news from south louisiana

Excerpts from msgs from my dad:

Hurricane Gustav devastated our state with one of the worst storms to hit Louisiana in my lifetime. This storm, even though it didn't cause the annihilation of New Orleans, has set much of South Louisiana back almost into the stone age temporarily. Multiplied thousands are living with candles, lanterns, water and whatever food they can find.

Our area is faring better than many, with much of the power coming back on line, but there are still many who probably won't be so blessed for at least another 7 to 14 days. Anyone who has been in Louisiana in the sweltering heat of summer knows that it's a miserable thing to not even be able to run a fan. Some folks have private wells so they are having to find bottled water only since the pumps won't run. Generators and small window a/c units are selling at a premium when they can be found.

At least gasoline has been available even though it sometimes takes up to a 3 hour wait to get to the pump because so few stations are open. It's getting better each day and I think in about a week or so, we should be getting much closer to normal.

It feels so good now to have A/C, a working washer and dryer and lights that work. Keep all the folks in prayer who don't have these necessities. [My grandmother's and my aunt's] electricity are both still off.

School will start the middle of next week for the east side of the Mississippi River, but not for the west side where there was more damage.

I finally finished raking and cleaning [my grandmother's] yard. There were about 100 wheelbarrow loads of leaves and branches to haul away. The temporary repairs to the roof of our house and the church are finished but if Hurricane Ike comes our way I'll need to beef those repairs and probably redo them after it's gone. I hope it goes somewhere else. Two major hurricanes in 2 weeks is more than I ever want to see, but it happened a few years ago with Katrina and Rita.

There's something about Labor Day that always seems to attract a hurricane. It's happened many times. My senior year in high school began with Hurricane Betsy and delayed our graduation for almost a month.

Thankfully no one was injured but there was a lot of damage. [My aunt] lost her trailer to a tree that just about cut it in two. My two cousins, Martha and Nicky both lost their homes to trees. Several church members had trees hit their homes and damage them. About half now have electricity and those who don't may have a long wait, especially if the lines to their home are down but not the main line on the street. Those are the homes they do last. I'm glad we have underground utilities in our neighborhood because there's less time in getting us connected again.

The church has no electricity and I don't know when it will come on so we are going to have a very short service in the morning and no night services at all.

Now we have to get prepared for another round and this time the stores aren't stocked as well becasue of all the panic buying again. Not that I'm worried. We have enough food on hand for a while and plenty of water. I'll need to refill some of the gas cans but both vehicles are full.