If you're not tired of it yet...

...here are some more pics from around town!

A mess of tangled wires and trees:


Utilities workers from all over the country have been brought in to help with power restoration efforts:

It's fun to play the license plate game! These are from Indiana and Mississippi.

There are also debris removal trucks from all over:

The boxes on the back are bigger than standard 18-wheeler boxes. (There is a better word than "boxes" but I can't think of it right now.)

There are a lot of uprooted trees like this:

It's incredible to see in person.

Here's an idea of the scale of that tree - see my lens cap sitting on the side?

(If not, click the pic to go to Flickr where there's a note pointing to the lens cap.)

Funny Sign #1


Funny Sign #2


The current state of my awning:

It's blowing all around, scratching up my door, and occasionally hitting my doorbell. It's quite funny, actually.

And lastly, yesterday there was a beautiful rainbow that crossed right near the moon:

I took the shot from my car so it's crummy, but trust me that it was really beautiful!

Good luck Texas! Stay strong!

I DON'T like Ike.

(Image from Weather Underground)

Get ready, Tejas. Based on the outermost bands that we started getting last night, this storm sucks. A lot. Good luck to everyone in the path - stay calm but alert, don't be stupid, evac if you're told to, and be excellent to your neighbors when the power goes out.

(We're certainly taking a harder hit because we are still in a damaged state, but we've got street flooding and have lost a lot of the power that the energy companies had worked so hard to restore. And remember my awning, that Gustav blew over on itself? Now it's dangling by a screw and a half, right in front of my door, banging my door every time the wind blows. I'd get it down myself but I don't have a ladder, so hopefully my complex will come get it today!)

Good luck! Sending good thoughts and prayers for calm winds and not much rain!!!

Gustav. Gross.

I've put up some more Gustav pics in my Flickr set - mostly just photos of the destruction around town, taken while I was driving (so forgive the less-than-stellar composition and exposure, por favor).  Here are a few highlights:


Power lines. Power lines power lines power lines. Down. Everywhere.


There are parts of the parish (what we call a county in LA, don't ask) that will be without power for three weeks. Three weeks.


So many people have trees on/in their houses. Suck.

But, there is some good news!

Blue tarps!!!!! The blue tarps have arrived, my friends, and they are popping up all over town!

Now, we're just hoping and praying and crossing fingers, legs, and toes that Ike doesn't hit us too badly!

Choice Quotes

I did a bit of radio listening during the storm, as it was the only way to keep up with what was happening while the power was out.  Here are some of the best quotes I heard:

"X number of customers are without power.  You can check entergy.com for more information and maps of where the outtages are."

[That's really easy to do when you don't have power.  Really.]

"Temperatures today?  It hardly matters.  Rain and wind, on the other hand, ..."

[During a mid-storm weather report.]

Guy #1: "FEMA is now telling us that they don't have the blue tarps.  They don't know where they are, but they will try to find out.  Does that sound familiar?"

Guy #2: "Hey now, no editorializing..."

[They still don't have blue tarps.  Apparently there is a massive blue tarp shortage.  Same as there was three years ago.  Also, blue is apparently the only acceptable tarp color.  I guess the other colors don't keep out rain.]

[On people being stuck at home, it being a holiday, and most people not having work the next day]

"There tends to be a little drinking going on.  You've got a lot of people with a lot of booze."

[Really?  In Louisiana?  No way!]

It is never boring living in this state! =)

Gustav

Whew, that was a doozie.  Gustav brought some serious destruction to Baton Rouge and many of the surrounding parishes.  According to the radio, we got winds gusting to 92 mph (148 km/h), which is the highest it's ever been recorded in BR.  Thankfully, there was no major loss of life (at least, as of yet) because of the many precautions that were taken (2 million people evacuated), and the fact that there were only minor levee breaches.  There is a lot of flooding, a lot of downed trees and power lines.  Most of my friends still don't have power.  I think I am lucky, because I live near a substation, so mine was restored after only ~27 hours.  It will take a long time to recover from this, but we will, thanks to many hard-working folks.  There are three more tropical disturbancess in the Atlantic right now, "queued up" as they said on the radio, one of which is already doing damage in Haiti.  Here's hoping they don't make their way here!

In the meantime, here are some pics:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

ETA: You can click over to Flickr to read captions on the photos!

Ready...

Gustav is hitting us, just rain and wind so far. 100,000 people in the state are already without power; mine'll probably go soon, so I won't be around much. I've eaten as many perishables as I possibly can, have pulled things out of the fridge so I won't have to open it, and filled up plenty of water:



Or as my Mom likes to say, Service for 20 in Nalgene. (Hi Mom!)

Y'all take care. Catch you on the flipside! =)