Tag Archives: Recovery

U.S. mail carriers emerge as heroes in Puerto Rico recovery

Luis Menendez, a mail man for the U.S. Postal Service, delivers mail at an area affected by Hurricane Maria in the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

By Hugh Bronstein

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico (Reuters) – With the Puerto Rico power grid shredded by Hurricane Maria, the U.S. Postal Service has taken the place of cellphone service at the forefront of island communications.

Only 15 percent of electrical power has been restored since the storm bludgeoned the U.S. territory on Sept. 20, but 99 of Puerto Rico’s 128 post offices are delivering mail. Tents have taken the place of post offices wrecked by Maria.

Mail carriers gather information on sick and elderly residents in far-flung parts where hospitals have closed. Data is fed into the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief office in San Juan so medical attention can be provided.

Restoration of the power grid is months away and many rural roads are blocked by mudslides, sink holes and downed trees and telephone poles. Since the start of the month the Postal Service has nonetheless been delivering letters and care packages to family members desperate for news.

“It’s been a clutch situation, and you guys have totally come through,” a FEMA worker was heard telling Postal Service Caribbean customer service manager Martin Caballero on Sunday.

“We might know the general area where people need help, but the mail carriers are the only ones who really have the exact addresses,” the FEMA worker told Reuters, asking not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to news media.

Caballero regularly goes on AM radio, which can be heard by listeners lucky enough to have diesel to run generators, to tell people in inaccessible parts of the island where their mail is being held. He invites them to pick it up, but only when travel conditions become safe.

Even for urban middle-class customers in the San Juan suburb of Guaynabo, whose concrete homes were not smashed by the storm, it was a chore to recover their blown-away mailboxes or build new ones. Hurricane or not, the Postal Service will not drop off mail without a designated box.

“The wind took them all,” said resident Jenny Amador, a 42-year-old teachers’ assistant.

“I found mine in those trees,” she said, pointing to a gnarl of branches and trunks on the road. She re-attached her mailbox in a cockeyed position in front of her house, using a clothes hanger.

One plucky woman, having heard the postman was on the way, stood stoically with her mailbox tucked under her arm. No one minded when mail carrier Alfredo Martinez showed up out of uniform, unable to do laundry for lack of clean water.

One resident said the return of the mail service was comforting, a sign of a return to normalcy. But another greeted Martinez with a warning.

“If you are bringing me any utility bills, go away,” she said.

 

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Howard Goller)

 

In Harvey’s aftermath, a flood of emotions as rebuilding begins

In Harvey's aftermath, a flood of emotions as rebuilding begins

By Bryan Sims

HOUSTON (Reuters) – For Texas residents affected by Hurricane Harvey, life in the storm’s aftermath involves juggling insurance claims, home repairs and work. But coping with loss is stirring very different feelings.

Staff at the Sugar Land campus of the University of Houston began their first day at work on Tuesday sharing storm experiences and consoling those whose homes were damaged.

“It’s very healing for people,” Kathryn Tart, dean of the university’s College of Nursing, said. “It helps us move on to the really difficult next stage – rebuilding.”

In an area of West Houston where some 3,000 homes suffered severe flooding and where water releases from two reservoirs continue to swamp neighborhoods, anger surfaced.

“I look out my kitchen window and there is a river that will always be there,” said Bryant Banes, who is a lawyer. He filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government in federal court claiming damages to his and neighbors’ homes and businesses from the reservoir releases.

The decision to release waters to relieve pressure on the reservoirs amounted to an improper taking of property, the lawsuit claims. “People have lost their homes and it is their responsibility to compensate residents,” Banes said.

Flood-damaged contents from people's homes line the street following the aftermath of tropical storm Harvey in Wharton, Texas, U.S., September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Flood-damaged contents from people’s homes line the street following the aftermath of tropical storm Harvey in Wharton, Texas, U.S., September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Harvey hit Corpus Christi in southern Texas on Aug. 25 but took the greatest toll on Houston and areas east of the city. The storm killed as many as 60 people, dumped more than 50 inches (127 cm) of rain and caused damages estimated as high as $180 billion, including to 312,000 homes along the coast.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved roughly $8 billion in initial emergency aid for Harvey relief and rebuilding. A Senate vote is expected later this week.

