Ida? Ridgerunner?

[baymule]

I hope he hasn’t returned home yet. With no power, it is miserable in the heat and humidity. So open windows and door? Then you get swamp skeeters, I swear they must be the size of sparrows. Go outside and they attack. We went without power for 1 1/2 weeksafter hurricane Rita, 3 weeks after Katrina destroyed NOLA . Plus Houston evacuated and we had thousands of displaced people in our schools and churches. No gas for generators. No gas to go home. No power also meant no grocery stores-all cold food was spoiled. And our little town of Livingston was not flooded, very little damage. People underestimate the ferocity of a hurricane.

In hurricane Ike, we had no power for over 3 weeks due to a 100 year old oak tree falling on the house where power lines came into the house. It would have been longer if we hadn’t been friends with an electrician who put the connection bac up so the power company could connect the power line back to the house. Not fun.

Yes Steve, we are interconnected to necessities that make life hard when suddenly all that vanishes. We have all these nice things that don’t work with no electricity. No cooking on an electric stove, no refrigerator or freezer, no lights, not even a fan to stir the air. You may have a generator but with no power to pump the gas at the filling station, no gas for the generator.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Yes Steve, we are interconnected to necessities that make life hard when suddenly all that vanishes. We have all these nice things that don’t work with no electricity. No cooking on an electric stove, no refrigerator or freezer, no lights, not even a fan to stir the air. You may have a generator but with no power to pump the gas at the filling station, no gas for the generator.

we certainly have it much easier with electricity than without. i can't imagine trying to do without it. i could survive but life would be quite different.

 

[baymule]

we certainly have it much easier with electricity than without. i can't imagine trying to do without it. i could survive but life would be quite different.

Throw in a flooded house, the roof ripped off by winds, no potable water and everything in your home ruined, no food and no transportation because your car was flooded too. Then you start to get a feeling what it is to take a direct hit by a powerful hurricane. These poor people are truly devastated.

I was raised in Houston, in 3rd grade I remember going outside to play in the eye of the storm. It was eerily quiet, calm and still.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thanks for all the well wishes. Out of seven people, two houses, an apartment, and five cars no one was injured and no damage from the storm. We did OK on that. My wife and I evacuated to Dallas to stay with relatives. It wasn't that bad of a drive. We did not wait until the last second and we drove at night, that avoids the worse of the traffic. And you top off your car before the storm, even if you have to wait in line. That way you can get far enough away that the gas stations haven't run out of gas and still have power for their pumps.

One son elected to stay here, he left his apartment and stayed at our house. It's higher here so his car was less likely to flood. No trees and hurricane panels on the windows, a very safe place to stay. Lots of food and drinking water, and a gas stove so he could boil water. He had a generator but those things drink gas, I did not have enough to last him. For a while he could run the refrigerator, use the microwave, charge his phone, and watch the news. He lost power of course so no AC, lights at night, and all that. The water pressure dropped so there was a boil water advisory but he did have enough pressure to flush the toilet. Being able to flush is important. Yeah, Bay, the bathtub was filled and a couple of neighbors have swimming pools so he could have managed but it's convenient to not have to use that.

My other son, his wife, and two kids had a more challenging adventure. They elected to go to our camp northeast of here. From projections at the time they thought they had a better chance of keeping power. Then the storm intensified and shifted direction a bit so yeah, they lost power. That meant the well pump didn't work. So they had some adventures coming back to their house but they made it. To complicate it the day before Ida hit their 5-year-old had an ear infection and Covid. High fever. They got him to an emergency room and got medicines that took care of the fever and the ear infection. That's a big reason they left, to get back near a hospital. After they got back the 10-year-old came down with Covid, then my son, then his wife. The young one probably brought it home from kindergarten. They are all OK now but the 10-year-old and both adults did feel some symptoms.

After Ida had passed my wife and I came back to take care of a few things, like emptying the refrigerator/freezer so the food in it would not spoil. You can't get rid of that smell so we wanted to save it. The parish was picking up garbage so I did not have bury that stuff in them in the back yard like I did after Katrina. Helpful, very helpful. We also brought back a lot of food and supplies for our son's family in quarantine. Groceries were and still are hard to get. We moved the generator over there and brought him some gas. Then we went back to Dallas. Our other son went with us but in his car. There are some stories there too.

A complicating factor is that we have two 13 year old dogs that are used to air conditioning. We did not think they'd have made it without AC, so we took them to Dallas and boarded them. That's why we didn't get back until yesterday, we had to wait until after the holiday to pick them up. Part of that is that one is on medication and I could not get that prescription refilled until Monday as Walgreens did not have it in hand. I don't know how long we'd have to wait here until we could have gotten it refilled.

That's the highlights of our saga to date. The bottom line is that we are all OK. The main reason we left was because of AC, for us and the dogs.

Somebody asked why people live in areas like this or like Grand Isle. Why do people live where they have tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, ice storms, blizzards, fires, and all the other natural disasters that can happen? Because it is home. For many it has been for generations. It's that simple, it is home.

 

[digitS']

Don't expect me to post anything until maybe next Wednesday. It depends on how long the power is out.

Another Wednesday. Ida and New Orleans are examples of infrastructure holding up and collapsing - at the same time. Levees stood the test, electrical grid did not.

I suppose that it is easy, and often quite necessary, to take a very personal view during a crisis. For example, some time ago, this area was hit by an icestorm. Power lines were down everywhere. A couple miles away, the neighborhoods didn't have electricity for 3 weeks. Across the arterial street a block from my home, they lost the 220 and had only 110 - the nearby food store closed. Next door, the electric wires from the house to the garage was pulled down nearly to the ground. The neighbor had an electrician come in and repair it.

Our house -- no problem. Lights flickered several times during the storm which lasted through an afternoon. Nothing else. I put salt on the back steps and sidewalk. Ice was gone by midday about 12 hours later.

School was cancelled for a day or two for our daughter but it was not in an effected neighborhood. We couldn't shop for groceries within walking distance and I had to take note of which gas stations were open and which were not. Branches were down in streets until workers could remove them. Driving for miles through a distant neighborhood with no street lights and no traffic signals was an experience. I remember that our pharmacy was in that direction but beyond the power outage. My parents home was A-ok and DB's was out of the storm area.

Close the curtains, turn on the lights ... it's dinner time ... then, imma gonna take a shower and go to bed.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Can you believe that Ridge' and I posted at ALMOST the same time!?

 

[baymule]

Welcome back home! I’m glad your home escaped damage. If you live in a coastal area, storms are a way of life. You just deal with it.

 

[flowerbug]

glad you made it back and that everything is/was mostly ok. like you say, adventures and stories.

we had some slight swirlies go over us last night but nothing to be too excited about.

 

[pjn]

Glad to hear all are safe.

 

[Marie2020]

we certainly have it much easier with electricity than without. i can't imagine trying to do without it. i could survive but life would be quite different.

I don't mean to be pessimist but electricity could become a real worry for most of us In the future.
Our government had too switch back too coal for providing electric too some parts of our country a few days ago