Gustav - fourth day

4 Steps out

September 4, 2008



I can't remember when sunshine looked this good! As you can see the water is high, looks eye level with the bottom of the umbrella. (Putting my umbrella up at my little writing space made things seem back to normal.) Ironically, during a year when the river was the highest ever, flooding was caused by a hurricane dumping so much rain that the tributaries filled flooding areas for the first time since 1973.



Finally, we have lights and phone! I'm telling you one job I wouldn't have for the world is that of an electric or utilities service person. There is no way to appropriately express our thanks for their tireless efforts and perseverance in the worst of circumstances. They have done a tremendous job.




We are so thankful that all we lost was a couple big trees, a couple thousand limbs, lol, and, unfortunately, a $1000 deductible on the truck. CFM keeps going over and over the wreck. Somebody said hey, that hindsight is a great thing. You can fix anything but going over and over something really doesn't make it turn out any different.

We play that 'what if' game everyday as writers but in real life you just have to take things day by day. I don't know about you but I have a hard time doing that sometimes.

Looking back though, except for all the inconveniences we're healthy and the house is whole so it wasn't so bad.

Gustav 3rd day

7 steps out
Wednesday, September 3
We got up early to go to town to get gas. Joe was driving the Tundra. It was very dark, raining. We came around a curve and a tree was laying in the road. A large truck was approaching in the other lane so he couldn't avoid it and we struck it. I had just put my seat belt on about a minute before that. Then I looked at the insurance and we have $1000 deductible! Sheesh.

No lights yet and the TV Dish may be under water by tomorrow or the next day. They do have lights on the main highway but the gas stations are just starting to open. No one has any ice. The few drive thrus like Sonic and Burger King that were open were packed and lines at the gas stations.

More weather coming through tonight. Hopefully the last round. Water is really rising and all the water around us ends up in this water system. I'd thought we couldn't flood here with exception of a levee break but we're thinking of going and getting sandbags.

I'll update again if I can tomorrow.

Gustav afterward

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
18 steps out
5:00 am

A long, hot, humid and uneasy night. Might as well get up and call to see if we need to go run the mail. Of course we have no phone service now.

QNZ has been on 24 hrs for days and they are saying power is out in 100% of the area. But the postal service number still says things are 'normal' in our area and we should report to work. So as soon as daylight, such as it is, comes, we'll take the big truck and head toward Natchez. I'm not crazy about crossing the Ms River bridge with the high winds that are coming through.

The good news about WQNZ is they are keeping us up to date, instructing people not to get on the roads – which they are ignoring – about toll free numbers to call for early claims submission – if you have a phone – numbers to call if you have trees over the lines.

Our little bayou block has several trees on lines. Of course, some of our smart neighbors have generators. Yeah, I'll have one within a month, whether CFM says yes to it or not. He's been putting it off every time we have an emergency for more than a decade.

The bad news is – I'm sick to death of country music. Sorry. But it's the truth.

We headed out and a large tree was across the road. Had to call a friend who has a big chain saw but he was out of town so had to hunt down his son to get it for us. Finally, we got to Vidalia – way too many non essential cars on the road, including us, but it wasn't my choice.

Homeland Security is telling everyone to stay home, do NOT get on the road. Called the postmaster and he said they had people everywhere but no lights. Plenty of mail – heaviest day for my route is today – but no light to put it up. Jackson is sending a generator but it would be this afternoon before any mail could be delivered. He said he didn't think they'd be going today. I said well, do I need to cross the bridge and come over there? He told me not to worry about it.

So we came back home to try to assess the damage to our property – another tree down since last night, that makes two – and countless, countless big limbs, branches, water filling the ditches, culverts, and bayou. CFM is a little concerned that the bayou could fill up enough to actually flood us. That should actually be impossible in my opinion unless a levee broke since we're on a ridge. But we definitely might be surrounded by water right up to the slab and not able to get out. The bayou would have to come up 18 more steps to be at the top where everyone here would be flooded. I'll check this this evening to see how much it's risen today.

The water comes from runoff from the lakes around here. When the water is high in the rivers around us they have to shut the pumps down at the end of the bayou and ours starts backing up. On our way back from Natchez we saw all the ditches were slam full where the water comes out of the fields and crawfish ponds.

