The "Aftermath" of Hurricane Gustav
Heh, I'm truly cherishing the couple hours that I have to sit in the air conditioning at my girlfriends office and use one of their computers. It's estimatd that half the city will have power within the next 7 days and the other half of the city... get this... 3 to 4 WEEKS!
Katrina never really had a big impact on me other than the few days afterwards where I was in New Orleans seeing the dead bodies piled up like wood on the side of the road at the convention center and the devastation in the other parts of the city. I had power back within a day and life was pretty much 'back to normal' within a couple days.
Gustav is a different story. It's being tabbed as the worst hurricane to hit Baton Rouge in the history of hurricane tracking. The storm was only the beginning of the journey. The 'after' the storm is what's starting to wear on me. I haven't had power now all week. I smell like a combination of body odor and gasoline. I've stood in line twice to get gas for over 3 hours each time and I'm lucky that I was able to get gas before they ran out. There's something like 98% of the city without power right now so the local government has issued a 6AM - 6PM curfew. I can't go to work because I commute to a town 45 miles away and they don't have power or fuel either. I've spend my days chopping up trees and hauling endless piles of debris to the street.
A common conversation that I have with friends and family now revolves around how people in the 'old days' must have been a different breed of people to live without the common conveniences that we regularly take for granted. We TRULY live like kings in our day and age. It's amusing trying to explain to a young child how our ancestors lived.
"No power? Well what about computers? They had computers right?", my girlfriends 6 year old asked.
"No, computers require electricity," we would reply.
"Hmm... Well they had cable right?", he asked.
"No, cable requires electricity too," we replied.
Imagine answering over and over the different conveniences and trying to explain to a kid how pretty much EVERYTHING we rely on requires 'the juice'.
I'm luckier than most because I only had minor damage to my truck from a big pecan tree that fell on it and my house escaped unscathed other than a few shingles that blew off my roof. My sister's house is totalled. They had a tree fall the length of their house and they have branches sticking through the ceiling in multiple rooms throught the house. My parents had damage to their house as well. My girlfriends parents house flooded and the estimate is they won't be able to be back in their house for 3 to 6 months.
I guess the thing that has really upset me the most is that my triathlon training has all but ceased and another one of my races was cancelled for this weekend. No health food is available since nothing is open right now and I've been delegated to eating utter garbage for the last week. Hopefully some symblance of order can get back into my life next week when I return to work. Only 3 weeks until my most difficult race of the year, the Holy Toledo triathlong, and I DON'T feel prepared for it. I'll just have to do what I can and hope for the best!
Thanks for listening to me *****
Chad
www.team464.com
You have such a positive outlook on everything, so when you have time between chopping trees and waiting in line for gas, take a hop on your trek equinox.
Your fitness is already there. You now need to believe in yourself and the training you have already done!
Hugs!
Sherry
Glad you came thru unscathed and familt survived.
I'm guessing you were not in the truck when the pecan tree hit.
Just another curve in the adventure of life. Good you are great shape so you can do all that cleanup. God love ya Dude.
I am so sorry you and your family is having to go through this. I live in Missouri so I don't have to worry about hurricans. We did have the effects of Gus up here though. It rained for almost 2 days straight. For those of us who never go through something like that we can't understand how it feels but I want you to know I am saying a prayer for you today. Have a great day and God bless, jPenni
Bless your heart! I can totally relate. We were without power in Jackson for anywhere from a week to 10 days after Katrina. After the stores restocked I bought a battery-powered fan, a battery-powered lantern, and one of those battery-backup things that you can plug things into, and a ton of batteries. They've come in handy since. Gasoline and ice were also hard to come by. A local mall got power back the second or third day, which meant blessed air conditioning and cooked food!
I hope you get your power back soon. Entergy did a pretty good job with us after Katrina; maybe your area will be lucky.
Anyway, glad you and yours made it through the storm ok. I'm sorry about the property damage, of course, but glad you weren't in the truck and that your family survived ok. I'll be thinking about you all.
Marcia
