Report from the Edge of the World · 10:56pm Sep 2nd, 2021
Hi everyone. For those not in the know, I live in Louisiana. Specifically, north, across the lake from New Orleans.
Hi, yes, I am still alive. The hurricane did not kill me.
It was... well, the second worst hurricane I've ever had go over anywhere I was living, and the worst one I've personally been there for.
((I slept through Katrina in a hotel in Kentucky. Which was fortunate. If I'd been at my home at the time... well...))
We had three trees downed from wind alone, although none of them hit anything, and no flooding aside from some water getting into a chimney. The real concern started the following day, when we started hearing what had happened south of us. New Orleans didn't suffer much damage but both the nuclear power plant and a major transformer hub were hit directly by a storm, wiping out the entire grid for a quarter of the state. The city is, for all intents and purposes, dead. So, no power, and a major trade/infratructure hub effectively doesn't exist for what authorities are saying is going to be a month. South of New Orleans... well, a lot of levies failed or just straight overflowed, and the goddamn Mississippi apparently ran backwards at one point.
I'm not sure I want to dwell on it too much.
For my family personally, the biggest concern was getting told we'd have to wait a week+ just to get power. Given we only had enough ice for about 4 days, and food for about 5 or 6 if the ice held, it was mildly upsetting to hear.
And then... on Tuesday, the lights came back on. The internet a few hours later.
Guess there was some benefit to my parents buying a house in one of the bougier parts of this semi-rural nowhere.
So... I'm fine, now. Gas is a concern, as is price gouging and getting food, but we're making due. We're all off work, because, well, no mail is being delivered in a quarter of the state because NO is the regional mail center and they're not even letting people back in. So, we're fine. My friends are all more or less fine. They've all evacuated to places with generators, no one got flooded, and only one took major wind damage and she's also evacuated to a safer spot to ride out the infrastructural collapse. For the moment, everyone is fine.
... except all the people who aren't fine. All the people without homes and dying of heat stroke and without food or water or gas to get any while the government tries to stitch this broken porcelain doll of a state together. In the dark. Using elmers glue and a claw hammer.
Yeah, they're not fine, and thinking about them makes me feel dissonant and guilty for having escaped the worst of it by chance.
So, yeah, that's the situation in my tiny, quiet part of Hell right now. If you see someone down here in need, like FoME highlighted, do what you can. I'm fine, but so many people aren't. Help them, please.
And, I guess that's that. I'll let you guys know if things change.
Later
Oh, and I guess have some pictures of the ruin that came to our house:
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609857046329688114/882535233663143936/20210830_124856.jpg
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609857046329688114/882535233977733130/20210830_125027.jpg
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/609857046329688114/882535234275508254/20210830_125054.jpg
Good to hear you made it through. Be safe and take care.
There is no guilt in good luck as there is no shame in bad luck. I'm glad to hear you came out alright.
damn D:
your yard is nice though
Yikes. I'm glad you and yours got through alright, but... yeah.
As someone who lived through a year where four hurricanes came through his town, I get this whole situation. Hope things will turn out alright for you and the rest of the folks in the area.
Ah.
Hope everyone will make it through.