In Houston’s theater district, which sits along a drainage bayou, performances have been canceled indefinitely as assessments of repairs continue. Houston Grand Opera, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and Alley Theatre reported flooding to some buildings and parking areas.

In east Texas, Hardin County residents were only able to return to homes on Tuesday. “Water is just now receding,” said Theresa Wigley, the county’s emergency management coordinator. “Recovery is going to be slow.”

The number of people reported missing in Houston, which climbed as high as 137 last week, was down to 18 on Wednesday as families reunited, said Beth Alberts, head of the Texas Center for the Missing.

“It is tragic and wonderful when we can match up people,” she said.

At the same time, more of the region’s energy industry was coming back online. Refiner Phillips 66 <PSX.N> said on Wednesday its Sweeny, Texas, refinery would return to full production by mid-month. Gasoline futures <RBC1>, which spiked last week, were off 2 percent on Wednesday.

Two other storms are threatening energy infrastructure in the Caribbean and Mexico. Hurricane Irma is taking aim at Puerto Rico and Florida, and Tropical Storm Katia is off the Mexican state of Veracruz and forecast to become a hurricane in a couple of days, the National Weather Service said on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Bryan Sims; Writing by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Houston quickens pace of Harvey recovery as new storm threatens U.S.

Vince Ware moves his sofas onto the sidewalk from his house which was left flooded from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

By Gary McWilliams and Daniel Trotta

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Houston area residents picked up the pace of their recovery from Hurricane Harvey on Tuesday, jamming roads as they returned to offices and schools to help get the nation’s fourth largest city and its vital shipping and oil industries back on track.

The region is getting a boost from Mexico, which sent volunteers to shelters and is preparing to send relief supplies in the next few day. Mexican Red Cross workers were staffing shelters in three Texas cities. “We are more than glad to be helpful,” said Gustavo Santillan.

Large employers, universities and transit services reopened or began full schedules on Tuesday, with floodwaters receded and the Labor Day weekend behind them. But not all of the Houston-area’s 6.6 million residents were in position to go back to work and were dealing with home repairs and waterlogged possessions.

“It feels surreal to be back at work,” said Hannah Smith, 31, who spent part of her day putting office furniture moved ahead of the storm back in place “It is one step in the direction of whatever the new normal is.”

Harvey tore through Corpus Christi in southern Texas on Aug. 25 before churning up the coast and hitting the Houston area especially hard. The storm killed as many as 60 people, dumped more than 50 inches (127 cm) of rain and caused damages estimated as high as $180 billion, including to 203,000 homes.

Oil refineries, pipelines and shipping channels in the nation’s energy center have begun a gradual return to operations. Exxon Mobil on Tuesday said its fuel terminals in the Houston area were supplying gasoline and it continues to work on reopening a shuttered Baytown oil refinery. Motiva Enterprises [MOTIV.UL], operator of the nation’s largest refinery, said it is in the process of restarting operations at its Port Arthur, Texas, plant.

Some industry stalwarts were still out of commission though. ConocoPhillips closed its Houston headquarters through Sept. 11. BP’s Houston campus suffered severe flooding and remained closed. Portions may be out of use until December, Chief Executive Bob Dudley told Reuters. About 650 of BP’s more than 5,000 Houston area full-time staff reported damage to their homes.

“I’ve got to get work done but I don’t think it’ll be a productive day,” said Daniel Semetko, 60, a Houston energy company worker, citing the number of people who were out of their homes due to storm damage.

With extensive property damage across the region, local and federal prosecutors formed a task force to investigate reports of home repair fraud and people posing as police to facilitate theft and other crimes, officials said. About 80 investigations into complaints were underway, said David Green, a Department of Homeland Security special agent.

