Go Away, Gustav!

For those of you wondering, I live in southeast Louisiana. Funny thing about wishing that a hurricane will head in some other direction: it's almost like wishing a disaster on someone else. Nevertheless, I'd be lying if I said southeast Louisiana is prepared for another hurricane.

August 29 is the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My immediate family was very fortunate. Negligible damage to our house. My father-in-law and his adult sons who lived with him lost their house and most of their possessions. I have to say this about my f-i-l, he has moxie for having to start over from scratch at age 73. He lives just a few blocks away now.

Katrina was different, though. We knew the storm was in the Gulf of Mexico, for days leading up to it, forecasters were predicting that it would hit landfall at the Alabama/Florida state line. Image our surprise when we woke Saturday, Aug. 27 to radio reports that the storm did not make the easterly turn as anticipated and instead will reach land between, New Orleans, LA and Gulfport, MS.

We grabbed our essentials and high tailed it pretty quickly to Uncle Harold's house in Lafayette, LA. We stayed thirteen days until power was restored in our area. The other difference about Katrina is that I remember incessantly watching the Weather Channel coverage on Monday, Aug. 29th and thinking, "oh, New Orleans didn't fare too badly." Then the levees broke.

As for Gustav, I'm obsessively watching the Weather Underground website for updates. It's too soon to tell whether we'll evacuate or to where. I'm also making a short list of essentials: a few family photos, my bill paying organizer/checkbook, back up CD-roms of some things on my computer (why, oh why didn't I just invest in a laptop), insurance info, my firebox containing important documents, and so forth.

I'm not sure how to end this post, so ...

Links to Katrina posts (if you're interested):

We Evacuated, Aug. 30, 2005
Hurricane Katrina Update, Aug. 31, 2005
I Can't Watch the News Anymore, Sept. 1, 2005

One Year Post-Katrina

It was one year ago today that Hurricane Katrina decimated my birth city (New Orleans), all but erased part of our favored vacation destination (Gulfport, MS), and wreaked havoc in the area I currently live.

Hurricane Katrina probably seems like 'old news' to the rest of the country, but it's still a near constant topic of conversation in our area. There are some areas that are rebounding and rebuilding. Too many other areas, the City of New Orleans especially, are bogged down by bureaucracy and indecision. I think in the immediate days following Katrina there was a real opportunity to rebuild and this time, to 'do it right.' Right some wrongs, fix what's broken...I'm just not seeing it, though.

There's no describing the allure of New Orleans. Its culture, its history, its charm, its attitude. Unfortunately it take more than a lotta heart to be a viable city. It also takes a brain. Despite its precarious geographic location, I never really thought a storm would be the demise of the city. Too bad Louisiana politics is threatening to be the proverbial final nail in the coffin.

The place in which we live has rebounded. We're booming actually since we have a lot of displaced New Orleanians who have decided to relocate to our area, many of them permanently.

A year ago, my family of 5 (plus two dogs) were staying at Uncle Harold's house in Lafayette, along with my father-in-law and two brothers-in-law. I remember watching the storm coverage on TV, day and night. After Katrina passed, the news showed coverage of New Orleans. A lot of high rise buildings with windows blown out, power lines and utility poles down, flooding in the predicatable areas. I remember seeing a shot of the Lakeview area of New Orleans and thinking, yeah there's water, but it doesn't look that bad. We survived the storm. Sense of relief.

Hours later, the levees broke. Those couple of feet of water in Lakeview suddenly became 8+ feet of water. Other areas, such as the upper and lower 9th Ward was similarly flooded. That's when the sigh of relief became a collective gasp of disbelief.

I've blogged about Katrina in late August/early September 2005. If you're interested, you can click on the archives at left. However, there's a columnist from The Times Picayune, Chris Rose, who really captures the feel for what went on and what's still going on. I encourage you to check out some of his columns. You can do so by clicking on his name.

I'm Baaaacccckkkkkk!

