It's 10 PM Sunday night and I'm about to shut it down and try to sleep. According to Weather Underground, landfall has been moved up a few hours. Ironically, that's good news. It means that the storm will have less time to build up a storm surge. The storm surge actually causes more damage than the wind in many cases.
We're too far north to have to worry about storm surge. Most of our forecasts are still predicting that the highest winds we can expect here in this area of the parish will be 50-65 miles/hour. Pretty scary to experience, but not generally causing widespread damage.
The recovery concerns me now. Churches have been sending folks to Louisiana for three years, and now there's going to be so much more work to be done. This storm will cause a lot of damage in both the Katrina zone and the Rita zone. This actually has the potential to be worse than Katrina in terms of wind, rain and flooding. Fortunately, we learned from Katrina, and New Orleans has been evacuated, except for law enforcement, OEP personnel, government officials, and first responders. And, of course, the homeless. The ones who are too mentally ill to make good decisions for themselves.
They're letting people bring their pets when they evacuate this time. Too many people refused to leave because their cats and dogs couldn't come with them. It's easy for me to say how dumb I think that is because I have a child and I can't imagine putting her in danger for a cat. I remember a time, though, when my cat Charlie was my child, and I'm not sure I could have left him. I'm glad they're respecting those relationships and letting people bring their animals with them.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
What We Can Expect
It looks now like our winds will peak at 7PM tomorrow at nearly 60 mph. This chart is based on Weather Underground's Baton Rouge forecast. My biggest concern is that Jeaux may be driving home sometime after 3 on Monday. I've told him that if he can't get out by 3:30, I'd prefer that he stay there at the hospital for the night. If he makes it home, the winds during his drive in will be around 20. As long as he allows for extra time for closed roads, that drive will be safe.
He cut portholes in the plywood for me. He knows how claustrophobic I get with all the natural light blocked.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Saturday night
The models have shifted back east, so it's likely to pass right over us.
Let's see ... the game came off without a hitch (doing my sis a favor here and not giving away the score) and contraflow is scheduled to start tomorrow morning around 4 AM.
I touched base with my friend with all the family in New Orleans, and she won't have all the folks she had last time ... just her parents, brother, and a couple of guys who work with her brother.
Jeaux got the fence fixed, and we got the patio furniture moved into the shop. The bikes and garbage cans are strapped to the fence. All the clothes are clean. The dishes were all clean at 11, but lunch caused a few of them to get dirty again. We've checked in with all our friends and family. All we have left is church and plywood. And a last run to Albertson's to see if we can find any D batteries. We've got enough to run everything we've got (plus a few extras), but Jeaux wants a spare set. Just in case.
In one of those life-parallels that keep cropping up lately, one of our last acts of coping will be going to church tomorrow. I remember sitting in church the day before Katrina hit, and thinking about Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane ... let this cup pass from me. And all the while knowing the answer. The sense of inevitability, of knowing what's coming, and being unable to do anything to change it, or even hurry it up so we can get on with the recovery. I imagine Jesus having that same thought: let's get on with it. Why do we have to wait so long? The sooner we get the crucifixion over, the sooner I can get on with the resurrection.
I'm just tired of waiting. Either bring it on, or shut it down.
Hurricane Prep, part 2
It's hard to tell from the size of this photo, but Gustav has a really cool eye. And by "really cool" I mean "really dangerous and really beautiful at the same time." He surprised us by making cat 3 before he hit Cuba, and there's lots of hot water between Cuba and Louisiana. The prediction is that he'll hit Cat 4 before landfall.
About a bazillion years ago my sister and I were in a school that was hit by a tornado that spun off from a hurricane. Ever since then I've been fascinated by hurricanes. I have no less than three hurricane tracking programs on my computer, even though the internet does all the work for you now. (Did I mention Weather Underground? I've had it open 24/7 for nearly a week.)
