I left with my 16 month old son and my 9 year old daughter and we headed for a family member\'s camp near Brookland right outside of Jasper. This is normally an hour and a half trip that turned into 3 hours. (I\'m not complaining though!) My husband left the next day when it was declared a mandatory evacuation. The hour and a half trip took him 14 hours. He said that it was mentally very challenging. Once my immediate family was all there and accounted for, I felt better. We were at \"camp\" with a total of 13 adults, 4 children and 7 dogs. We were well prepared with a huge generator and plenty of gas. Once we knew that it would pretty much be a direct hit, we went to Wal-Mart and got plenty of food to last us. Listening to the radio kept us up to date when the hurricane finally hit landfall. The worst part was that the hurricane came during the night, so you couldn\'t see anything outside. Once the Rita finally came through Jasper, the sun was just beginning to rise. The way some the the trees fell were just remarkable. How the wind could just twist those trees around!! We managed to stay there without electricity or plumming for 10 days. I have not every even camped like that before!! By the time we were able to get back home we were ready for whatever we were to face. It\'s amazing to have lived here all my life and never see anything like this. Our house was fine, with the exception of some damage to the gutters and our trees. We lost one major pine tree, and had to cut down huge limbs. No water damage or anything of that sort. I am very thankful that my family and our possessions were safe and out of harms way.