After evacuating from Hurricane Katrina, we returned home on the afternoon of Sept 9th. My sister-in-law, who lives two blocks away from our house (she returned home the day before), called to let us know that electricity had been restored to our homes. We packed up our things, bid adieu to Uncle Harold in Lafayette, and returned home.

First thing I noticed – or rather, didn’t notice - was the patch job Andy did to the roof. We lost a bunch of shingles, which he replaced on one of his day-trips back. You really can’t notice the spot unless you’re looking for it. Our fence is leaning, but it isn’t completely down. We hope to have it fixed this week.

We went through Hurricanes Katrina and Rita for the most part unscathed. Our neighborhood has a lot of trees down – some of them on top of houses. Many other neighborhoods in Mandeville, LA have experienced the same. I see some of the larger homes in our area – the big brick and stucco houses that I envy (heck, I envy anything over 1400 square feet) - and many of them have trees through them. Yet here we are, in our tiny little house, safe and sound. I’ve never been so happy to see my little 1,163 square foot, vinyl siding home in my life. With all the giant trees in our neighborhood, I really didn’t expect to see it intact.

It was soooo nice to take a bubble bath that evening without having someone knock on the door – Uncle Harold’s house has only one bathroom and had eight evacuees. Sleeping in my own bed? Not as great as I imagined. I hoped it would be just Andy and me so I’d have a little room to spead out (rather than Andy, Sam, Zack and me as we slept on Harold's sofa bed) but it was not to be. I thought Zack might have enjoyed being back in his own bed amongst his 20 stuffed animals, but nope, he wanted to cuddle with me instead. He's adjusting to sleeping alone again.

Our old cat, Sebastian (age 16), is doing well. He lives outside and survived the wind and rain by camping out under Andy’s car. The turtle is okay, too. We brought home three geckos that we caught from Anne and Bobby’s house (our cousins – Harold’s daughter and son-in-law). They're also fine.

We’ve been getting settled into our new routine. I’ve been home schooling the older two boys until their public school re-opens on Oct. 3rd.

Our phone service was restored today, Sept. 25, and with it our internet service (yes, I’m still on – GASP! – dial up!). I’ve really missed the internet these past few weeks.

I’m a real web-browsing, emailing fanatic. Email has kept me in touch with people that I might ordinarily not hear from – former co-workers in another state, the friend who lives 15 miles away but is also a busy, busy mom, the sister who lives across the country and keeps farmer’s hours (up at dawn, in bed by dusk – more or less).

Increasingly I’ve come to rely on the internet for information. I think I’m pretty good at figuring out which sites are reputable versus which ones have bogus info. One of my favorites is www.snopes.com, a site devoted to debunking urban myths. You know the emails: “Women: Be on alert! This *really* happened in (insert state here)” or “Deodorant causes cancer!”

I’m also an eBay junkie. I shop sometimes, but I browse way more often than I should. Some of it is funny (a potato chip with the image of Jesus, anyone?), some of it is educational (there are discussion boards devoted to teaching people how to avoid bidding on fake designer items), some of it is a trip down memory lane (I recognize that Holly Hobby doll!)

I also get most of my news online – www.nola.com has my local news, and I visit the Washington Post’s website to catch up on what’s going on in my mother’s part of country.

I missed blogging – I’ve only been at it a month or so prior to Hurricane Katrina, but I've met some really great people.

I’ve missed to miss my daily emails from my mom. I’ve missed the silly jokes I receive from Mom, Uncle Harold and Rick in Virginia. I’ve missed hearing about Lynda’s latest art showing (she did two episodes of “Simply Quilts” on HGTV). I’ve missed hearing from everyone, actually.

It’s great to be back!

Thank You, Lafayette, Louisiana

I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to the wonderful folks in Lafayette, La...not only my husband's Uncle Harold who allowed 8 of us (and 2 dogs) move into his home, but the people we encounter everyday during our stay.

