Bay immediately after the Storm
Water going out off Beach Blvd	Chapel Hill Subdivision
Chair in a Tree	Beach Blvd
	Chair and Power Lines on Dunbar Ave
Chapel in the Chapel Hill Subdivision	Slab of a house in the Chapel Hill Subdivision
Beach Blvd	House on Beach Blvd
Beach Blvd	Ocean going shipping container blocking Dunbar Ave
Shopping center across US 90 from Winn Dixie	Trees behind the house after the Hurricane
Cars and ocean shipping container washed into the Road	Doctor's House looking toward our house from the Winn Dixie Parking lot.
Trees knocked into the front yard & hot tube lid on porch (Nathan and Charles were going to use the hot tub lid to swim to the roof of the house across the street)
Earthly Possessions. "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal"