iesika

You can go here to see my storm photos and read about various things that happened during the storm.

My chimmey

Please forgive the sprawling, unorganized nature of this post. I only had so much time between classes and wanted to write as much as I could.

( Cut for length )

starherdasked if there was anything she could do, so I'm going to mention again that we have a huge blood shortage (one hospital was evacuated and another ran out of fuel and lost refrigeration). It also couldn't hurt to send a letter to your congresspeople reminding them just how important Louisiana is for fuel and food production, and that you'd sure be disappointed if they voted against any legislation for farm relief, disaster recovery, or (The Big One) coastal restoration and water use issues. Or, you know, if you've got a big generator or a bucket truck you aren't using? (which is mostly a joke, but Practically-Brother-In-Law's brother drove a generator and a ton of gas down from Tennessee for his mother and sister to use, so hey, I thought I'd mention it!)

This is the best place to get Louisiana news, currently, and this is the place to follow breaking emergency events I've got to head to class, now (I was supposed to be having a test, last Wednesday, and now I don't know what's going on, so wish me luck).

Current Location: school

Granted, I haven't been sitting in front of this computer for very long. I've only spent about 15 minutes looking at the major national news sites. But what the hell? "New Orleans Dodged a Bullet" and now everything's okay? Fuck New Orleans, they got off easy this time. The storm didn't hit New Orleans, it hit US and nobody CARES! I'm furious. I really am.

Gustav didn't flood Baton Rouge like Katrina did New Orleans. Gustav didn't provide enough pictures of people on rooftops and dramatic flood scenes. It was still the WORST STORM ever to hit my city, and no one cares. Food is only now becoming available. Some of the roads have been cleared. Hardly anyone has power. Our infrastructure looks like this. (I don't have a way to get my pictures out yet, and the pictures I've taken are just from my neighborhood. These photos are not mine). This, taken from the website of my power company, shows what they're dealing with in the aftermath, here.

We ran out of oxygen in the hospitals. One our hospitals had to be completely evacuated when the roof collapsed. We're under a strictly enforced curfew. I'm tired and exhausted (and my entire family was very nearly killed Monday afternoon), but that's nothing on the people hit worse than me. And Ike is headed right for us.

I'm just disgusted. And angry. Fuck you, news industry. Fuck you.

Well, damn. Gustav appears, at this point, to be headed right for us. I'm in the Northern part of the Southern part of the state, mind, and Gustav isn't dropping much water, so we probably won't have flooding unless the storm comes up the Mississippi, a la Betsy. The winds are looking to be pretty bad, though.

All my family on Mom's side from further south has evacuated, and gone to stay with other family members in North Louisiana. Uncle Red (a great uncle, who I think is 98 (and who we don't talk to), is in a nursing home now and is being forced to evacuate. He refused to leave Bel Chase before Katrina. Now he doesn't get a choice. My dad's sister, who he doesn't talk to, is 70 years old and lives very far to the south. Dad actually called her to make sure she was leaving, which is unprecedented.

It's hard to know exactly what's going to happen, which is the scary part. If we knew just where it was coming ashore and how strong, etc, we'd know just what we need to do. Right now, though, the weather report looks like this: