Goin' Home

03 SEP - 9:00 PM

Last night we went out to eat and Virginia and Andrea got a spot of food poisoning and spent some time ill.  After some cleanup, we made the decision to come home as soon as possible today.  We took our sweet time re-packing the cars and cleaning up at the beach house and got on the road at 11:30.  We stopped for lunch and continued at a leisurely pace all the way home.  No problems or excitement to report.

 

Madeline models her flashlight.  Her shirt says, "I SCARE MY OWN FAMILY"

 

Sippy cup fail.

 

Traffic was thick, but manageable on the ride home.  We made normal time.

 

Power company trucks staged in New Orleans East

 

A lot of the damage I see was actually Katrina damage...  Not much but a few trees down from Gustav.

 

Well, at least the ADULT VIDEO store seems OK.

 

Remind me to buy tickets on Saturday...

 

Over the hump of the high rise bridge over the industrial canal, the city looks like it always has.
Andrea in my side mirror behind me...

 

Mike Hingle lost his head.

 

Tree service trucks staged at the Texaco on Jefferson Highway

 

Jade Buddha lost a few roof tiles, but is open for business.

 

Sign blown flat.

 

Plenty of fences down.

 

Lots of business at the quickie-mart not far from my house.

 

Main entrance to the neighborhood is blocked.

 

Hard to see, but there's a pole leaning over the road.

 

The Winn Dixie in my neighborhood is BUSY.

 

Crews working in the neighborhood.

 

My street is clear and wide open.  The watchmen evidently decided that the situation is normal enough not to set up checkpoints.

 

The house looks quite normal except for that line down.

 

Virginia says it's not live.

Before anybody freaks out, that's the Cox Cable line.  My power lines are buried under the driveway.

 

I was quite shocked to see that I had lost half the roof on one of my houses.  You can see the flood line near the bottom.

 

My BIL filling tanks.  I always prefer to have gas in the tank than stored in cans.  We can refill the cans if we need to.

 

My yard is going to be a parking lot for awhile.  We have all services here - power, water, sewer, phone, cable tv, and high-speed wireless internet.  Power and sewer are still out in most of the parish.  Just like after Katrina, we'll be helping a lot of other families return home by using our house as a safe place and command post. 

I really never intended hurricane evacuation, return, and recovery to be a hobby...

I return to work tomorrow.  If anybody needs a safe place, you know where to come.  Hotel Shane is open, and the food is good. 

***

Shane