Today is when we ratchet up the prep work. Jeaux is Disaster Preparedness Man, so we've had our hurricane box packed since May 31. All that stuff about stocking up on water, canned food, and batteries is SOP for us. So today is for routine things we may not be able to do for a few days (laundry, washing dishes, cleaning out the fridge, charging up all the electronics), things we've put off that need to be taken care of before the storm (fixing the broken fence post that may take down our whole fence if it gets hit by high winds) and stuff that can't be done until the last minute (moving the patio furniture into the house, moving the bikes into the shop).
Kickoff for the LSU game was moved from 5PM to 10AM so that it wouldn't interfere with the evacuation of New Orleans. Because of that, ESPN had to move the game to ESPN Classic, which is only available for digital cable customers. So, along with Home Depot and Lowe's, Cox Cable was open late for subscribers who wanted to upgrade their service. Only in Baton Rouge would seeing the game be considered a hurricane prep emergency.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Three Years Ago Today...
... Jeaux had been at work for several hours and Elizabeth and I were waiting for the power to go out. As I remember, it was about 9 AM when we lost power, and about that time that we saw shingles flying around. We didn't know if they were ours or the neighbors.
Gustav's predicted track on Wunderground.com has shifted a little west. Two of the six models (the purple and red lines) show him coming close to BR. If he were to follow the blue line, he'd make landfall very close to where Camille made landfall, and will also re-damage a lot of the area that was affected by Katrina. I think The yellow line takes it near at Galveston. Read Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson for a terrific history of the 1900 Galveston storm, one of the deadliest in history.
Gustav's predicted track on Wunderground.com has shifted a little west. Two of the six models (the purple and red lines) show him coming close to BR. If he were to follow the blue line, he'd make landfall very close to where Camille made landfall, and will also re-damage a lot of the area that was affected by Katrina. I think The yellow line takes it near at Galveston. Read Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson for a terrific history of the 1900 Galveston storm, one of the deadliest in history.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Here We Go Again.
Three years ago this morning I sat in church in jeans, a tee shirt, and flip-flops, which I would NEVER wear to church under normal circumstances. I had taken an hour's break from moving lawn furniture inside, mounting plywood, and locking the bikes in the storage room. Katrina would make landfall in less than 24 hours.
The latest 5-day forecast for Gustav shows him passing just west of Baton Rouge at 2 PM Tuesday. (WUnderground.com is the coolest weather website ever.)
At least it'll be daytime, and at least we'll have a weekend to prepare. Jeaux will probably have to be at the hospital for the duration of the storm. Nurses don't fall into that "nonessential personnel" cateogry that always gets to stay home for storms. School will, in all likelihood, be cancelled, and the entire population of New Orleans will head this way. Of course "entire population of New Orleans" is a much smaller number than it was in 2005, right?
There are no available hotel rooms in town since LSU plays the season opener in Tiger Stadium Saturday. The governor has prepped us for contraflow and evacuation. my friend Lauryn is clearing out her guest room. Jeaux has packed up all the ice from the ice maker so that we'll have some reserve ice if we need it.
Yuck.
The latest 5-day forecast for Gustav shows him passing just west of Baton Rouge at 2 PM Tuesday. (WUnderground.com is the coolest weather website ever.)
At least it'll be daytime, and at least we'll have a weekend to prepare. Jeaux will probably have to be at the hospital for the duration of the storm. Nurses don't fall into that "nonessential personnel" cateogry that always gets to stay home for storms. School will, in all likelihood, be cancelled, and the entire population of New Orleans will head this way. Of course "entire population of New Orleans" is a much smaller number than it was in 2005, right?There are no available hotel rooms in town since LSU plays the season opener in Tiger Stadium Saturday. The governor has prepped us for contraflow and evacuation. my friend Lauryn is clearing out her guest room. Jeaux has packed up all the ice from the ice maker so that we'll have some reserve ice if we need it.
Yuck.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Falling In Love On a Mission Trip
This post made me laugh!
I have a teenager now, and it scares me, because I remember how stupid I was at her age. Every once in a while, though, something comes along to remind me of the up-side of the chemical onslaught of adolescence, and all I can hope is that she comes out of hers with a few good memories.
