We have air (kind of)

My work has air, so we are all taking refuge in the graduate office for now.  We have everything we want - food, a working fridge, internet, and even A/C.  This is the life!!!

A Look at the Damage (photos)

It's officially been 2.5 days since I last had power. Overall things are too bad, but the lack of sleep is getting to me.  Luckily Tulane still has free food, without it I think I would be in a lot worse shape.  Anyway, here are some pictures I took walking around after the storm hit.  I couldn't go very far because of all the down power lines (most of which are still down today). Some pictures are a little blurry because or rain on the lens.

Travis walking down our street

Big tree that fell right on a power line next to our house.  I'm guessing this is why I don't have power.

Here's me standing next to it for perspective.

Emergency Trucks are already out an about, but they won't do anything until the peak winds get below 35mph

Willow street is covered in oak leaves

Not so much

A lot of fences didn't make it

My neighbors lost some of their plaster?!

The Storm Hits

Here are some photos before from tuesday early evening, before the storm hit.  It had started to rain and the winds were picking up.

We wait for Isaac to show his face

We are ready for the hurricane to come

We look Isaac right in the eye and attack

On a note that has more to do with actual preparedness, the parking lot for Audubon Zoo and the fly were filled with emergency trucks from other states. The fleet was huge and looked quite impressive!

Welcome to Refugee Isaac

We have been out of power since tuesday at 9pm.  Right now I'm with a couple of friends, hanging out at Tulane where some of the buildings have their own backup power. The campus looks like a refugee camp - every outlet has a dozen or more students huddles around it, each with their macbooks and iphones plugged into the daisy chain of surge protectors.

Since the storm hit, it's hasn't been too bad - we lost power, but luckily our water has been going strong.  We had friends over most of the time so we've been in good company.  We've been telling a lot of ghost stories (no one has every heard of "bloody fingers" before! Can you believe it?!) and playing card games.  Oddly enough, we found out dominoes was open until 5pm on Tuesday so we ordered 7 large pizzas. That alone got us through the next 24 hours.

At the time, I did not realize that Dominoes would be saving our lives

The house has become moderately bearable, we opened the front door and the back door and got a nice breeze going through the house.  Unfortunately it's so humid that everything feels wet and sticky. It's tolerable during the day, but has been making it really hard to sleep at night.  That and the noise coming from our neighbors generator. Luckily I read up on hurricane preparation, so we were pretty well prepared.  The candles were extremely handy - we have a couple of flashlights but it was nice to have some extra light. The guardian angel candles were nice because they were in a jar and protected from the wind, and the handleabra that I made in pottery gave off a TON of light.  I also had a hurricane lamp which has been getting a lot of use.

Internet is limited, I'll have to finish in another post

Isaac is here!

My friends are loosing power, so far we are still going strong.  Not much rain, but wind is going crazy.

It approaches

Winds are ~30mph, the rain is falling at a 45 degree angle.  Heeeeeeeees coming!!!!!!

Hurricane's a comin'

From wunderground:

Isaac Reaches Hurricane Strength

Hurricane Isaac is now a category 1 strength storm with maximum sustained wind of 75 mph. Water is rising all along the coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle as Hurricane Isaac makes its final approach.

Go Time

Travis and I made one last trip to the store.  We hoped to find ice, but after checking three different places we gave up. Most places are closed and boarded up (strangely, subway is still making sandwiches...though this may be an artifact from of all the poboy shops closing).  At noon pretty much everything will be shut down.  All we can do now is wait.

Testing....Testing

While others are testing their fancy generators, we test our Guardian Angel candles:

Morning of the Storm

We were woken this morning by the sound of rain.  It's coming down lightly...but its a little unsettling knowing that it probably won't stop until tomorrow night. Travis got an automated call from Entergy - they are expecting power outages of at least 30 hours.  We are going to make on last stop as the stores before they close at noon. What does one need for 30 hours without water? Should we be preparing for three days with too much water? This is the question on everyone's mind right now.

The view in front of our house - it's wet!

Terror of Tiny Town

Last night some people came over and we barbequed and then watched Terrror of Tiny Town - a western film staring an all little-person cast. While we were cooking we saw most of our neighbors - it appears they are staying for the rodeo as well. Steve was boarding up his house, he's convinced we'll be fine. Shelita told us that Entergy is going to cut the power on purpose to minimize stress on the grid when the storm hits. Overall it was a fun night...but the storm is coming.

Elevate

Cars are starting to pile up on the neutral ground.

Chips are Gone

Travis and I went to rite aid and sav a lot to get supplies.  The city is almost out of chips.

State of Emergency

I got Travis's radio out of storage to hear some of the news.  Obama has just declared a state of emergency.  People are gathering at hardware stores, waiting for trucks to show up.  It sounds like people are remaining relatively calm so far. They are saying the storm is huge - hundreds of miles across, with winds moving up to 70 mph. It sounds like they are expecting a strong cat 1 or a weak cat 2  - I hope they are right!

Category Change

I just got home from getting supplies when I get a text from Travis saying they upgraded the storm to a category 3.  New Orleans levees are only rated for a Cat1-2 - a 3 would strain, if not destroy them.  I go into a panic, as this means I would have to evacuate (which would take 3-4 times as long at this point because of all the extra traffic).  I start to panic, thinking I should have left yesterday.  Luckily, I double check wunderground.com and it's showing the same as before - a Cat 2.  I can breathe a small sigh of relief....for now.

Monday Afternoon

I finished up my work and headed home on my bike.  There are students out and about, things on campus look relatively normal (with the exception of the occasional scientist running somewhere with a cooler full of something that needs to be kept frozen).

I got home and started boiling water and cleaning out my coolers.  I figure I can store water in the coolers, as there is a good chance we won't have water for a while (and if we do it might be contaminated). We are expecting to loose power at this point, I hope the gas stays on.

I decided I should stock up on supplies.  I've heard that most of the grocery stores are completely out of water and most chips/snacks.  I headed to Save a lot, hoping it would be less overpicked.  As I cross claiborne, I can see traffic out of the city is already backed up - I can't imagine what the interstate is like.  The roads leading into the city are amazingly clear.   As I'm driving down carrolton, I can see that most businesses are already boarded up - save-a-lot included.  Luckily they are still open, indeed the parking lot is completely full. Luckily they have what I want - bottles of water, canned beans and veggies, chips, granola bars, bread, PB and bananas. The old man at the check out said they had been busy since 9am this morning, and they are going to be open tomorrow!

Monday Morning

I head off to work at 8:30.  Our lab is filling our freezers with ice packs to make sure the most precious materials are preserved. I had a meeting with Dr. Walker right after, he wants me to prepare for the class.  Counting robots is the last thing I want to do when a hurricane is hurtling towards us, but as a TA my wants come second.

Tulane hasn't changes it's policy, so for now I'm planning on staying in the city. It doesn't sound like it will be too bad - but you can't help but worry.  Apparently the storm is taking almost the exact same path as Katrina, and it expected to land on the exact same date.  However, it's a much smaller storm than Katrina.

Sat and Sun (belated post)

I arrived back from Mexico on Saturday, my friend Megan picks me up at the airport and tells me a tropical storm is approaching. No biggie...these things happen. Then on Sunday I wake up and find people talking about evacuating.  Isaac is supposed to become a Cat 2-3 hurricane by the time it hits on Tuesday. Suddenly, all my anxiety about getting back to work and preparing for my classes became overwhelmed by thoughts of the hurricane.  Should I evacuate?  If so, where should I go?  Tulane is making announcements every few hours, but any minute they might give the go-ahead for an evacuation.  If they do, I need to be able to leave within a few hours of the announcement.

I went to go fill up my car with gas at ~4pm. I headed to a sketchier/less used gas station, hoping the lines wouldn't be too long. Luckily they weren't - I only had to wait about 5 minutes (and, thankfully, someone was directing cars to make sure order was kept). Others weren't so lucky - by 9pm that night, most of the gas stations had run dry, and the remaining ones had lines 5-20 cars deep. Travis said he had to visit 5 gas stations before he found one that had gas available, and he still had a 20 minute wait.

Driving home from the gas station, I could start to see the signs: people loading up their SUVs, carrying around gasoline cans and pallets of bottled water. They are subtle, though, as many people still appear normal, the roads seem fine, and the weather is hot as usual. You still can't help but feel something ominous.

By the time I went to bed, Tulane had said that school will be held Monday, but people who evacuate won't be penalized.  My friends think it's because it's orientation week and the freshman's parents are here - Tulane REALLY doesn't want to cancel all classes. Isaac is supposed to be a Cat2 when it hits - I'm not sure if the levees are rated for a Cat 2. Tulane is supposed to make a second announcement at 8:30am on Monday, so for now I can't do much other than go to bed and wait (after doing my laundry, of course).