Houston’s school district, the nation’s seventh largest, remains closed this week to repair flooded schools. The district has said about 75 of its 275 schools suffered major or extensive flood damage, but other school districts in the area and major universities were open for class.

IRMA AT CATEGORY 5

As Houston picked up the pieces from the devastation of Harvey, a new and even more powerful hurricane was headed for the Caribbean islands, the U.S. East Coast and Florida.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Irma, which it upgraded to a “potentially catastrophic” Category 5 storm, was about 130 miles (210 km) east of Antigua on Tuesday afternoon. Hurricane warnings were issued for Puerto Rico, Antigua, Montserrat, St. Eustatius, the British Virgin Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Port operations along the Texas coast that service the area’s oil and gas companies returned to work. At the last three of 28 Texas coast ports still closed to ship traffic, the U.S. Coast Guard said it was monitoring water currents for when shipping might resume.

U.S. gasoline prices fell on Tuesday as traders priced in a continued restart of flooded Gulf Coast refineries. Benchmark U.S. gasoline futures were lower by about 4 percent, returning to levels last seen before Harvey made landfall.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder, Catherine Ngai and Ron Bousso; Editing by Bill Trott and Tom Brown)

Texas edges closer to recovery after Harvey as key pipeline restarts

Samaritans help clear debris from the house of a neighbor which was left flooded from Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas, U.S. September 3, 2017.

By Catherine Ngai

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Gulf Coast moves closer to recovery from Hurricane Harvey on Monday when the biggest American fuel system restarts a key segment shut down by devastating rains and officials weigh how to pay for billions of dollars in damage.

The move by Colonial Pipeline to resume transporting distillates such as diesel fuel comes as the Gulf region’s energy industry starts to come back online.

Flooding from Harvey drove up fuel prices by shutting down almost a quarter of U.S. refining capacity.

The storm came ashore on Aug. 25 as the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years. It killed an estimated 50 people, displaced more than 1 million and damaged some 200,000 homes in a path of destruction stretching for more than 300 miles (480 km).

Colonial said it expected to reopen a Texas section of its network from Houston to Hebert, Texas, on Monday, which is the Labor Day holiday. The line would be ready to start moving gasoline on Tuesday, it said.

The pipelines’ reopening will restore links between refineries along the Gulf Coast, the U.S. petrochemical hub, to markets in the Northeast.

Another fuel system, Explorer Pipeline, said a link running from Texas to Oklahoma restarted on Sunday, with a second pipeline from Oklahoma into the Midwest expected to resume on Monday.

Retail fuel costs surged through the weekend amid fears of shortages, despite the restart of several key Gulf refineries that had been crippled by Harvey.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin challenged Congress on Sunday to raise the government’s debt limit in order to free up relief spending. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the storm had caused up to $180 billion in damage.

President Donald Trump’s administration has asked Congress for an initial $7.85 billion for recovery efforts, a small fraction of what will eventually be needed.

Even that amount could be delayed unless Congress quickly increases the government’s debt ceiling, Mnuchin said. The United States is on track to hit its mandated borrowing limit by the end of the month unless Congress increases it.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city expected most public services and businesses to be restored by Tuesday, the first day after the Labor Day holiday.

About 37,000 families were staying in 270 shelters in Texas, the highest number reported by the American Red Cross.

The city mandated the evacuation of thousands of people on the western side of Houston on Sunday to accommodate the release of water from reservoirs that otherwise might sustain damage. The storm stalled over Houston, the fourth-largest U.S. city, dumping more than 50 inches (1.3 m) on the region.

 

(Reporting by Catherine Ngai in HOUSTON and Ian Simpson in WASHINGTON; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

U.S. lawmaker wounded in shooting has surgery for infection: hospital

FILE PHOTO - Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) is pictured sitting at the controls in the drilling shack on BP's Thunder Horse Oil Platform in the Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles from the Louisiana coast, May 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jessica Resnick-Ault

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, who was shot and wounded during a baseball practice last month, has undergone surgery to treat an infection and remains in serious condition, the hospital said on Thursday.

