And the aftermath begins.......

Just talked to my brother.  He ives in Laplace.  They were told to stay because they had no flooding in the area and the officials actually downgraded the flood potential to nothing.  And the worst of the rains had passed.  

Then an hour later, they were  standing in water that was rising so fast they had 10 minutes to get out.  They have two dogs who got in the truck, but the cats panicked and scattered.  Kenny figured they could get on top of things and would do ok.  So they turned their attention to Blossom the Pig.  Blossom was in sheer panic and would not allow herself to be put in the truck.  She hates riding anyway.

The water was nearing their knees in the next 10 minutes and they knew if they didn’t move at that moment they would not get the vehicles out.  So they had to leave Blossom behind.  

Just now, Kenny was calling from the house, he found her in her pighouse.  She didn’t make it.

And there is three feet of water in their house.    They stayed in Lafayette last night but have a friend who has an empty rent house they will use.  He is trying to see what he can salvage, in a skiff, in his flooded house.

I cannot imagine.

Thursday 9 Am

i slept hard last night, I was exhausted.  It is very draining to go through this, not knowing if your house will be OK and where will you go with the dogs and the cat, and how are Carrie and Andrew doing.  Ann is still without electricity but that may even take days.  We were out nearly two weeks with Gustav.

With Isaac it seems we have a lot of leaves and branches to clean up and only the two shingles that flew loose from the cap of the roof.  Frank will get up there as soon as it dries a bit and re-nail them in place.  We don't think it leaked into the attic, there is after all, tar paper under the shingles.  We should be fine. The roof is not that old.

We can flush our toilets....somewhat.  It has never spilled over, but it doesn't go down.  The bowl fills and swirls, and eventually (sometimes hours) later it will seek a lower level.  Knowing this, I clean the toilets before and after a storm.  This happens when we get inches of rain but not on normal rains.  They say it is because the system fills with water and there is no where for it to go.  But I have talked to some of my neighbors and they do not experience this at all, so when the city comes out today, I will try to ask why this happens to us.  It has done this for the 27 years we have been here!

You don't know how you take a toilet for granted!

It still rains but not hard like yesterday.  The wind is about in the 20-25 mph range, and you can hear the generators in the subdivision behind us.  The ground is very soggy.

My brother lives in one of the subdivisions in Laplace that was evacuated.  I rarely hear from him, so I guess I will call and see if they are needing anything.

Laplace generally does not flood.  It was where a lot of Katrina people went to when they had to leave New Orleans.  It is a small town, kinda backwoods town, about 15 minutes to the west of New Orleans.  A lot of people living there work in Metairie, Kenner or New Orleans.  I think of it as more of the lower class end of the area.  If you want classier digs you would move north of the lake to Slidell, Covington or Hammond.

Let me take my idiot child for a walk.  He is crazy crazy.  Frank already took him around for 1/2 mile this morning, but I guess his energy is stored up from the last 24 hours of being inside.

We are lucky, there are many who are not so lucky.  I hope their lives can be mended and they had insurance!

glen

Squirrels in Trouble Go To LSU

During Gustav, over 200 squirrels were taken to the LSU Vet School.  They just said that so far about 50 squirrels have been taken to LSU.  And they asked that you NOT take squirrels there, but that you let them get back into their nests.  Squirrels will have 5 or 6 nests so if they lose one, they have others to go to.  I guess they got tired of taking in homeless squirrels!

We have a  couple of nice big squirrel nests in our trees.  DiNozzo wants to climb up and hide in one and wait for the squirrels to come home.

I did get my Plaid Bargello quilted.  A zig zag pattern.  Frank held it up for me.  But I am not sure you can really see all the quilting well. I calculated there are 1512 squares on the front and 185 on the back for a total of 1327 squares!  See the ribbons behind it?  Those are Dutch's show ribbons!  He was my beautiful Swissy Champion.

The rain continues.  The eye is heading directly toward us in Baton Rouge.  Some 500,000 people are without electricity and we continue to have lights!  Yeah!  The eye is now at Donaldsonville, south of us.  And they say it is going so slowly it will take 4 hours to get here.  I could bike to Donaldsonville in less time than that!

The generator sounds can be heard in the subdivision behind us.  That is where the sounds of explosions from the substation are coming from.

The wind and rain continue.  Our toilets are no longer flushing, so yes, Carrie, you cannot flush here during a storm.  The lines get full of water, so obviously there is a leak somewhere in the line.  Baton Rouge has been under federal mandate to upgrade the sewer systems for years now.  Millions of state and federal dollars have been spent and I still can't flush my toilets when it rains hard.

glen

1:20 pm Wednesday - my poor roof!

Governor Jindal has been wonderful.  He has lined up federal assistance, national guard troops, distributed generators to nursing homes, bypassed federal regulations on shipping gasoline and supplies, requested additional MREs since we keep only two days worth in state.

He updates the citizens every 4 hours.  Way better than the Katrina Governor Blanco who just sat there and cried because she was overwhelmed by it all.

Jindal just said that the next 30 minutes will be the worst weather yet for us in Baton Rouge.  The band that is approaching is topping at  90 mph winds and sustained at 70 mph.

As he was talking I heard something roll across the roof.  We went out to investigate and found that we have lost two of the roofing tiles that overlap the cap of the roof.  So more will probably follow.  And we know from experience that it may take months to get the roof repaired.

You don't realize how hard the wind is blowing until you are in it.  I need to take some video for you to see.

My poor roof!  But we still have power!  I am quilting the Plaid Bargello on the table in the den watching the hurricane pass through.

glen:  I guess I need to call the quilt Isaac's Winds!

Stuff Only Louisianians May Know - Isaac Wed 10:30

So it is Wed Aug 29 ar 10:30 am.  It appears that Isaac is finally beginning to move a bit inland.  And the eye is heading straight for us!  LOL.

I am going to post this and add video later, I can't seem to get blogger to add my video of the wind now.  It has picked up considerably and we are not at about 39 mph.  They eye is over Houma right now.  There is a nice quilt shop in Houma!

The wind is picking up, even Charlene notices that over in Lafayette.  We lost electricity for about 20 minutes, and the rain is beginning to come in a steady fall.

Let me tell you some things that we know here in Louisiana.  I guess everyone knows that today is exactly 7 years from the date Katrina hit.  How interesting.    The exact same area.  I hope this does not become a thing every 7 years!  Frank and I both grew up in New Orleans and both of our sets of parents did as well.  So we have lots of family history there.

Currently, New Orleans is not flooding.  New Orleans would not have flooded during Katrina.  What happened was the levees were breached.  Why?

It was Bush's fault!  No, not really, it was the Mardi Gras men.

The Federal Government had been giving the Levee Boards millions each year for many years, since the 30's for maintance and construtuion of the levee system.  Over time the politicians began to appoint their friends to the Levee Boards.  In time they began to move the money into their pockets, pet projects and who knows where, rather than maintain or construct new levees.  We all knew the Levee Boards were a joke.  And so were the levees.

So when Katrina hit, many of the levees had not been maintained.  And since New Orelans substrate land is still compressing (sinking) they were well below the required levels.

Hence flooding.

So rather then punish the people who did all this, since they are all friends anyway, the Federal Government decided to pour $14.5 Billion into New Orleans levees.  We thought that was a joke as well.  With $14.5 BILLION we could have built a new city, cleaned out the old welfare state and actually had a Houston or an Austin here in Louisiana.  So few people actually lived in New Orleans who worked and had family units.  Most live in Metairie, Kenner, River Ridge, Harahan, Westwego, etc, communities that all are squeezed in there around New Orleans.  The welfare checks supported more than 89% of the people who actually lived in New Orleans.    Amazing.

A side note about Houston.  Years ago, when the power people wanted to create a power city in the South, they approached the bigwigs in New Orleans about the idea of creating an oil city.  The money and power is concentrated in these Mardi Gras Krewes.  They are the men who control this city and the state.  They vetoed the idea thinking that they would lose the culture of their Krewes as the city became a power center and outsiders came in.  So the brokers moved to Houston and created wealth there.

And Louisiana was happy and we still had our Mardi Gras men.

7:30 AM Wednesday - still waiting

6 am Wed

Blogger is fighting with me in the placement of these pictures.

The storm has virtually stopped just off the coast below New Orleans.  I fell alseep around 1 pm last night, and when I woke at 4:45 am I surely thought I would be seeing rain and wind and that we would have no electricity.  Very little rain had fallen, none in my rain guage even.  So I rushed in and washed my hair and used my electricity while I had it to blow dry.

The wind has picked up, but surprisingly the birds are looking for food so Frank put out one feeder for them.

You can see the wind outside is stronger, we are probably at 30-35
mph now.  But there is virtually no difference in the 6 am and the 10 pm last night. We are still at the edge between the blue and the red.  Bad, bad bad for Louisiana and Mississippi.

