Storms
Tropical Storm Hanna is on it’s way up the East coast as I write this. We’re to expect some wind and rain here in NYC. We are not expecting people to die or for there to be power outages or anything ridiculous and third world like that.
Meanwhile, Ike is out there somewhere, and you can track all this stuff at this excellent web site.
But remember Gustav? It’s over right? No big deal right? Friend of this blogger (and blog), Tom Anderson wrote me from his iPhone in Baton Rouge last night (Friday night). With his permission I cross post:
“Gustav update
Geaux away Gustav is what we say down here. It has now been day 5 without electricity. We are told to prepare for another 2 – 3 weeks before power will be restored. Have found myself stuck for a real response other than, “um, no really now… Stop kidding… How long did you say???”
Baton Rouge schools are closed until further notice. Un huh. Okay then. Never heard that before. And there are a few Parishes that are now closed until further notice. Excuse me? Whole counties? And what exactly do you mean by closed?
I guess we feel lucky since tonight our enforced curfew is now no longer 8pm but 10pm. Enforced meaning arrested and put in jail no questions. So we are camping out inside and the glamor is waning. National guard ice is a godsend making people emotional. And thankfully we are now able to get in and out of our road. It was closed for a day. There are many roads still quite impassable. Them live oak trees are mighty big when you lay them down in pieces.
Baton Rouge was just 5 mph shy of being hit directly by a Category 3 hurricane. We had many many touch and go tornados which really tore the he’ll out of things. We could hear the trademark oncoming train over and over again on top of the sustained 80 mph winds. Trees are all over the damn place. What a mess.
But on the plus side, we were able to find a generator and gas cans and gas. It took 10 hours but it was so worth it. I have never seen such a pretty machine as a Sycamore 7000e Professional Model with 12 gauge extension cords. Make ya wanna cry let me tell ya.
So now we have more of a post-apocolyptic kinda camping thing going on. But never and I mean never underestimate the value of electricity. God bless Ben frickin Franklin.
Biggest news I suppose for many down here was that Tiger Stadium suffered serious damage. The campus did too but let’s not lose perspective here people. The GAME was finally postponed. It is hilarious in some moments and then so very sad on others watching mothers fall apart in the streets. And then all if our neighbors all meet up together and bring all our food together and make Yankee Gumbo and for a moment it all seems that we will be fine. Now that we have a fan hooked up to a generator.”
There are a lot of places in the country where if this was the situation, we’d have little else in the media. National ADD made in the USA.