The news is so depressing at this point. Now that the mayor has declared martial law, I honestly hope they start shooting the looters on sight. This is ridiculous... civilazation breaks down this easily?
Don's sister and her husband are still in Algiers. I hope to god they finally make it up here tomorrow. Their son is definitely coming over to us from Baton Rouge tomorrow.
Dave, the ex, and his friends made it in from Atlanta tonight and are staying at my friends Kris & Victor's home. I think they're a bit perplexed about why they returned to Louisiana so soon now that they realize that it's probably going to be weeks before they'll be able to return to the city. Robert left us tonight, to spend a night at Kris & Victor's also before driving home to his parents' home in South Carolina.
I finally talked to my friend Jonathan tonight also. He's in Houston and it sounds l ike he's probably going to stay there permanently. He hasn't heard from our friend Kris, who stayed in one of the harder hit areas, either. He called me a second time later tonight and asked us to start looking for a rental for his parents who are thinking of relocating temporarily to Lafayette.
I also managed to get through a second time to Jinger, one of the employees of the Metairie B&N, who's staying in Baton Rouge. She had info about two more friends of mine who are safe. I think the two of us took a lot of comfort in our conversation. Right now, it's just really great to be able to talk to any of your friends from New Orleans.
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
I lasted all of an hour and a half at work before I had a major panic attack in the middle of the store. I managed to find out a bit of info about a few people that work at the 4 Barnes & Noble stores in the damage zone. I managed to get one of the employees of the Metairie store (where I worked for five years until six months ago) on the phone and we were both in tears before we got off the phone. That store has around 80 employees, about 3/4th of which I know very well. And I only know for sure that three of them are safe. We're terribly worried about the mother of one of our co-workers who remained in Lakeview during the storm.
I hope other major corporate employers follow the lead of B&N, who are evidently going to take very good care of their employees during this crisis. I was completely awed by the amount of financial support they're willing to provide.
I hope other major corporate employers follow the lead of B&N, who are evidently going to take very good care of their employees during this crisis. I was completely awed by the amount of financial support they're willing to provide.
I just woke up and there's not a lot more info since last nite. We have no idea if there's flooding or the amount of it near Richard & Jonno's and Robert's homes. Don's sister and her husband should be leaving Algiers (on the Westbank of NOLA) today or tomorrow to come stay in our townhouse. My friends Tanner and Vic are making their way back from Houston today and we've found them housing with other friends of ours here in Lafayette.
This is all just so surreal. I don't think I had mentioned that our friend Roger here in Lafayette had been unable to find out anything about his parents who lived in Lakeview, each of them in their 80s. We found out this morning that they were rescued yesterday. They had to go to the attic of their home and managed to knock a vent out, but were unable to break a whole in the roof. When a rescue boat got to them, they had to swim back down through their flooded house and out the door to the boat. It's sooo Shelley Winters in Poseidon Adventure... Did i mention the word surreal already?
I have to go to work shortly, so I won't be updating again until after 7pm central.
This is all just so surreal. I don't think I had mentioned that our friend Roger here in Lafayette had been unable to find out anything about his parents who lived in Lakeview, each of them in their 80s. We found out this morning that they were rescued yesterday. They had to go to the attic of their home and managed to knock a vent out, but were unable to break a whole in the roof. When a rescue boat got to them, they had to swim back down through their flooded house and out the door to the boat. It's sooo Shelley Winters in Poseidon Adventure... Did i mention the word surreal already?
I have to go to work shortly, so I won't be updating again until after 7pm central.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
It's almost midnight and Jonno and I are sitting in my backyard, reading what news we can find, parsing through the national media... checking the local media... etc etc...
We must be an odd sight, sitting at the table in my rather dark backyard, lit only by our laptops...
I finally was able to get calls through to my mom and my sister a couple of hours ago. My sister left early this morning and braved flooded streets with fallen trees to drive the hour or so to find out how my mom was faring. When she got there my 80 year old mother was in the yard on her riding lawn mower tied to a small fallen tree that she was trying to move. That's my mom... she's a tough one... My sister said that it looked like a bomb had exploded on the two acres that my mother lives on. There were ten trees fallen and all of the standing trees had lost all of their leaves. Remarkably her house was untouched. And, remember, my mom lives over an hour from where the eye of the storm went through.
