Gustav Slideshow

I put together a collection of images from my camera, my iPhone and Jeff's SLR to give my depiction of the events and the situation here over the past week. Getting power back is a gift from Jeebus, as there are still something like 100,000 families without power in Baton Rouge. There are some places they are not expecting to get back online for a couple more weeks.

Thats right - WEEKS!

So we are pretty fortunate, especially since the neighborhood two blocks over from me is in the 3 week zone.

Now that everyone is creeping out about Ike making Louisiana look worse than Tina Turner after some backtalk, I made sure to pick up some more pasta and start freezing gallons of water to keep my freezer cold. The Mad Max atmosphere is a little scary, but I have some faith in the human spirit so I am going to restrain from picking up a sawed-off shottie.

There are about 50 pics in the slideshow, I have some video but it really does not do the power of the storm any justice. I can let you check them out if you are interested. Click on the picture for more.

Power! and lots of debris

I literally just got power back while we were cleaning out my yard.
HELL YEA!

This my pile. I made this with some friends help cleaning out my yard.

There are bigger piles out there and still about half the city without
power. I'll get some more pics up tonight.

Back in the office dealing with Gustav aftermath

So things are turning a little Mad Max around here since the power outage is so widespread. I have heard estimates between 100,000 and 2 million people still out of power. I know some of the parishes (you might call them counties) are still not even open to outsiders - Orleans opens tomorrow. The news is publishing some pretty hair reports of activity outside of a Walmart that hasn't even opened yet. Supposedly there are lines around the block and there are police reports of fights breaking out. Very few gas stations are open and we are running on generator power here at work. It was wild to see two huge tankards of gasoline drive up to the building yesterday after we were out of power for about two hours. There are tons of people sleeping on cots and showering here in the building. I worked about 14 hours yesterday and plan on just as hectic a day today. I would like to get some time to head home and clear out my fridge as I think things are going to start to fail in there pretty soon.

I had 4 ladies and 5 dogs spend the night at my house last night, you'd think I was running a Motel 6. Its kind of fun and crazy, but slightly tense.

Here is a picture of my baby with our lunch - MRE scrambled eggs with salsa verde.

Some Aftermath pics

Still no power and there is apparently a curfew for Baton Rouge starting at 8PM. I got a chance to take the dogs for a walk and took some pics around the neighborhood. LOTS of debris and some trees entirely uprooted. The levees appear to have held around New Orleans and the other coastal zones, so national news seems to have dropped off. This was quite a doozy for Baton Rouge, worse than Katrina or Rita for this neighborhood.

Albeit, I don't believe I will be going anywhere tonight, I have no intention of challenging police officers for a chance to play chess at Jeff's house.

I am going to be opening my fridge in a few minutes and it needs to happen with surgical precision to preserve as much cool air as possible. Looks like burgers for dinner.

I will have to wait until my internet connection improves before getting more pics up.

MacGuyver Jeff

This is a picture sent to me by Jeff to show his ingenuity in dealing with some leaky walls/ceiling.

This is the tree from my backyard - or maybe I should say the "Former" tree from my backyard.

Gustav Blog

We are just getting into some heavy rain here in Baton Rouge. The storm has been stirring here for just over three hours, New Orleans has been dealing for about 10 hours. I think things are a little hairy over there but it seems like everything is holding together (ie. no levee breaches).

The authorities spent the last several days evacuating all of coastal Louisiana, including New Orleans. Something like 2 million people evacuated, which is about half the population of the state. It is almost surprising to see the plans and the coordination actually coming to fruition. I feel confident in saying that if anyplace is ready to handle a direct hit by a major storm it is Louisiana. We have been coordinating and planning for this eventuality for the last three years. The governor's office, the state, the local parishes, and the federal government have all worked out their differences since Katrina and are doing a tremendous job of working together to manage and mitigate the destruction from this storm.

My lady and I are safe in our Baton Rouge home, and we have three sleeping dogs, a case of water, some beans and tuna, and a batch of jambalaya leftovers to tide us over for the day. As of yet we have not lost power, but a couple of our friends have, so we are crossing our fingers. The worst of the storm still has yet to come through here but an unforeseen danger for us is a little case of cabin fever!

I will try to keep some updates going throughout the day.