osmoothie

That was one hell of a storm, the biggest to hit Baton Rouge.  The entire city was out of power the first few days, and it took seven days for power to be restored in my neighborhood.  The damage was widespread across Baton Rouge, the wind had mangled store fronts and signs, and knocked over trees crushing houses and damaging power lines.  A curfew has been in place most of the week upon threat of arrest.  Blackhawk, Chinook, news, police, and Coast Guard helicopters could be seen or heard in the skies hourly.  The National Guard came in huge convoys on the interstate and set up distribution centers for ice, tarps, and MRE’s.  Luckily we had prepared with enough food to last us the week, and enough gas to run the generator for a few days.  It took days more for the gas stations and stores to start opening again, and several-hour-long lines would form outside.  We ended up driving an hour out of town just to restock on supplies.

Things are almost back to normal now. Only about 30-40% of the city is left without power and most of the stores and gas stations are back online.  Through TV and radio we were kept up to date on local news, but as far as national news I’ve lived in a virtual black hole. My power was restored last night and it’s going to take awhile to get things rolling again. School has started today, and they want to take away some of our Saturdays for make-up classes. And if that weren’t bad enough, hurricane Ike is on the horizon and could just as well hit us again, causing more power and scheduling problems.

Keep your eyes peeled the next couple of days for some photos I took of the damage.