Hurricane Gustav - Post 4 (several days later)

Okay, so we lost power at around 2pm on Monday September 1. I took quite a bit of video. Things went as good as could be expected. The winds got pretty high and it rained a bunch. No damage to our home or property. The hounds took it well. Didn't get too hot, because it was raining and windy.

On Tuesday, it continued to rain. And rain. And rain. And then came the flooding. First the street started holding water as did the creek that runs behind the houses across the street. Then, the pond at the end of the street (to the right in the pictures) began to fill up. As it continued to rain, the three began to come together. Neighbors began scrambling for sandbags. The house to the right of the pond flooded a little, as well as at least one house in the neighborhood that backs up to ours. It came very close on about 4 other houses along our street. Our house is the highest on the street, so it never came too close to us. And of course, I had to go and play in the rain and show how deep the road was at that point.... not as deep as it got. The hounds still did okay this day, once again, rain and wind kept the temperatures down.

On Wednesday, the tide began to turn. The clouds began to break and the temperature rose as the rain left. The daytime was relatively bearable, but the night was terrible. We had all the windows open, which we now know was a mistake. It was so humid. Humidity is something we are used to here, but not at this level of constant exposure. It seemed like we could not get the dogs to lay down and relax. We were all so hot. I think Berry White was beginning to distress a little in the night. Tim said he almost sent me and the hounds to my parents in the middle of the night. They had a generator and a window unit. We made it though. No breaking of curfew necessary.

Wednesday night, very late, my grandparents got power back. So, on Thursday morning, the generator migration began. We left the hounds with the evacuee/friend we had at the house and set out to help move the generator. We met my mom and grandmother at her house, loaded up the generator and they followed us back. We set it up and ran it on and off throughout the day. It was nice to move some of the humidity out of the house. If we could not have gotten the generator at this point, I would have had to take the hounds to my parents house.

Thursday night, we sent the temperature to 60 on the window unit and let it go all night. It got the temperature in the front of the house down to about 70 by morning. Tim slept on one couch. Dax slept on the other. Anna and Gus ended up with me on the mattress on the floor, UNDER the covers. Berry White slept on a dog bed, above my head, UNDER covers. My sweet babies. I much preferred to see them all cool and snuggley over the panting they had done on and off for the previous 3 days.

This morning, Friday, the alarm went off at 6 am. Tim had to go in today. I was supposed to, but no power. I could not leave the hounds in the house alone with or without the generator. Too risky. Tim showers and then comes into the kitchen and begins making breakfast. He turns a lamp on (plugged into the generator) and gets out the milk and then THE LIGHTS AL TURN ON! I was never so excited to have power in my life! We turned off the generator, cranked up the A/C and started the day. I went in to work for a bit and then brought work home, just in case anyone needed the generator that we had or needed any help. I came home and started working. Then all of the sudden, the cable comes back on, along with the phone and the internet. We are back in business! So, all is mostly well now. My parents are still without power. All friends are pretty much accounted for. Some have some damage, but everyone is physically okay.

I took videos throughout the storm (well the first 2 days) and they can be found at: HERE

I am just glad it is almost over and things are starting to get back to normal. I will say there has NOT been enough nationaly media attention. Most people we know STILL do not have power 4-5 days later. Just because the levees did not break in New Orleans, does not mean that nothing happened. We are here. People are in need. There is a lot of damage in Baton Rouge and outlying areas. I hope everyone can get back to normal soon. That's all for now. I will write more as I have stuff to talk about. Sorry for the hurricane hijacking the greyhound blog, but it was a big deal in our lives right now and it affected the hounds as well. All four are fine and enjoying the A/C!