She doesn't have electricity or running water, but she refused to leave to go to my sister's house. But, my sister is going back tomorrow and she's not taking no for an answer.
We must be an odd sight, sitting at the table in my rather dark backyard, lit only by our laptops...
I finally was able to get calls through to my mom and my sister a couple of hours ago. My sister left early this morning and braved flooded streets with fallen trees to drive the hour or so to find out how my mom was faring. When she got there my 80 year old mother was in the yard on her riding lawn mower tied to a small fallen tree that she was trying to move. That's my mom... she's a tough one... My sister said that it looked like a bomb had exploded on the two acres that my mother lives on. There were ten trees fallen and all of the standing trees had lost all of their leaves. Remarkably her house was untouched. And, remember, my mom lives over an hour from where the eye of the storm went through.
She doesn't have electricity or running water, but she refused to leave to go to my sister's house. But, my sister is going back tomorrow and she's not taking no for an answer.
Scary news now... the WWL webpage is saying that the efforts to seal the break in the levee have failed and that they expect the pumps in the area to fail soon. Within the next 12-15 hours 9 feet of water is expected througout the Eastbank.
I honestly don't know how Richard, Jonno & Robert are holding themselves together. I've got a lot of admiration for them, because if I still lived there I'd be a complete basket case right now. I'm a borderline basket case as it is... Don just came outside to tell me that his mother finally really understands that she's pretty much lost everything in her apartment. He's taking her to the front swing to talk. She doesn't have flood insurance and she didn't bring much of anything here with her. I thought it was weirdly endearing earlier when she said... "but.. I left two fur coats and all my jewels there."
My head is spinning with so many different things right now. I have so many friends in NOLA who live paycheck to paycheck. The money in their pockets right now is all they have. They can't go back to the city for at least a week. Their homes are probably destroyed. And I don't think a lot of people are going to be buying drinks in bars, going out for sushi, getting the hair colored, etc anytime soon...
I feel like we're sitting on top of a gigantic yo-yo... everytime we think things are getting better, it seems like they get ten times worse...
I honestly don't know how Richard, Jonno & Robert are holding themselves together. I've got a lot of admiration for them, because if I still lived there I'd be a complete basket case right now. I'm a borderline basket case as it is... Don just came outside to tell me that his mother finally really understands that she's pretty much lost everything in her apartment. He's taking her to the front swing to talk. She doesn't have flood insurance and she didn't bring much of anything here with her. I thought it was weirdly endearing earlier when she said... "but.. I left two fur coats and all my jewels there."
My head is spinning with so many different things right now. I have so many friends in NOLA who live paycheck to paycheck. The money in their pockets right now is all they have. They can't go back to the city for at least a week. Their homes are probably destroyed. And I don't think a lot of people are going to be buying drinks in bars, going out for sushi, getting the hair colored, etc anytime soon...
I feel like we're sitting on top of a gigantic yo-yo... everytime we think things are getting better, it seems like they get ten times worse...
Ok... HUGE NEWS! Jonno just upgraded my house to wireless internet! We've gone from sitting around in clusters with our cellphones clutched in our hands to sitting around with our laptops in our laps...
If you've been trying to get any of us on the phone, cellphone service is very very sketchy, if not almost non-existent. I don't think it helps that most of us have New Orleans area codes, including myself even though I moved away 6 months ago.
For those who know me and my friends outside of the Jonno/Richard circle... Jonathan is in Houston with his family... Robert is here with me... Dave is in Atlanta, probably getting lots of quality time with Bud... Tanner and Vic are in Houston, but are making their way back to Lafayette, we're gonna put them up with some friends... We haven't heard from Kris (long hair Kris) yet, and as far as we know he stayed on the Northshore during the storm...
If you've been trying to get any of us on the phone, cellphone service is very very sketchy, if not almost non-existent. I don't think it helps that most of us have New Orleans area codes, including myself even though I moved away 6 months ago.
For those who know me and my friends outside of the Jonno/Richard circle... Jonathan is in Houston with his family... Robert is here with me... Dave is in Atlanta, probably getting lots of quality time with Bud... Tanner and Vic are in Houston, but are making their way back to Lafayette, we're gonna put them up with some friends... We haven't heard from Kris (long hair Kris) yet, and as far as we know he stayed on the Northshore during the storm...
