After Hurricane Katrina, a long weekend for several MFA truck drivers made life a little easier for rural Mississippi residents.

When the call came out that volunteer drivers were needed after Hurricane Katrina, Eddie Hull, Lonnie ÔCookie' Selby, Merle James and David James quickly donated some of their own time. They left in a couple hours notice in two supply-laden MFA trucks headed for the deep south. The drivers left Sept. 9 on a Friday evening, driving through the night and arrived at first light Saturday where volunteers at a make-shift relief center distributed the goods.

Hattiesburg was on the edge of  Katrina's destruction. Some 60 miles inland from the coast, the town made a good staging point for relief efforts for rural Mississippi. Despite missing the brunt of the storm, Hattiesburg still endured 12 hours of wind in excess of 100 miles per hour. Water and wind brought a two-week loss of electricity.

Much of the two truckloads of supplies was quickly distributed to rural Mississippi towns the same day they arrived at the relief center. Some of the supplies stayed to support residents of Hattiesburg. Supplies were delivered to a temporary relief center located at a church on the University of Southern Mississippi campus in Hattiesburg. The church was a rally point for local groups including other churches, FEMA, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

The effort to purchase and ship supplies was organized by Don Houser and Tom Deters of Timber Ridge Builders, a Columbia development company. Several other mid-Missouri businesses and individuals participated.