[04/08/03]Some families whose homes were still soggy from Sunday’s deluge remained positive Monday as they picked up pieces, evaluated their losses and began looking forward.

Andrea Royal and her children, Corn, 20, and Casaybre, 18, spent all day cleaning up their home at 612 Spring Ridge Drive. They were trying to salvage furniture and belongings.

Royal and her children were forced out of their home after rising waters from the Durden Creek behind their Hamilton Heights home. They have lived in the home for six years and, when the storm began, they started watching the creek rise. They were able to drive out of the subdivision, but their home flooded shortly after they left.

“God was good. We got out alive with our health and our strength,” Royal said.

Another family was provided with relief Monday from the American Red Cross.

The Spring Ridge Drive home Theresa Andrews shares with her two children was badly damaged by floods.

About 9:30 or 10 Sunday night, as she watched the water rise on the roads, she said, “It’s time for us to go kids.”

She and her children, Arthur, 12, and Micah, 10, gathered what clothes they could and spent the night in their car, parked behind an apartment building.

Her house, she said, had about 3 feet of water in it and much was “totally messed up,” when she returned Monday. Television sets, furniture and most of their clothes were lost in the floods. Her oldest son’s brand new Nintendo game was destroyed.

Yet, Andrews remained positive.

“I’m not worried about material things,” she said. “I can replace that, I can’t replace my babies.”

After a two-night stay in a hotel room provided by the American Red Cross, Andrews said she hopes to be back at home. Crews hired by her landlords were at work Monday making repairs and laying new carpet, she said.

About four or five families had been placed in hotel rooms provided by the American Red Cross, said Beverly Connelly, executive director of the Vicksburg Area Chapter of the American Red Cross.

A Red Cross shelter was opened at City Auditorium for victims.

Workers and volunteers from the Red Cross provided some victims with cleanup kits including a mop, broom, bucket and other cleaning supplies.

The Red Cross and the Salvation Army will provide meals today for those in the Hamilton Heights, Cairo Road, Halls Ferry Road and Marion Park areas.

The Red Cross is planning to open a service center for flood victims to replace mattresses, provide food and cleaning supplies.