Ok.. so here's the deal. Don't believe the national media stories of how lucky New Orleans is... luck is relative. Yes, the city wasn't completely destroyed, but...
From the info we're managing to gather now, the city has been dealt a crippling blow. As of earlier tonight, 80% of the city was flooded, with waters still rising in many areas because of broken levees and broken pumps. One of the major highways into the city has a large bridge which we call the Twin Spans. It's damaged to the point that it will have to be completely replaced. There are lots of vague reports of bodies floating in water and I've gone from thinking them as hysterical rumor to feeling pretty sure that we're going to see a rapidly escalating death toll over the next few days. Residents are probably not going to be allowed back into the city for a week. City officials are saying it's going to be 4 to 6 weeks until power is restored to the entire city and I imagine it's going to be days before a serious effort to start the process starts.
We're just trying to process the toll to individuals, to the city, to the state, to the country. New Orleans is based on a tourist economy... how long before they'll come back? The state gets a lot of money from NO taxes. People's homes are totally destroyed or significantly damaged. How can the Saints play in the Superdome when part of the roof is missing? New Orleans is one of the major port cities of the US... are the ports still there? How's this going to effect the national economy?
I expect that Richard and Jonno, along with Don's mom and our friend Robert will be our guests through the weekend if not for another week or more. They're feeling awkward about it, but their presence is a great comfort to me, because I have so many friends in New Orleans who I'm worried about. But, I have these guys here in front of me and I know they're okay.
We're all freaked out quite a bit. We'll deal, but it's really really weird trying to absorb what's happened to our beloved city.
For now, our guests are left wondering about their homes. Don's sister and her husband stayed in Algiers (the Westbank of New Orleans) and we haven't been able to contact them since 8 am this morning during the beginning of the storm. My mom is alone in Livingston Parish, far from New Orleans, but in an area that was also hit relatively hard and we haven't been able to contact her since noon today and a major band of storms went through the area about an hour later. Cellphones barely work. Land phones barely work. Text messages are a little more successful, but not always.
It's scary, folks.
From the info we're managing to gather now, the city has been dealt a crippling blow. As of earlier tonight, 80% of the city was flooded, with waters still rising in many areas because of broken levees and broken pumps. One of the major highways into the city has a large bridge which we call the Twin Spans. It's damaged to the point that it will have to be completely replaced. There are lots of vague reports of bodies floating in water and I've gone from thinking them as hysterical rumor to feeling pretty sure that we're going to see a rapidly escalating death toll over the next few days. Residents are probably not going to be allowed back into the city for a week. City officials are saying it's going to be 4 to 6 weeks until power is restored to the entire city and I imagine it's going to be days before a serious effort to start the process starts.
We're just trying to process the toll to individuals, to the city, to the state, to the country. New Orleans is based on a tourist economy... how long before they'll come back? The state gets a lot of money from NO taxes. People's homes are totally destroyed or significantly damaged. How can the Saints play in the Superdome when part of the roof is missing? New Orleans is one of the major port cities of the US... are the ports still there? How's this going to effect the national economy?
I expect that Richard and Jonno, along with Don's mom and our friend Robert will be our guests through the weekend if not for another week or more. They're feeling awkward about it, but their presence is a great comfort to me, because I have so many friends in New Orleans who I'm worried about. But, I have these guys here in front of me and I know they're okay.
We're all freaked out quite a bit. We'll deal, but it's really really weird trying to absorb what's happened to our beloved city.
For now, our guests are left wondering about their homes. Don's sister and her husband stayed in Algiers (the Westbank of New Orleans) and we haven't been able to contact them since 8 am this morning during the beginning of the storm. My mom is alone in Livingston Parish, far from New Orleans, but in an area that was also hit relatively hard and we haven't been able to contact her since noon today and a major band of storms went through the area about an hour later. Cellphones barely work. Land phones barely work. Text messages are a little more successful, but not always.
It's scary, folks.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Ok.. requests for updates heard...
Here in Lafayette, we didn't get anything more than a nice windy day with a little rain. We had an extremely stressful evening last night watching a little a bit too much weather info on tv... well, and trying to watch the dreadful premier of Rome probably didn't help...
