As has been mentioned elsewhere on this page, Hurricane Katrinabrought out the best in many people. Here at the DAILY LEADER wehave seen the best of many of those individuals.

Despite the storm, it was only Monday’s edition that was neverproduced. Only a power outage, as presses were beginning to roll,stopped the Monday paper.

In the following days, overcoming some tremendous odds, ourstaff and several friends allowed us to produce a paper for thecommunity.

Computers and computer networks are especially vulnerable topower surges and outages. Two individuals – Anthony Kimmons of theMississippi School of the Arts and a former employee, ByronSimmons, came to our rescue Tuesday morning. With Byron in Byramvia a cell phone and Anthony here at our offices, the two of themwere successful in getting our computer networks up and running ona small generator, which was located in Jackson by JonathanWindmiller.

Electricity was then restored to the downtown area late Tuesdayevening, allowing us again to use our presses.

Our staff stood up to the situation and worked tremendous hoursreporting, taking photos, writing, producing, printing andpreparing the newspaper for delivery each day.

While Tuesday’s edition was limited to a few thousand deliveriesin the city, we distributed most of our daily press run into thecounty Wednesday through today. Facing blocked roads and then thegasoline shortage, our newspaper carriers went above and beyondtrying to reach out as far as possible.

We thank our staff, Anthony and Byron and each of our newspapercarriers for their efforts and hard work.