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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

It’s 2:04 p.m. Monday, and Gustav didn’t turn out to be the monster we feared. Thank God. It’s raining here in Jackson, and we’re keeping our eyes out for tornados. Our biggest challenge in the city is caring for evacuees in the shelters. There is early evidence that the shelter situation, and the contraflow from Louisiana, didn’t go as smoothly as it could have. We’ll be looking into that more.

Meantime, we are very relieved that the worst did not happen here. And our prayers go out to our neighbors in Louisiana who are getting it harder.

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.