Think about it: here's a town that's opened its doors to thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. We're creating long lines in their groceries, using up all the gas from their stations, causing all sorts of traffic problems, but everyone I've come across so far has been polite, friendly and sympathetic. I appreciate your hospitality, Lafayette.

My House Seems Okay...

I had a brief phone conversation with Dear Hubby. He's just packing up a few things and will be leaving our Mandeville home to return to us in Lafayette, LA. The call kept disconnecting, but the gist is this:

Our house seems to be missing a bunch of shingles - he went into attic and it's dry, so he put a few buckets in there to catch water in case it rains and put a tarp on the roof. Parts of our fence are leaning, but otherwise most of our street looks good. There are some trees leaning on houses, but they haven't crashed through the roofs. A couple of my neighbors have stayed behind and will keep an eye on things.

Thanks Jules for posting an update that ~D and family are okay and that their house didn't sustain any significant damage, either. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again...We're blessed.

I Can't Watch The News Anymore...

As I sit in Lafayette, LA, I realize how lucky I am. We have family to stay with. A comfortable, albeit crowded, air conditioned home. Access to a washing machine and dryer. Good cooking (thanks, Uncle Harold). A nice hot shower. My dogs are here, although they're not happy about the amount of time they're spending in their crates - at least I know they're safe.

I don't know if I'll have a house to go back to. My area has heavy wind damage but no flooding. But houses can be re-built and things can be replaced. We're safe, we're lucky and we're thankful.

Then I turn on the news and I'm outraged. Disasters tend to bring out the best in many people and the worst in others. There are stories of lootings, people shooting at the helicopters that are trying to evacuate the Superdome (they have no air conditioning, running out of food and the sanity conditions are deplorable) and other mayhem. A vehicle trying to deliver supplies and medicine to a hospital was hijacked. A bus that was to take retirement home residents out of town was carjacked (busjacked?).

And it doesn't end in N.O./Jefferson. There are reports that certain evacuees are causing trouble in Baton Rouge and at the Houston Astrodome (where many Superdome evacuees were transported). Are these people not grateful to be alive? Are they not thankful that someone is trying to help? What in the hell do they think they're entitled to?

I hear that certain stars like Usher, John Cougar Mellencamp, etc. are planning to stage a benefit for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, much like the one held last year for the tsunami victims. But when I see the mayhem and lawlessness, I can't help but wonder why bother. I know it's only a small percentage of evacuees who are causing problems, but they're certainly not helping to paint a sympathetic picture of our plight.

I'm so disgusted....

Hurricane Katrina Update - Wed. 8/31

No real news to report. Not much is being reported about West St. Tammany Parish, because it doesn't seem to be as catastrophic as Slidell, Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard.

This is what I've heard from various online forums, and news reports:

• Most of the flooding in Mandeville occurred between the lake (naturally) and Monroe Street.
• Madisonville experienced flooding at the Tchefuncte River, but I haven't heard that the Hwy. 22 drawbridge was damaged.
• Most of the subdivisions in Mandeville have some type of wind damage - fallen trees blocking roadways, trees going through houses, downed powerlines. It seems intermittent, though. Most reports I'm hearing, from the eastern part of Mandeville at least, are that one house might be devastated but the one next door might be fine.

Dear Hubby and brother-in-law are going to try to visit Mandeville tomorrow. They're not planning on staying - just long enough to look around and perhaps secure our houses if there's damage. I'll post more news when I have it...

We Evacuated...

Just a quick post to let those of you who may be concerned know that my family and I evacuated from our home in Southeast Louisiana. We're safe and sound in Lafayette, La., awaiting word on when we can return home to assess the situation.

Our home is in St. Tammany Parish which saw significant wind damage, but fortunately not a lot of flooding. Our neighbors across Lake Pontchartrain in Metairie, Kenner, New Orleans aren't so lucky. We're watching the news coverage and those areas look like Venice, Italy - streets completely underwater.

Keep us in your prayers. More to follow...