Clune like to say that he became convinced of the vast potential of grass roots networking after meeting and taking for granted a 70 year old Florida Irish-American woman who turned out to be a scion of a Coco Cola founder.

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There, our excursions mixed driving and walking, taking a jeep deep into the hinterland, then hoofing it through tall, brittle grass and across vast, scorched savannah.

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Hundreds of acres of the storm waste are now sinking in what used to be a vast oasis of tall, green grass.

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On the plains, there was nothing else to be seen: a vast, boundless expanse of scant grass under massive, low clouds, and no indication that a town might be near.

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