Help Victims of Hurricane Ike

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to anyone that's participated in the Hurricane Ike relief efforts...whether it's been on your own or thru Portlight Strategies, Inc. Another truck left Charleston wednesday morning and is currently loading more supplies in Atlanta. This effort is being live streamed if anyone would like to take a peek.

http://portlight.camstreams.com/

(Sorry if this is lengthy, but I think it's well worth the read..maybe a little something to give us all a little perspective.)

I'd also like to share a post from Will, aka billybadbird. I hope anyone reading this will be as touched by his spirit as I was. It rambles a little, but worth the read. Part of this 'expedition' will be returning Billy to his beloved Bolivar Peninsula. Camping tent, supplies etc have been donated so that Billy can 'set up' at what's left of his fathers house. The following is his experience of Ike...and what followed.

"hello everyone - i am billybadbird. 7 days ago i woke up to a gigantic wave of water smashing through the front of my house and into into my bedroom where i was tossed around like a leaf blowing in the air. i escaped through my window where the oceans fury had taken my neighborhood. my neighbors houses were gone and the pets they left behind were clinging to milk crates and floating debris and i called for them to please come - please come and they tried but they got scared and drowned before my very eyes and this haunted me when i got to the highway trying to make it to the fort where i have weathered all the many storms everyone knows i so love.
the ocean was crashing through the levies- some waves were twenty feet- they would knock me down and i would scream - LORD PLEASE - i would get up and another wave- and another wave and my prayers could not not stop them and i felt like those dogs- i wanted to turn around and go back but i could not- and i had to force myself to move on- i was wearing boots but i let them go to save myself- i tried to climb a speed limit sign but that too was engulfed. i saw a large tree laying in the road and i made it - and climbed over it and took a half second rest because the fort was in sight- but the road was getting deeper and deeper. there WAS a grocery store with a two story hotel which became my new plan of action- i nearly drowned getting to the second floor- and when i did get there i had only 6 steps left not underwater- yet the wind was behind me- the rain behind me, too- i sat down- my head between my knees - me and a stray cat further down the hall- we knew each other was there- we would ride this out together- i knew i was okay- thank you lord - oh my god- thank you lord for letting me live through this----------i did not know what time it was- i knew at 2 am i would see an eye- that is what time i figured it was when the winds started screaming- when the water rose higher than the balcony- when i started screaming- lord please- lord please- holding onto each door handle that would snap under the concrete beam that would snap- no longer holding together the concrete roof that was bending while i moved to the next beam- then the next until i was no longer under the concrete roof i feared would collapse on me- until it stopped and i saw a full moon and i prayed again - oh my god- my god - thank you - thank you - until the second eye wall came in with a fury and a wall of water that engulfed me the whole 50 feet that it knocked me - and then i never prayed - please lord save me again- i only prayed for heaven- please lord- let my life be heaven- life was not important any longer- heaven was all i wanted. suddenly the windows blew out - i jumped in to safety- and my feet are still full of glass to prove it- hours later, when it was calm i left the bathroom where i hid and opened the door to see mr cat- who ran under the bed and stayed there the same two days as i- waiting for the water to recede. on the third day i went in search of food- i found only a can of sardines which went to the cat- the fourth day i made it down the highway to a school and slept on the back balcony in wet clothes under a beautiful full moon- on the fifth day i made it closer to my parents house- but was picked up by friend who had a lion with a story to tell far greater than mine- we were met by the military - with guns drawn- with orders to find a way out- or the lion would be shot and we would be shot, too- but helicopters came from everywhere- millions of them- everyone trying to see a lion- and suddenly military got scared- and all who were mean became friends without choice- and six days without food and water brought mre's and coke and everywhere i went i had 50 military follow- and everytime i heard a cat or a dog i went in search of- and when i found them i fed them an mre- and when i saw a dead cat or dod- still chained to a tree i let out a wail- and i set and cried- and cried- and the soldiers who watched the last cat eat- and me bust open a street lamp to make a bowl for water came and picked up the cat- and pet the cat- and kissed the cat- and told me - the cat had a home- when i first met the soldiers it was with rifles pointed at me from 100 directions- then it was with a bottle of water- then they asked my name- and i told them "Will, but everyone calls me billy." they didn't get to ask why before i found a big bag of cheetos and yelled- BIRD- i threw the cheetos on the ground and a million seagulls came from nowhere- they ate so quietly. i threw another bag and another bag-and told them- i have to go now- but daddy will be right back- we're gonna fix this- and get our life like it was before- the soldiers just stood there- never said another word- we got the lion in the cage and the tiger,too- and a 40 caravan escort out of town- one soldier shook my hand- "billy you're one bad bird" - yes, but i ain't no bad bird- that's just my name-"

and...

