What Happened?

Go offline for a few days and when I come back, I don't recognize this place!!! We lost power around midnight Friday and it finally came back on Monday night. Lost phone service that night, too. Luckily, we never los****er like many in our parish, but now we have to boil it. We got our power back on Monday night. My son and my husband's cousin who live on the road behind us, still don't have power. Getting gas is a nightmare of finding a station with power, that even has gas and then waiting in a long line. I still have half a tank, so I'm hoping by the time I need gas, the crunch will be over. We lost trees, limbs and such, and the yard is a mess. We were lucky though, most of the trees that fell on our properties, missed the houses. My son had a big oak tree that started leaning toward his house, but never fell. Any more rain and wind, and it would have been in his dining room. We managed to get someone to cut it down Monday, so now it is safe to go back in his house, but he still doesn't have power. Would you believe I had to be back at work the day after the storm. I work at the commissary at Fort Polk and they hooked up to a generator on Friday, so we had power. I think on Sunday we were just about the only store open on post, let alone the parish. We've been soooo busy. We finally started getting our regular deliveries yesterday, so now maybe people will stop panic buying. Even though the power is back up, we were still on the generator, whick is fine for all the refrigeration, but it doesn't power the air conditioning. Miserable working conditions, but at least I still have a job to go to. I didn't mean to go on and on. Just wondering how all of you who had to leave Lake Charles and the surrounding areas are faring. I live on 171N, so some of you might have driven right by my house on your way out of town. I know that trying to get back on 171 in Leesville after work Thursday night was a trial. Cathy G.

Hi Cathy, My father worked at Fort Polk for 26 years until the early 90s and always commuted from Lake Charles. I'm sure he passed your house plenty of times. I'm from Lake Charles and I was the only member of my immediate family not living "at home." Well, that has become a blessing because my parents and siblings' families have a home away from home. We are nine deep here in Baton Rouge, but it's really nice to see them everyday and know they are not lost and uncomfortable. Keep your head up and your eyes on those trees! Frances

Frances: I live 20 miles north of Fort Polk and I hate the commute. I couldn't even imagine driving every day, but I guess from there to Polk it's only a little over an hour. My boss lived in Converse for a few years and made the drive every day, but she complained about the mileage it put on her car. I had a customer tell me that you can't go south on 171 out of DeRidder. They have the road closed just south of DeRidder to keep people out of the Lake Charles area. We are slowly but surely getting back to normal around here. More and more people are getting their power back. My son and his family are still staying with us because they don't have power yet (and they live right behind us). I've been working my tail off since Sunday because the commissary is still about the only place to get groceries. Someone told me they have nonperishables at Wal-Mart (and they close at 5), so everyone who can shop at the commissary has been. I've seen one guy every day this week since he doesn't have room in the cooler to keep much, he only gets enough for one day at a time. Only good thing to come out of this disaster is that I finally broke the plateau I've been on for the last 6 weeks. I'm just too busy to eat and I'm on my feet 7-9 hours a day at work. I'm glad all of your family is safe and you know where they are. Do they know how their homes fared? I had trouble getting in touch with my daughter and my mom to let them know I was safe. Both my phone and cell phone were out for a while. Luckily my son's father-in-law had a working cell phone. I got in touch with my daughter, had her call my mom and mom contacted everyone else. It was frustrating at first though because I knew they would be worried. My daughter was watching the news and could see what was happening. We only got cable back last night, so maybe I can catch up on what I've been missing for the past week. Hard to believe it's been a week already. As for those trees, my husband and his brother are out there with the chain saws. Cathy G.