Scalise, the No. 3 Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, had been readmitted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center’s intensive care unit because of concerns about the infection, the hospital said on Wednesday night.

Scalise, 51, tolerated the latest surgery well and remained in serious condition, the hospital said in a statement on Thursday.

A gunman opened fire on Scalise and other Republican lawmakers as they practiced on June 14 in a Washington suburb for a charity baseball game. Scalise, from Louisiana, was shot in the hip.

Scalise had been improving in recent weeks following surgeries to repair internal organs and broken bones.

Gunman James Hodgkinson, 66, had a history of posting angry messages against Republican President Donald Trump. He died after being wounded by police at the Alexandria, Virginia, ballpark.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Villagers begin to mourn dead after deadly China landslide

Relatives of victims react at the site of a landslide in the village of Xinmo, Mao County, Sichuan Province, China June 26, 2017.

By Sue-Lin Wong

XINMO, China (Reuters) – Villagers in China visited what used to be their relatives’ homes on Monday to mourn loved ones lost when a landslide swept down a mountain, with little hope of finding anyone alive after more than 48 hours of fruitless searching.

At least 93 people are missing after the landslide engulfed Xinmo village in mountainous Sichuan province as dawn broke on Saturday. Ten people have been confirmed dead.

“Our house was somewhere around here but everything has been destroyed beyond recognition,” said a middle aged woman, one of a few residents who were away when disaster struck, after she pulled a green blanket she recognised out of the mud and rocks.

Rescue workers carry a victim at the site of a landslide that occurred in Xinmo Village, Mao County, Sichuan province, China, June 25, 2017.

Rescue workers carry a victim at the site of a landslide that occurred in Xinmo Village, Mao County, Sichuan province, China, June 25, 2017. China Daily via REUTERS

The government has sent some 3,000 rescuers, along with heavy digging equipment, and has promised to do all it can to look for survivors.

Heavy rain triggered the landslide, authorities have said.

Some villagers said they’ve always known landslides are a big danger but authorities never offered to help them move.

With danger of more landslides, authorities have been restricting access to the disaster zone, but hundreds of people were allowed back on Monday.

Mournful wails and firecracker explosions echoed through Xinmo’s steep valley as bereaved relatives returned, many clutching snacks and wrapped in plastic and bottles of wine as offerings for the dead.

Some people burned paper money and lit incense which, along with setting off fireworks, are traditional acts of mourning.

“Every single family has been impacted by the landslide, it’s horrible,” said Sun Danxian, from a neighbouring village who was walking through the site.

The government of Mao county, where the village is located, posted on Monday drone video footage of the area showing about dozen mechanical diggers shifting through a landscape of grey rocks.

‘LYING FOR THREE DAYS’

Earlier on Monday, about 100 villagers, unhappy with what they said was limited information, met government officials at a nearby primary school, insisting they had to get to Xinmo.

They also voiced fears about the possibility of rebuilding homes before winter and what would happened to orphans.

“These government officials have been lying to us for three days,” a middle aged man from Xinmo, with several missing relatives told Reuters. He declined to give his name.

“They told us we could go back yesterday morning but they kept delaying and delaying giving us all kinds of excuses. They told us a central government official was going to come to visit us. He showed up and didn’t even bother to speak to us.”

Another relative said the government should have moved them out of an area they knew was prone to landslides.

“There have been landslides before but no one has ever suggested we move. The government knows it’s dangerous to live in these kinds of villages and yet they do nothing,” said the elderly man, who also would not provide his name.

The official China Daily cited Xu Qiang, a disaster expert at the Ministry of Land and Resources, as saying large-scale relocations in the area were difficult.

“Many of the villagers have been living here for generations and have seen no major geological disasters,” Xu said. “This is their home and livelihood and it is very difficult to convince them to leave, specially when you only have a hypothesis and predictions.”

Sichuan province is also prone to earthquakes, including an 8.0 magnitude tremor in central Sichuan’s Wenchuan county in 2008 that killed nearly 70,000 people.