"128. billybadbird 7:33 PM GMT on October 20, 2008
this is billybadbird and i speak to dr. masters and the weatherunderground community. all of you know my love of storms. when you live where i live you have no choice but to love them or leave them - i am sure that many of you have not known much about galveston and it's surrounding islands except for allison - a tropical storm with little wind that came across and stalled and dumped flooding rains for many consecutive days over houston. i would say from allison until 2005 we had maybe 10 waves or depressions or tropical systems come across our shore.
it's a common thing -not an if but a when
and: i would say at the risk of upsetting others that life was frankly pretty boring since hurricane alicia - my first real hurricane in my daredevil years of storm
chasing. alicia did major damage- but i played in the streets- i surfed in the gulf - i had a garage sale on the highway with dishes that would fly like a frisbee angering those who were fleeing to safety angering them further when i dropped my prices to " half off - everything must go" - some people just have no humor! some people would call the police who would say "raney, do you just like pissing everyone off?" people called me billybadass back then - but i have since cleaned up my act and my name for the sake of my family who might meet someone and hear - oh, you're billy badass's father - or mother! my poor parents- but they raised me on an island that was once as it is today- unpopulated- undeveloped - 1 little store and 1 little restaurant and 1 school where i proudly graduated the top 5 in my class of 6! i grew up playing in the ocean - swimming with dolphins porpises and seagulls who swam with me as i swam with them. then the people came- my desolate island made way to million dollar homes and tourist who litter my part of the earth and fisherman whose broken string was tossed into the ocean with their beer bottles and sode cans and
into the wings of the birds i swam with before i began to rescue the ones who could be saved and said my prayers to god before i wrang the necks of the ones who could not. i have cried wails of tears many a day and night over each and every bird whose life was taken at the hands of man. i believe each tear i shed was to god and his creatures and i was blessed beyond blessings for not one tear being a tear of pity or a why me - until the day came that i was blessed with my house directly on the ocean and directly besides my birds who came to know my house as a
safe haven where they were fed on china plates - upside down rice rice- simply cooked rice - then cooled - then turned upside down plopped onto the plate in the form of a beautiful cake. there once was seagulls then pigeons then grackle - and with god's blessings i would feed each and every bird to keep them away from the elements of man. nothing more - nothing less - billybadass turned bird - a simply boring- non existant existance - why me lord- what have i ever done TO DESERVE EVEN 1 OF THE BLESSINGS I HAVE. then came christmas - snow on christmas day - a miracle and a post on my underground blog that i will never ever change because i love god and i can go to my underground blog to see a miracle- or a present - sent to me from heaven. when i post things- as today - i come here - to dr masters or auburn or storm junkie and vortex - my friends who have done among all the many things one thing that keeps my heart pure- tell me that i am one of their own...i am just now learning and reading the well wishes and prayers being said to and for me while i was on the balcony trapped in a storm that was a tad bit more dangerous than rita and humberto and edourdo that i just finished playing in before gustav threated with nothing more than a disappointing 50 mile wind with no rain----back to back to back all of them- 7 feet storm surges that were nothing - the nothing that led me to stay for a 12 foot surge- what's another 5 feet- except the ten feet of water which submerged the island before the 12 feet came. we all know the story after that- i thought i was going to die - i thought i was going to live- then die then live- and live i did - and the memories will never fail me - and the courage only strengthened and come the next storm will only come another burst of adrenaline. that is me - that is my life - that is what everyone knows- - i am sorry to those who died - i know the lady gayle who washed up 50 miles away - and i know the lady they haven't found - who lived a life as simple as mine- rode her bike
to the store for dog food while i
rode mine for bread so i could make bread balls and throw them into the air to the seagulls who had a broken leg or were missing a leg and could not land and eat rice with the other birds because they could not stand. if there were a bread ball league i would have a trophy - maybe 20 - 1 for each season i was a champion
breadball quarterback. i am sorry for those birds too. none survived. i am sorry for the ones who did survive but were trapped in the bushes with broken wings unable for me to rescue for the water was too high. i am sorry for leaving them against my will being forced off the island by the military and texas rangers the coast guard the blackhawks and the police and into a city where i know nothing and no one - actually my third city now- being
the same bum i have always been - just not in the location where it is okay to be the bum that i am. i know that my heart is pure - i know that i am blessed - and i know that when someone has a job to do - they do it - and my job was to be the best bum on the beach- and it's the best job in the world to have - it requires nothing more than the love of god..............which brings me here today- to
say thank you to dr. masters who sent money from his pocket to get me through this city living- the horns - the pollution- the trains- the noise - the hurried people who have time for nothing but stress and more stress. his money was used to get me to my doggy- sammy, a 14 year old chihuahua who was sent to florida with my sister to save him from my foolishness- he has played with me in all the storms and i almost kept him for ike and if i would we would both be dead- on my way to the fort i never reached i let go first the gallon of milk i was drinking in my right hand- then i let go of my bike - then my boots - and if
i had my doggy i would never have let him go - i would have simply gone with him to the end - yet we are together and we are both extremely unhappy in the city together until this friday where vortex and storm junkie and auburn and robbi- saddlegait have come together to take me home where i am happy - where i can live on my island that still has no water or lights. an island that has peace- tranquility - beautiful sunrises and sunsets and moon rises and moonsets that speak to me and my heart and the birds who are my company with my peace. all of the people just mentioned- in a community where i am considered one of their own along with the the fellows at Portlight
have come together to take me home. but not just me - they have come together to bring a whole community back home- a community that is not populated enough to be remembered when people help people. my island has never fully recovered from rita- high island has never fully recovered from humberto and gilchrist had not even began to try to recover from edourdo and will never recover as ike has swept the beach away where the highway and the ocean meet. there are still people there- the diehards- the hardheads - the people who are only these things because they do not have the resources to be anywhere but where they are. the people like me who are more happy with sunsets than money. i am going home to be with them again- i won't be near them in any way but heart and spirit - but i will know they are there and they will know they aren't forgotten when Portlight
arrives this weekend with a relief truck full of supplies to help them through this journey - i hope i speak for Portlight - that they are committed not to let one itty bitty island who is not even on the map be forgotten when it already was before the storm- i know however, that i speak for my island- it won't be the supplies - it won't be the food or the water the things that are needed and will be so greatly appreciated when they come that will touch the hearts of my people - it will be the people themselves who came that will touch their heart more. it will be the hugs and the handshaking and the sorry's and the thank you's and the knowing that they - like me - my people who are there will have just met another community where they are one of our own! just one favor storm and vortex- if you will- have alot of kleenex tissue with you when you come. god bless you all- and: if anyone is interested in some dishes- i have them- i never made a dime off that garage sale. this is billy bad bird- but i ain't really no bad bird that's just my name"