The poor people in the lower parishes are getting beaten by this storm.  $14.5 Billion was spent on incresasing the levees.  But one levee that had not been topped in Katrina was not touched.  his time it was overtopped and there is 5 feet of water in the homes there in Plaquemines Parish.   Now the Emergency Responders have to go in and rescue them.  Stupid people should have left during the MANDATORY evacuation!

Grand Isle is suffering a lot of damage and high water.  We have many friends with camps and one who lives there following her retirement.  Wiht no cameras there, it is impossible to tell what damage is happening, but with the storm stalled over the area there seems to be no end.

Dogs went out, paper was delivered and we are still waiting 

glen

10:15 Pm Tuesday night

We ate dinner, chinese rice and chicken, and baked brownies.  Watched some TV waiting for the Republican Convention to come on.  Just before Ann Romney spoke we walked the dogs for 1/2 mile around the block.

Still no rain.  The sprinkles earlier were just that.  Every time I look at the radar, I see we are on the edge.  We are still on the edge of the circulation.  I think our wind is still at 25 mph.  Baton Rouge is in that blue right on the edge of the yellow/red.

Ann Romney spoke, Chris Christie spoke, and Hugeaux is getting a bit more upset, so I am thinking the storm is close in dog terms.  I gave him some Rescue Remedy to help his nerves.  The walk helped some of the energy but he still is worried.

I sewed several more Paperweights and rearranged the design wall to be laid out like they need to be.  They will change location and I may continue adding more and make it larger, who knows how long the electricity will hold out!  I think it needed to rotate and did not.  The bright green should be in the left top position.  Just go ahead and imagine it! LOL.  I need more red, I can see that.  More red will do fine.

Charlene and I texted well wishes, safe night to each other.  Ann and I spoke earlier, her mom is settled in and she is home. Carrie checked on her dog, my cousin in Destrehan is settled in with beer and bread and toilet paper, all the essentials.

We wait now.  When I look at the clouds in the sky they appear to be racing faster than I have ever seen them move.  And still we wait.  That is the hard part for me, the waiting.

You can feel the air is just different.  The weather people are huddled in New Orleans where it has been raining all night and most of the afternoon.  They are having a hard time standing up in the wind so I think it is in the 60 mph gusts.

I am heading in to take a bath, Frank will follow.  Afterwards I may go out and see the weather for you and see if I can video some of the trees.

glen

Tuesday 6:42 pm

It is just now that we are seeing our very first bit of rain.  Sprinkles, really.


We debated about the cars.  We have a carport.  One side is open and the other side has a single garage attached.  Should we move a vehicle out from under the carport should it fall or the oak tree falls on it? That way we would have at least one available vehicle.

From the open side looking out

The down side of leaving one out in the open is the flying debris.  The safest place not under the carport would be under the crepe myrtles between our house and Dale's.  It is just our driveway there and no tall trees to fall.  But debris could fly between the houses, and because it is a tunnel of sorts, the wind would pick up speed and strength.

In the end, we decided to leave both the van and the SUV under the carport.  27 years and it has not fallen, well, except for the time Carrie put her Accord into first rather than reverse and took out the center post!  You should have seen her face that day.  And you should have seen Frank's.

Here is that back patio furniture close up to the house.  It is open and the wind should just go through it rather than push them around.  You have to think of things like that.

I went around picking up all the dog toys.  At 60 mph I don't think a skunk will go through a window, but you never know.  Chloe tossed it up in the air and it came down on her head.  DiNozzo was upset and wanted it.  She wanted him to leave it alone.  They are at a stalemate and the skunk is still on her head 15 minutes later.

And it has stopped raining.

glen

Hurricane Isaac - 4:30 PM Tuesday

You can tell the air is damper and the wind is stronger.  But we still have not seen rain.  I will take a video later in the night and maybe tomorrow and you can see the difference in the winds!  This is my first blogging video.  I hope it works!  LOL  The sound you hear is the trees but the wind is hitting the microphone on the camera.  It sounds like thunder but it is not.  There is eerily no sound at all except for the trees.

The birds know.  They are gorging themselves.  This is the third time I have filled the three feeders today alone.  And I see larger birds than usual, like the black grackles and the huge bluejays.  I tried to get some bird shots but they are flighty and hear me even at the window.  Hugeaux runs them when I open the door and they know he is here!