Mao county is next to Wenchuan. State media said the mountainside that collapsed onto the village had been weakened by the 2008 earthquake.

Most residents of the area are poor farmers of the Qiang ethnic minority and the area is the target of a poverty alleviation project, according to government officials.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard and Christian Shepherd; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)

U.S. lawmaker Scalise improving after baseball field shooting

Signs acknowledging wounded congressman Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) are seen prior to the Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park in Washington, U.S., June 15, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 3 House Republican, has shown improvement in the past 36 hours after being shot by a man who opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice earlier in the week, his lead surgeon said on Friday.

“The congressman’s status remains critical,” Dr. Jack Sava, the director of trauma at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, told reporters. “An excellent recovery is a good possibility.”

Scalise, 51, sustained injuries to internal organs, broken bones and severe bleeding after being shot in his left hip on Wednesday morning on a baseball field in a Washington suburb.

Scalise had been at “imminent risk of death” when he was first brought into the hospital on Wednesday, and he received many units of transfused blood, Sava said. The congressman’s risk of death was now substantially lower because doctors have controlled the bleeding and his vital signs have stabilized.

Scalise, who has had two surgeries, will need additional operations and will be in the hospital for “a considerable period of time, presumably weeks,” Sava said. Because the bullet shattered, there may be hundreds of fragments in Scalise’s body and doctors do not intend to try to remove them all, Sava said. He declined to describe specific internal injuries.

Once recovered, Scalise will be able to walk and hopefully run, the doctor said. He said doctors have turned down Scalise’s sedation levels enough that he has been able to respond to visiting family members.

Scalise, a police officer, a congressional aide and a lobbyist were wounded on Wednesday when a man identified as James Hodgkinson, 66, from the St. Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois, opened fire on the lawmakers as they practiced for an annual charity baseball game between Republicans and Democrats. Hodgkinson died after being shot by police.

A list of Republican lawmakers was found on Hodgkinson’s body, CBS News reported, citing an unidentified U.S. official. The list included Representatives Mo Brooks and Jeff Duncan, who were at the practice, and Representative Trent Franks, who was not, CBS said.

The note was not considered an assassination list, the network said.

The FBI declined to comment on the report. The U.S. Capitol Police and representatives for the three lawmakers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FBI said that the shooter’s weapons found at the scene – a 9mm handgun and 7.62mm caliber rifle – had been legally purchased. The FBI continues to process evidence in an effort to assess the potential motivations of the shooter, the agency said in a statement Friday.

Hodgkinson had a history of posting angry messages against Trump and other Republicans on social media.

Members of Congress took the field at Washington’s Nationals Park on Thursday night for the charity baseball game, many wearing hats to honor Scalise, who has represented Louisiana in the House since 2008.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bill Trott)

Rescue operations near end in Indonesia’s quake-stricken Aceh

Indonesian soldiers help to secure an area where rescue and salvage operations take place at a collapsed building following this week's strong earthquake in Meureudu, Pidie Jaya, Aceh province, Indonesia

By Tommy Ardiansyah and Djohan Widjaya

PIDIE JAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesian officials said on Friday search and rescue operations were nearing an end three days after a powerful earthquake hit the northern province of Aceh, killing 100 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Wednesday’s 6.5 magnitude earthquake, which toppled dozens of buildings and injured hundreds of people, was the worst disaster to hit the region since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

 

A Muslim man weeps as he arrives for Friday prayers at Jami Quba mosque which collapsed during this week's earthquake in Pidie Jaya, Aceh province, Indonesia

A Muslim man weeps as he arrives for Friday prayers at Jami Quba mosque which collapsed during this week’s earthquake in Pidie Jaya, Aceh province, Indonesia December 9, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

“We believe we have found 99 percent of the victims,” said Sutopo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management agency.

The agency revised the death toll down to 100 from 102.

Hundreds of people in Aceh’s Pidie Jaya regency held Friday prayers outside mosques that had been reduced to rubble.

