As some of you may have heard, Hurricane Katrina is about to hit the Southern Coast of the US. Craig, the owner of the Chain of Flowers website lives in New Orleans. It seems New Orleans is going to get hit with the worst part of the storm. The only good news about this is that as of a few minutes ago, it was downgraded from a Category 5 (Winds greater than 155 mph (249 km/hr)) to a Category 4 storm (Winds 131-155 mph (210-249 km/hr)).
For those in other parts of the world where hurricanes never hit and therefore may not understand the severity of this storm, I can tell you from first hand experience that they are deadly. I lived in Florida for 2 years and lived through several near misses where I was (including category 5 Hurricane Andrew). My grandmother lives in Fort Pierce, Florida and suffered 2 direct hits from hurricanes last summer. Her house still hasn't been repaired.
While COF will be out of commission for some time so that Craig can deal with what he needs to deal with in his personal life, we all need to keep our fingers crossed, say our prayers, etc. that he and many millions of other people come away from this storm unscathed. Our thoughts are with you Craig!
i wish you the best craig, let's cross the fingers
Hi Craig and everyone in the New Orleans area:
I saw the pictures a few minutes ago on CNN. Hope that THE EYE is not hitting New Orleans ( they said it made a right turn in the last moment ) and that your beautiful city will be in good shape again in a few days.
Best wishes from Germany
Tom
( Strunz4 )
yeah, good luck to everyone out there, hope you all remain safe and well, hope Craig is up and running again soon :wink:
Hey Craig, kind regards from Per?. Everything will be alright we're sure!
:smt006
David.
My thoughts are with everyone involved................... good luck Craig
Luke x :P
I was watching the news this morning, and I kept thinking about Craig. I kind of lost track of the latest developments, but I have a feeling he will be ok... Maybe he left the area ahead of time.
So far it does not look good, hopefully you live away from the coast and on higher ground, Many thanks for hosting COF, it still remains one of the best cure site around without it I would have never found all the great live bootlegs and this site!!
COF was my very first Cure site on the web that I saw. I found it way back when... Ever since, it has become a daily stop on my web surfing. Craig is a smart guy so I know he had to get out but if he did stay to ride out the storm, I wish him well along with everyone else along the Gulf Coast.
COF is a routine stop for me, too. I've chatted with Craig over email, and I wish he and his family, along with all the others in the Southern States the best of luck.
Here's the latest regarding NOLA...things aren't looking good and they didn't even take a direct hit!
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/30/katrina.neworleans/index.html
From Craig:
Update: I am safe and near Houston, Tx., but New Orleans (and much of the central Gulf Coast) is devastated and things are only getting worse. Please help in anyway you can!
good to hear that Craig is safe and well, my thoughts go out to everyone affected by this disaster :cry:
Quote from: boneheadhaggargood to hear that Craig is safe and well, my thoughts go out to everyone affected by this disaster :cry:
My feelings exactly.
Hopefully Craig will be one of the lucky ones whose homes weren't affected by this.
Having just read the New York times headlines that the levees broke and New Orleans has been flooding terribly and no one will be able to go home for weeks at best , my heart and hopes go out to everyone in the city and along the gulf coast... having also chatted periodically online with Craig, I am glad to see he made it safely to Houston, lets all hope he has some home to go back to....
Craig-glad that you are o.k. I hope your place is still around it looks real bad down there-God I miss the news about the cure- is there any thing any one can do to help you out?
Glad to know Craig is good, my thoughts go to the people who lives there. Don't give up!
Does anyone know if Craig needs anything? It's hard to know how to help. I hope he has a place to stay!!
Erik
I emailed Craig the other day asking him if he needed anything. I figured with the generosity of the Cure community we would be able to get something together for him. I haven't heard back yet. If and when I do, I will let you guys know.
Here are some amazing pictures showing the damage in NO....
http://www.wwltv.com/sharedcontent/breakingnews/slideshow/083005_dmnkatrina/1.html
good luck craig! and to everyone else involved
COF is a brilliant site!