Here they are, I had to
sneak to the window

Hugeaux is settled on the sofa with Frank watching the weather channel.  He has the A/C turned down to the 60's thinking that if he keeps the house cool, and the electricity goes out, we will be cooler longer.  We shall see about that.

On the 3rd day after Gustav, we were plain hot!  And tired of the food from the ice chest.  So we went out looking to see what we could see.  Jasmine's, a small and totally local restaurant, had opened and was frying catfish and french fries in a huge butane burner like you boil crawfish in on their parking lot.  And the dinners were $5.  So we stopped and ate outside with other weary survivors.  I don't even like catfish.

Walmart is closing at 5 PM.  The grocery stores are mostly closed.  All the ATMs have run out of cash.  And the ice machines are out of ice.  It is time for everyone to go home.  There is a curfew in two parishes outside of Baton Rouge from dusk to dawn.  And the sheriff's in those smaller towns mean business.  You will be stopped and the worst will be thought.  If you have no good reason to be out, stay home!

Looting is often bad in these times when people have left, neighbors are tight inside and they think no one is looking.  That is why most people don't ever leave.  Stay out of my house!  Go home!

The police and EMTs will not come and get you out of a predicament in the middle of a hurricane!  You are on your own.  The power companies pull their workers out at 35 mph sustained winds.   You just tough it out until the storm passes.  So you had better prepare!

I am seeing some sun out my window at this moment.  Odd.

Traveling Through Hurricane Issac

For those of you who have commented to me about never having been in a hurricane, I will tell you what we are doing and how things are looking by making a series of posts.  I don't think this Isaac will be bad, just wind and rain much like a heavy storm

9 AM Tuesday - Sunny

But one never knows.  Especially if your house is damaged by flying debris.  The danger is not the wind, but what the wind carries.  So the first thing we do is to go around the yard and collect anything we think will move in the wind.  We trim low hanging trees, but that should be done well before the storm is near because branches in your trash pile can be picked up and tossed into a window.

Here is the yard today.  This morning.  Sunny and calm.

When I was a kid in New Orleans, we would tape our windows with masking tape.  It would not keep the window safe but it may prevent the glass from flying all over the house if it were held together.  But now they are saying, don't even tape your windows because it gives a false sense of security.

2 PM Tuesday First Bands

And in all houses in New Orleans, we would have a hatchet in the attic.  This would be used to chop through the wood roof if you had to get into the attic when the water rose.  You could get rescued from the top of your roof, but not from inside.

I forgot to get cat litter yesterday during a run to the overcrowded and understocked grocery store.  So I got a bag of cat food and litter.

At home I cleaned the tubs.  We fill the tubs with water, this is a holdover from living in New Orleans when flooding contaminated the water supply and there was no electricity to run the pumps.  And also from when we lived in Hammond, LA, just north of New Orleans, and had our own pump that used electricity.  When electricity went out, we had no water.  In fact Carrie called me yesterday and said, tell me again why we can't flush the toilets in a storm!

It is Tuesday and 2 PM.  The winds are probably about 20 mph or so.  Steady.  So far no rain and the day has gone from sunny to heavy clouds back to sunny then heavy clouds.  These are the outermost bands of the storm   You can actually see the edge of the fronts as they pass overhead.  During the storm the direction of the winds will change.  The clouds and winds go in a counterclockwise direction so at the top of the storm we hope to be in the west quadrant. That means the winds will have gone over land before they get to us and will have slowed considerably.

We are under the very first band

The problem in the outer bands like that is tornadoes.  They are quick to spawn and quick to die.  But they can cause damage in between.  We had lunch with Carrie, the restaurants are all closing around 2 PM.  She works in an Architect's office and would be involved in any repair and stopgap work any clients needed.  She is also responsible for jobsites.  So she is working.  I went and got her dog to spend the time with ours.  The bassets are calm and Hugeaux is terrified.  He takes a cue from the Bassets and is not as frantic with us as he is with Carrie.

Over lunch we found out that Isaac had just tipped over to hurricane strength at 75 mph winds.  And it looks to me like it is consolidating.  That could be bad, because it is also slowing.  Slowing means it will have the opportunity to increase in strength.  Also, slowing means it will be over us longer and can dump more rain over us.  Neither is a good thing.

This is a picture of the tracks of all storms recorded in August since 1951.  I guess we can be assured of having a hurricane in August!  So I wonder why people are still surprised and unprepared.

glen:  more later.....until the lights go out!