The blog is called Stuff Christians Like; the blogger is Prodigal Jon. In this post he talks about how teenagers always fall in love on mission trips. I propose that the same is true of church camp, choir tour, or any other time when kids, busses, and sleeping bags are involved.
Reading the post, I remembered my first church camp in 1975. I had just finished 9th grade and was getting ready to move to the High School when my youth director bribed me into going to Camp Istrouma for a week-long Senior High camp. I took my guitar (because I always took my guitar; it was my identity; The Girl Who Always Has Her Guitar) and discovered another guitarist there: Jimmy Phelps. He was cute, and he played well, and all the girls loved him. We spent some time together that week, and even dated once or twice after camp was over, but it didn't take long for us both to realize that any idea that we would have a real relationship was absurd. We had nothing in common other than the guitar, and we lived an hour away from each other. He was conservative, I was more liberal, and last I heard he had headed to a very conservative military boarding school to finish high school.
But man, camp was fun that year!
***
Scan report:
Total slides: 1015
Scanned to date: 692
% complete: 68.2%
I have a teenager now, and it scares me, because I remember how stupid I was at her age. Every once in a while, though, something comes along to remind me of the up-side of the chemical onslaught of adolescence, and all I can hope is that she comes out of hers with a few good memories.
The blog is called Stuff Christians Like; the blogger is Prodigal Jon. In this post he talks about how teenagers always fall in love on mission trips. I propose that the same is true of church camp, choir tour, or any other time when kids, busses, and sleeping bags are involved.
Reading the post, I remembered my first church camp in 1975. I had just finished 9th grade and was getting ready to move to the High School when my youth director bribed me into going to Camp Istrouma for a week-long Senior High camp. I took my guitar (because I always took my guitar; it was my identity; The Girl Who Always Has Her Guitar) and discovered another guitarist there: Jimmy Phelps. He was cute, and he played well, and all the girls loved him. We spent some time together that week, and even dated once or twice after camp was over, but it didn't take long for us both to realize that any idea that we would have a real relationship was absurd. We had nothing in common other than the guitar, and we lived an hour away from each other. He was conservative, I was more liberal, and last I heard he had headed to a very conservative military boarding school to finish high school.
But man, camp was fun that year!
***
Scan report:
Total slides: 1015
Scanned to date: 692
% complete: 68.2%
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Rededication
About five years ago I started scanning in all my old photos. I got my first camera when I was 14, so I've been taking pictures for 36 years now. My first digital camera was about 3 years ago, so 33 years of photos are either on paper or slides. Heaven only knows how I paid to get all these photos processed!
The scanning job has been an on-and-off process. Other things take priority and my photos get pushed aside, then I pick them up again for a few weeks, then something else comes up. But I REALLY want to get these things finished up. Several years ago my sister and her family had a fire in their house, and I don't want to lose these things. Even plowing through them at breakneck speed has brought up memories that I had long forgotten.
I'm working on slides now. I just counted everything, and I've got a total of 1015 slides. Of those, 596, or not quite 59%, are scanned in. I'm planning on blogging my progress, so if you don't see anything posted for a while, send me an email and tell me to get busy.
Addendum: I tend to scan in batches of 12. If I can do a batch a day, I'll be through before I go to San Francisco in September! (Through with the slides ... the paper photos haven't even been counted yet.)
The scanning job has been an on-and-off process. Other things take priority and my photos get pushed aside, then I pick them up again for a few weeks, then something else comes up. But I REALLY want to get these things finished up. Several years ago my sister and her family had a fire in their house, and I don't want to lose these things. Even plowing through them at breakneck speed has brought up memories that I had long forgotten.
I'm working on slides now. I just counted everything, and I've got a total of 1015 slides. Of those, 596, or not quite 59%, are scanned in. I'm planning on blogging my progress, so if you don't see anything posted for a while, send me an email and tell me to get busy.
Addendum: I tend to scan in batches of 12. If I can do a batch a day, I'll be through before I go to San Francisco in September! (Through with the slides ... the paper photos haven't even been counted yet.)
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