Many residents of the town of 140,000 have been sleeping in shelters and relief workers have been handing out food, water, and blankets.

President Joko Widodo visited survivors, including many getting treatment for broken bones in hospitals and tent clinics.

The province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, has declared a two-week state of emergency and the central government has pledged aid for recovery efforts.

A Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake and tsunami killed more than 120,000 people in Aceh.

In all, the 2004 tsunami killed 226,000 people along Indian Ocean shorelines.

(Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Robert Birsel)

More bodies located beneath rubble in Italy quake zone

A rescue worker and a dog search among debris following an earthquake in Amatrice, central Italy,

By Iona Serrapica and Miran Jelenek

AMATRICE, Italy (Reuters) – Rescuers believe they have found more bodies buried deep in the rubble of the ruined town of Amatrice, five days after a devastating earthquake struck central Italy, killing at least 290 people.

Residents of the hill town estimated that up to 10 people were still missing and emergency services said they had located three corpses in Amatrice’s Hotel Roma, which, like much of the historic center, was wrecked by Wednesday’s quake.

Deputy Mayor Gianluca Carloni said his uncle’s body had still not been recovered from the hotel, which was particularly busy at this time of year because of a food festival.

“It is absolutely vital to finish as soon as possible this initial (search) phase to make sure that there are no more bodies under the rubble,” he said.

Museums across Italy donated proceeds from their ticket sales on Sunday to help the rebuilding effort, while top flight soccer teams held a minute’s silence before their weekend matches out of respect for the victims.

Pope Francis led prayers for the dead in his weekly address in St Peter’s Square in Rome, saying he wanted to go to the earthquake zone to bring comfort to the survivors.

“Dear brothers and sisters, as soon as it is possible, I hope to come and visit you,” he said.

Priests in the quake zone held their regular Sunday services in large tents. Amatrice’s municipal website said the town had 100 churches, but every one was damaged by the disaster and many would have to be demolished.

FALLEN MASONRY

With aftershocks continuing to rattle the region, including a magnitude 4.4 quake centered on the nearby city of Ascoli Piceno, residents were still struggling to absorb the disaster.

“It took me 20 years to get my house, and then, in just 10 seconds, it was gone, like so many others,” said Ascenzio Attenni, who lived in the hamlet of Sant’Angelo outside Amatrice, where eight people died.

“We have to thank God that we are alive,” he said, before breaking down in tears.

Rescue operations in most of the area were halted two days ago, but teams were still combing Amatrice, which is 105 km (65 miles) east of Rome. The fire service said it was trying to remove some of the fallen masonry at the Hotel Roma and create a safe path to retrieve the three bodies as soon as possible.

The Civil Protection Department lowered the official death toll on Sunday to 290 from a previously given 291. A number of foreigners were among the dead, including 11 Romanians, the foreign ministry in Bucharest said.

Many Romanians work in Italy and Bucharest said 14 of its nationals were still unaccounted for.

Italy has promised to rebuild the shattered communities and has said it will learn from the mistakes following a similar earthquake in the nearby city of L’Aquila in 2009, where much of the center is still out of bounds.

The rebuilding effort was stalled following allegations that organized crime groups had muscled in to obtain lucrative contracts. Italy’s anti-mafia chief Franco Roberti said the experience of L’Aquila would serve well this time around, but warned that the government could not lower its guard.

“The risks are there and it is pointless to pretend otherwise,” he told la Repubblica newspaper. “Post-quake reconstruction is always very appetising for criminal gangs and their business partners.”

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Lifted on the Wings of Prayer!

We recently had our Ready Now Expo and it was amazing!  Hundreds and hundreds of our loving partners joined us on Grace Street for the tapings of the Jim Bakker show.  As I was sitting on the set, waiting for filming to begin, I looked out on all of those beautiful faces.  Gratitude chills went up and down my spine.  I could not help but remember this past year and my battle with Hepatitis C and the outpouring of intercession and prayer from thousands of people on my behalf.  Wonderful people like those that were out on Grace Street smiling back at me. Continue reading →