Tales in the Storm

By 10:00 a.m. Friday morning the troopers finally agree to move their roadblock south of the Last Chance so people can get to the bar. Customers slowly begin to trickle in and order beers. One of them is from the trailer park next door. He defied mandatory orders to evacuate.

Didn't the police try to force him out? "They never could," he replies. "My guns are bigger than their guns." When he learns he's talking to a reporter, he hastily finishes his beer and leaves.

Derek Hayward, a reporter with Channel 7, stops in to survey the scene, and Skeeter tries to persuade him to do a story about how the troopers blocked off the road the night before. Hayward passes.

The real stories, as everyone knows, are farther south.