Two of our friends called us to get their stuff out of their freezer and fridge here so we ate deer sausage and eggs and grilled toast for breakfast since that's the only thing working – the gas stove.
10:00 am
I found my old car adapter inverter and finally made it work so I could recharge my laptop. My macbook will run for five hours so I can get a lot of writing or editing done. This should be a good time to start writing forward on something, huh, since I can't work, can't get on the phone and can't watch tv.

11:00 am
YIPPEE
Our neighbor has an extra generator and is going to let us borrow it so we might even get some internet or tv or lights or how about a fan so we can sleep tonight. Right now I have what few windows I have open with towels to catch the rain coming in. Too hot with them closed.

Amazing how your priorities change when they have to.

Gustav arrives

Labor Day, Gustav arrives

21 steps out

Monday, September 1, 2008
This morning Gustav came across at Cocodrie, Louisiana – our favorite speckled trout fishing spot – not to be confused with the Cocodrie Bayou that runs in front of our house. We have 26 brick steps that go down to the bayou. We have 21 out at the start of the storm because of a lot of rain in August.

You can ask my critique partners, I've been sure this was coming directly at us since before the hurricane got to Cuba. I'm just glad the thing started getting smaller. The reason we're looking for the worst now is that the northeast quadrant and the area next to the eye wall has the worst wind and threat of tornados. We were in that zone as it passed to the southwest of us.

9:30 am
We lost our lights for the first time, too soon for a storm of this anticipated length. They've said we should be prepared for a long week of torrential tropical rain. The lights did flicker back on.

Ironically, I was working on revising my WIP – FIMB for the request from months ago AND the contest I plan to enter by Friday, Sept 5. With the new job I haven't had time to work on it and create the synopsis.

2:00 pm
I'd just sent my print jobs – four copies of each WIP and synopsis for the contest – to the printer. Four pages printed and the lights went out again, this time for good. *#>!

Well, what better task wth a hurricane approaching and no lights than to prop my feet up with a notebook and write my synopsis for FIMB.

6:00pm
50% of our area is without power. Really getting bad, limbs blowing out of trees. A really big oak twisted off and fell within a foot of the garden tiller but, fortunately, none near the house have come down. They are saying on the radio that the reason so many trees are coming down, oaks in particular, is that they have shallow roots and the ground was already wet around here from unseasonable August rains. I've made great progress on the FIMB synopsis.

8:00pm
The Natchez country station WQNZ 95.1 has done a fabulous job of informing the public from the bluffs of Natchez, Ms to Alexandria, La. The little battery powered radio I dug out of a drawer was our only contact with authorities, for weather updates and closings.

9:30pm
Gustav is still a hurricane and is midway through the state. That's amazing. The wind gusts are upwards of 60-70mph. The airports little wind measuring thingie is broken so we don’t actually know how high the gusts got. Power is out to 95% of the listening area.

Almost everything in the area from Natchez in Missisippi to Alexandria, La is closed. But the postal service still says on their 800 number that everything is normal and you should report to work in the morning. I'll call again in the morning..

The worst of the winds and tornado threat is supposed to be over by 2am so we're going to bed. Can't bury under the covers because it's too hot.

A Monster on the Move

There is a monster headed this way and its name is Gustav. We're located right to the left and west of the crook in the boot that is Louisiana. Zip 71354. When Katrina came through it was actually east of New Orleans. And Rita came in West of Cameron Parish. So we lucked up both times. In addtion, Katrina slowed down and was just a 3 when it came on shore.

Gustav on the other hand is already a 5 and just entering the warm waters of the gulf. And it's traveling fast so it may be a huge 5 by the time it hits. AND they're expecting it to just sit and dump wind and rain for days. If it comes ashore where they are predicting we will be in the northeast quadrant, the heaviest wind and rain.

To top it off, I'm supposed to run the mail on Tuesday. I was already dreading it because it's the heaviest day of the year for my route, lots of catalogs. Maybe the people in Jackson will decide it's too bad for us to get on the road.

Traffic is heavy, cars with luggage strapped to the roof, caravans of travel trailers, ambulances, so many evacuees. The hotels have been sold out to the Arkansas border and beyond for two days. We're not messing around this time.

On other fronts, the insurance job is going okay. My plan for it to give me a decent income so I can have time to write may work out. It'll be another couple months before I know if things are going to work out long term. Hopefully by Thanksgiving.

I'm entering a couple contests this week with OTHR and one with FIMB. Might as well send them out and get my name out there, while I'm not writing, lol.

Hope everybody is staying safe. Happy Labor Day!