Hurricane Gustav

[hagetaka]

Please post pictures family, we been through a lot these past few days.

I'm sure we have an awesome collection if pictures to share. Hopefully everyone is safe and staying cool, those cold "showers" are standards now.

Hopefully we will get back on track, I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I get the necessary utilities.

[cajun]

my pictures came out badly. Lots of tree damage and roof damage.

The really bad part is that after the wind, we recieved about a foot of rain...so all the new holes in the roof collected all the rainwater and ruined our guest bathroom and living room.

[hagetaka]

my pictures came out badly. Lots of tree damage and roof damage.

The really bad part is that after the wind, we recieved about a foot of rain...so all the new holes in the roof collected all the rainwater and ruined our guest bathroom and living room.

[southeastBR]

Glad to see ya'll came out safe, LT and Cajun. We didn't have much damage the house down here on the Coursey/Sherwood end, but Broadmoor, that was a different story with all the old oaks. Finally got power on last night at 4 am , just hope the rest of the city get 100% very soon!

[cajun]

The president and the governor have publicly stated that they are not pleased with the utility company's response.

I think that like other states, Louisiana needs some underground electric utilities. We have too many trees and too many hurricanes for Entergy to do it the cheap way anymore.

My parents live in the Baton Rouge area and I live in Dallas. My house is about the same size but their utility bill is always at least 3x what mine is. For what they pay, Entergy should be able to afford better infrastructure. The truth is that they have a monopoly...I don't care if they are a Louisiana company...they suck.

We need more options with utilities. In Texas, I can choose from Reliant and a dozen other providers. I can choose wind power, solar power, or "whatever is cheapest" option. Even way out in Arlington, much of our utility lines are underground.

[hagetaka]

The president and the governor have publicly stated that they are not pleased with the utility company's response.

The truth is that they have a monopoly...I don't care if they are a Louisiana company...they suck.

We need more options with utilities.

[cajun]

I cut out some of your posting cajun, but yes this power situation is out of control. We aren't expecting to get power no time soon, this is crazy. I don't want to leave my family, but I cannot wait 3 weeks, just to start picking up the pieces of my puzzle. This I tell you is crazy.

[byrde]

Checking in folks. I live in the Glen Oaks area. My power was restored on Thursday about 11:50am. I'm still waiting on cable and internet, but other than that I'm ok. I do have a hole in my roof, but not much water damage because I was able to cover the hole with some plywood before the heavy rains arrived late on Monday and during the day on Tuesday. I have underground utilities at my house, but was still out for 4 days due to power lines being down along Mickens and Joor Roads.

I have a ton of pictures to share but it is taking me a while to get them posted to the web since I'm not fully functional at my home with www. As soon as I can get them posted I'll share. I also have some tree removal to do at the home I grew up in. We have a cedar tree that split in half and it is resting on my patio cover.

[richyb83]

Thanks for starting this thread LT.

Glad to hear everybody is safe and alive. Sorry Bryde and Cajun about the damage. I'm still thankful Gustav did not maintain Cat#4 strength; it weakened to strong Cat#2 at landfall. I hate to think how much worse it could really have been with the eye passing so close in between BR & Lafayette in the Atchafalaya Basin. Got power back yesterday just after 10:00am.

Major props for the leadership around here for getting BR back on it's feet. 14,000 crew members helping from as far away as Kentucky & Indiana. I realize alot of the tree damage was unavoidable, but this city had too many trees near the lines. I think you'll see infrastructure improvements on the utilities; Jindal won't stand for the vulnerablity we just faced.

I have never seen anything like it! Talk about some INTENSE WIND!!!!! We had a giant/top heavy Bradford Pear tree snap in half on top of a neighbors work truck. My basketball goal was nearly pulled out of the ground. It's now alot taller and leaning back.

I got a few pics during the storm, but before it got really bad. Wish I had used the Camcorder.

CR*P!!!! Now we got to keep our eye on this new cat named Ike headed toward Cuba & the Florida Keys!

[hagetaka]

Power finally came on around 6:25, a convoy of orange trucks from Arkansas rolled in, cut down a tree, and minutes later, powaa, I had to do an electric dance. I did have a chance to get to meet my neighbors and a buncha new contacts. I still have the to clean the kitchen, my collection of pictures will be posted later.

Thought I had more pics than this, but it turns out, we only took pictures of my family, relaxing, suffering, and having fun.

