Gustav AAR

[Bullethead]

Howdy All-

Sorry to be lagged but Gustav knocked me off the air for a week. And from what I can tell, those of you in the Houston area had better batten down (again) for Ike. Unless it gives us a second helping...

Anyway, here's what happened to me in Gustav...

On Friday, 29 Aug 08, I was in the nearest town of St. Francisville (I live in the woods about 10 miles away) getting my last batch of pre-Gustav supplies. I went to the hardware store for extra gasoline cans, flashlight batteries, filling propane tanks, etc. There were only a couple of customers besides me. Then I went to the cheapest gas station around here and bought about 80 gallons for my truck and generator cans. I didn't have to wait in line and nobody came along behind me. Then I went to the liquor store to make sure I had enough to cover the New Orleans refugees we were about to house for the duration. And there the line was out the door, with people fighting over the last bottle of Crown Royal. True story. Only in Lousy Anna.

Gustav really started hitting my area about 1400 on Monday, 1 Sep. Shore power went out at 1202 and only came back today at 0002, 7 days and 12 hours later. At least it was no problem resetting the electric clocks . The landline phone went out about 1500 on 1 Sep and came back about 1700 on 3 Sep. Cell coverage in this region is still spotty at best. I never lost fresh water and I have natural gas for hot water and the stove, and had a generator on the refrigerator, so I was living OK except for the lack of air conditioning in the Lousy Anna summer of 85-90^F with humidity of 80-100%.

My people, pets, and house survived OK, but the entire region is a disaster area. ACRES of trees down on most of the power lines and many houses. Where I live, we had about 6 hours of sustained 60- to 70-knot winds with gusts of 80 to 90 knots every few minutes. In the middle of that, we had about an hour of sustained 70- to 80-knot winds with gusts over 100. Mixed in throught the storm were dozens of tiny- to medium-sized tornados. One of the smallest came down about 10 feet behind my house after passing just over the top, then it hopped over my barn, too. Didn't even lose a shingle off the roof, but the trees it touched were ripped apart.

Most people around here still don't have electricity and won't for a couple of weeks. Of course, that's just if Ike misses us. If Ike comes this way, too, we'll be starting from scratch again. We've got at least a reinforced company of Missouri NG here and utility help from all over the country, but you have to see the devastation to believe it. And remember, I live about 45 miles north of Baton Rouge. Everything south of here got hit even harder. About 1/2 of Baton Rouge still doesn't have power, and that's the biggest city in the state, and its capital.

If this storm hadn't made that last-minute dogleg west, it would have hit New Orleans dead-on. In which case, New Orleans would today be a mudflat with a few pieces of wreckage protruding above the surface. Before the power failed here, I was seeing on TV how the water was right up to the tops of the levees, and that was with the storm well west of NO. As it was, the NO refugees I had here went home in a couple of days to the land of absinthe and honey, where there wasn't any damage to speak of...

I'm reminded of that movie Dogma, where Azrael said, "No mortal sin, no exquisite pleasure greater than central air." After the last week, I can agree completely. I don't know how people survived here prior to 50 years ago, when A/C showed up. If I hadn't already long since, I'd have sold my soul for a punka-wallah or three in my house this past week .

Anyway, I've spent most of my time the past week with a chainsaw in my hand, or sitting in lines for hours at gas stations 50 miles away to keep my generator going. Gasoline is no longer a problem thanks to the NG putting big generators at all the local stations so they can pump, but I'll probably be cutting up trees and hauling them away for months to come. And because I've got a gas stove and the generator kept the fridge running, I've been eating pretty well, without need of the NG's MREs. I'm also happy to report that my microfracture surgery has stood up well to the rigors of the past week (I've only been off crutches about a month), so if any of you all wreck a joint in this part of the world, I can recommend a good orthopaedic surgeon . However, not having hit a lick of physical work since February due to the bum leg, I lack my accumstomed amount of endurance, so I can only go a couple hours at a time. This is increasing, however, as time and work goes on. In a way, Gustav is providing me with good physical therapy...

I've attached some pics of the devastation in my yard. There's also a pic or 2 of a flying raker shore I put on a big oak tree today that was undermined by Gustav. It's leaning away from the house and I hope to keep it that way until I can knock it down. It's sometimes useful to have had USAR training .

-BH

 

[joeybigO]

Most importantly, i'm glad to see that you made it out okay. I am truly grateful that nothing happened to you in the storm.
However....
Baton down the hatch for round 2. Ike "appears" headed for Corpus Christi, however calculations are putting it more towards the Houston area. This has been a real bad year for hurricanes, however it could be a whole lot worse.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Good to hear you are 'intact'. You seem to have done a really good job at preparing for the storm compared to most people. Gustav, like Edouard, did just about nothing here and we can only hope that Ike will be just the same. Unfortunately, you can never be too sure what will happen and must always be prepared. I feel sorry for anyone who puts off getting ready if Ike actually causes damage. (not that I've done anything to get ready for any of these storms :lol
Oh, and HERE is some good video of New Orleans' near-flooding.

 

[Bullethead]

You seem to have done a really good job at preparing for the storm compared to most people.

I had 5 gallons of fresh homebrew porter on tap (chosen because it's WAY too strong to be adversely affected by loss of power), 2.5 gallons of assorted whiskey and whisky, 0.5 gallons of both gin and vodka, a fifth of absinthe, 50 gallons of gasoline for my generator (plus more available in vehicles), plenty of 2-cycle oil, bar oil, and generator oil and filters, hundreds of rounds for all my shotguns, rifles, and pistols, plenty of expert marksmen to use them, 300 gallons of fresh well water in my cistern if the pipeline failed, and enough food in both fridge and pantry to last a goodly siege. I ran short on gasoline, but that was it. I'm still TRYING to run short on the booze .

If you live in hurricane country, I strongly recommend having as many appliances as possible that run on natural gas. You're very unlikely to lose that in the storm, and being able to run your stove without electricty, plus being able to take a warm shower, is a real blessing.

 

[Quick_Nick]

The Weather Channel's (weather.com) projected path just shifted south, it seems. Although it's probably too early to tell, we may be in the clear in the Houston area.
Ike's almost through Cuba now. It's caused only 4 reported deaths there, compared to the 48 deaths in Haiti. (321 total deaths in Haiti from all of the storms/flooding) Cuba still took a lot of damage even if there were few deaths. Evacuation probably saved countless people.
More info: http://climate.weather.com/articles/ike090803.html

 

[Bullethead]

The Weather Channel's (weather.com) projected path just shifted south, it seems. Although it's probably too early to tell, we may be in the clear in the Houston area.

They really don't know what the Hell Ike's going to do. Over the past few days, it's projected impact point has moved from the Atlantic coast of Florida, to the Gulf coast of Florida, to Mobile, to New Orleans, to Lake Charles, to Houston, to Corpus, to Brownsville, and now back to Corpus as of the 1400 EDT update. We'll have to see what the 2000 EDT update says. But even then, I figure none of it counts until tomorrow evening, by which time the pendulum might have swung back to here.....

Ike's almost through Cuba now. It's caused only 4 reported deaths there,

Amazing what communist regimes can accomplish in herding people around, ain't it? In free countries, even "mandatory" evacuations are voluntary at the bottom line, so we always have the stupid people who refuse to budge, and hence higher death tolls. But OTOH, I guess that improves our population through Darwinism .