We really don't know much more about the state of New Orleans than what you can read on the Web. We've heard from second hand sources that the French Quarter is in pretty good shape. We've also heard that Don's mom's apartment may have 4 feet of water in it, but we're really not sure... and we're not telling her yet. Don was able to talk to his sister and her husband this morning around 8:30 am when the storm was beginning but we haven't been able to get in touch with them since. The last contact with my mother, who is in Livingston Parish, which took a pretty decent hit was around noon and a pretty significant amount of bad weather went through her area about an hour after that. However, phone lines, land and cellular, are pretty much useless from Baton Rouge well into Mississippi. I'm sure we'll get word within hours or days.
Richard & Jonno don't know much of anything about their neighborhood or house, but I think we're all feeling like the Marigny may be okay. They'll probably be with us at least another 2 days. I hate to get them here under such circumstances but I'm thrilled to get to spend time with them. Tomorrow's the first day I'll be off work since they got here.. and they brought Absinthe... woot!
More later...
Here in Lafayette, we didn't get anything more than a nice windy day with a little rain. We had an extremely stressful evening last night watching a little a bit too much weather info on tv... well, and trying to watch the dreadful premier of Rome probably didn't help...
We really don't know much more about the state of New Orleans than what you can read on the Web. We've heard from second hand sources that the French Quarter is in pretty good shape. We've also heard that Don's mom's apartment may have 4 feet of water in it, but we're really not sure... and we're not telling her yet. Don was able to talk to his sister and her husband this morning around 8:30 am when the storm was beginning but we haven't been able to get in touch with them since. The last contact with my mother, who is in Livingston Parish, which took a pretty decent hit was around noon and a pretty significant amount of bad weather went through her area about an hour after that. However, phone lines, land and cellular, are pretty much useless from Baton Rouge well into Mississippi. I'm sure we'll get word within hours or days.
Richard & Jonno don't know much of anything about their neighborhood or house, but I think we're all feeling like the Marigny may be okay. They'll probably be with us at least another 2 days. I hate to get them here under such circumstances but I'm thrilled to get to spend time with them. Tomorrow's the first day I'll be off work since they got here.. and they brought Absinthe... woot!
More later...
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Well... I suppose I should post something since Richard sent most of you this way...
For those of you who already know me, worry not... I left New Orleans 6 months ago, remember? Don and I moved into our new 4 bedroom house last weekend. Fortunate timing, since it enabled us to work the phones yesterday encouraging friends and family to evacuate New Orleans to come stay with us.
We've got 4 house guests (down from 6 last nite) and 4 extra dogs (down from 6 last nite) and 2 cats here staying with us.
We all feel pretty confident that we're barely going to feel any impact of the storm here in Acadiana, but we're all very very very worried about New Orleans. Don's sister and her husband have refused to leave the Westbank, which is on the high side of the river, and we're not terribly happy about that. And I haven't been able to get in touch with Poppy and her husband, and she indicated on her last livejournal posts that they weren't leaving the city either. But... after spending several hours making myself physically ill worrying about them and the city that I love so much, I've decided to stop... They're adults, they've made their decisions and I'm not doing myself any good thinking about it so much.
Anyways... we're about to grill... and Aunt Sassy will be on soon...
More later...
For those of you who already know me, worry not... I left New Orleans 6 months ago, remember? Don and I moved into our new 4 bedroom house last weekend. Fortunate timing, since it enabled us to work the phones yesterday encouraging friends and family to evacuate New Orleans to come stay with us.
We've got 4 house guests (down from 6 last nite) and 4 extra dogs (down from 6 last nite) and 2 cats here staying with us.
We all feel pretty confident that we're barely going to feel any impact of the storm here in Acadiana, but we're all very very very worried about New Orleans. Don's sister and her husband have refused to leave the Westbank, which is on the high side of the river, and we're not terribly happy about that. And I haven't been able to get in touch with Poppy and her husband, and she indicated on her last livejournal posts that they weren't leaving the city either. But... after spending several hours making myself physically ill worrying about them and the city that I love so much, I've decided to stop... They're adults, they've made their decisions and I'm not doing myself any good thinking about it so much.
Anyways... we're about to grill... and Aunt Sassy will be on soon...
More later...
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