[byrde]

Cedar tree resting on my mothers neighbors house.

Another Cedar tree resting on the power lines in Southern Heights.

Tree down at Lanier Elementary

Folks in line trying to get tarps, water, ice and MRE's.

Yes there is a house under that tree.

Atchafalaya Seafood.

Yep. There's a house there as well.

Power is on!!!!!

[corey2250]

Power came on today!!!! will soon post picture of a tree that fell on my house.

[hagetaka]

i like the pics byrde....

[all2neat]

My home is good. No damages. My company sent me to Houston on Tuesday. From what I heard no electricity yet but was told Monday would be the magic day.. If I only have to rough it for a day, with no damage, I'll count my blessings.

[cajun]

Louisiana needs to really think about the following with relation to our climate and hurricanes:

-Widening I-10/I-12 between Lake Charles and the Mississippi border to 6 lanes through rural areas and eight lanes in suburban/urban areas. This will aid in evacuations and help make driving through Louisiana safer and easier. Install crossovers to turn the freeways to contraflow if necessary. During normal operations, don't allow large trucks or commercial vehicles in the left lane...and start enforcing lane disipline laws. It's obvious when traveling across country that Louisiana interstates are over used and too narrow in both rural areas and in urban areas.

-Mandatory that all new development install underground utilities- including gas, electricity, fiber optic, and telephone. This is more expensive, but it makes things much easier to repair after the storm. Louisiana has too many trees clashing with power lines...and the answer is not to cut the trees. Especially in urban areas- underground utilities are a must. It cleans up the area as well and makes things safer during storms.

-Comite Diversion Canal- speed up development of this. This will help Baton Rouge react to storm surge and high water in this river valley by diverting flow to the Mississippi River. We can't stop storm surge, but we can make it receed faster and we can be prepared for 15 inches or more of rain water in such a short period of time.

-Freeway connector utilizing highway 641 bridge connecting Thibideaux/Houma to I-10 in Asension Parish. This is imperative to evacuate that many people. In fact, it should have been built already...it was needed long ago. There's no easy way to get to Thibideaux from Baton Rouge.

-Speed up development of the I-49 between Lafayette and the New Orleans westbank...it needs to be limited access the whole way and it needs to be 8 lanes wide through Lafayette.

-Building Codes. It's time to think about hurricane straps, 120 mph rated windows, thicker shingles, real shudders, and CMU blocked walls in hour houses. It's more expensive, but it's safer and I think we should take a page out of Florida's book- espeically areas south of Alexandria.

-Extend I-110 to the Mississippi border via Highway 61. Instead of forcing all the evacuees to decide to stay in Baton Rouge or move east or west, we should give them an option of moving north. The highway is already there...we just need to make it capable of moving massive amounts of people.

[hagetaka]

I agree with you cajun, we seriously need to upgrade our roads and utilities

[dan326]

Hey ya'll. I've been staying at my grandmother's house, who got power back Thursday. Still no power at my house though. Thankfully no wind, rain, or tree damage. I do agree with the burying the lines thing, as well as being less vulnerable it would make the roadways more asthetically pleasing.

[byrde]

I forgot to give you guys the link to all my pictures.

http://singbyrde.smugmug.com/gallery/58980...366763371_G2NVS

[cajun]

I heard that Opelousas and the False River area got it really bad, but Lafayette made it through okay.

[dan326]

I got powe back at my house yesterday.

[twstdndmntd]

Still no power at my house. Sherwood Forest is just one big ole mess. Our 2 oaks in the backyard both came down. One came down on the neighbors house and my moms Yukon, that she used to evac to my house. The 2nd came down on my house and my grandmothers car and my dads company truck, again both vehicles used to evac from Houma to BR. The partner and I aren't able to stay in our house, we are staying at a friend of ours until further notice. Hopefully it won't take to long of time to get our house back to normal. Great pics Bryde and LT, if I knew how to post pics on here I'd post some of our damage and pics I took of damage around Sherwood.

[byrde]

Below are some pics my sister snapped.

Here are additional photos: http://esinglet.smugmug.com/gallery/5926617_9SRhP

Southern Heights

Baker Presbyterian Church

Driving down Lobdell Ave last Wednesday, I saw something red in the street. As I got closer, I realized it was the top to the Circle K gas pumps across the street. The green is the median!