Gustav news here (Alexandria, Morgan City, Lockport: garage, yard, electricity)

[bhamkaren]

at&t is working on their network as well but it's kind of hard to do without power.

[wendywoo4343]

Cell phones and regular phones are out in Walker. Does anyone have any first hand info on damage? They live on Jo Lee Road. thanks, Wendy in Florida

[darylwi]

Hello all. I am back online, but I had to travel 160 miles north to do so. After two days in Baton Rouge after the event, I just couldn't take it anymore. Especially since I knew I had somewhat of a refuge three hours north.
I am late tonight, so I won't be long, but I can give somewhat of an update on Baton Rouge itself and the metro area. It is worse than it looks on tv, that's for sure. When I left, only a handful of places even had power. Mostly in the eastern portion of EBR and in Livingston, mainly Denham. Don't know about Walker.
MidCity seemed hit pretty hard. My area in Bocage expecially. There were many trees down. Many of them on houses and cars. Many taking power lines with them. Traffic lights completely spun around from the wind. Street lights and signs were ripped down. Some windows busted but not many that I could tell, unless a falling tree did it. The city is under curfew, along with most of south central Louisiana I gather.
The whole evening of the storm day itself, we couldn't even get good radio signals out of Baton Rouge. Most cell phones didn't work. Texting was possible. Cell phones began to work more so on Tuesday, but most have failed again today. Everything that is/was running in BTR was pretty much running on generator power.
There was nobody really out handing things out the day after the storm. I family in Plaquemine that really need tarps that day. We got hammered by more rain, more than Monday, and that's when a lot of people discovered how bad their homes, roofs were. I helped cover an entire roof next door with plastic sheeting, visqueen (sp?). As of today they got tarps from FEMA, but everyone was told these supplies were close by. Nobody got them before today. We were also told there was plenty of water, ice, meals that would be distributed. But many didn't have ice. And even when they did, they didn't last long. Same thing for gas and any food from businesses that tried to open up.
I can tell you, the biggest problem it seemed in BTR for the moment was that a lot of south Louisiana was there. Some were trying to head back home in the lower parishes and wouldn't be allowed to enter, so they stopped in BTR as a refuge. That worked for Katrina, but this time, BTR was hard hit. There are not enough supplies to hand out to the people of BTR and people from outside the city are in line first taking them.
I heard people on the westbank of the river faired better today. There were several distribution points, like at Benedetto's on LA 1 south in Addis. Very little else around Plaquemine was open, and all was dark.
I've heard Range Ave in Denham faired pretty well and they had power. Of course, that also means that everyone in a 50 mile radius is there looking for services.
WalMart at Siegen was a distribution center but I have heard even trying to go there is impossible. Some people even get turned away because of the traffic.

The whole of the electrical grid is out. They have to repair the entire city grid before restoring most of the city's power. They're talking 5-8 days for that, and then up to 4-6 weeks for some outlying residents to get power. It would seem that that is unacceptable, but I understand there's a lot of work to be done. I live in the middle of the city and I still don't have power. I don't even have a working hardline still. Seems everything went out, phones, cable. You name it. Most people don't even have a hardline that works to be able to call out. I didn't call out until Tuesday night when I found a cell phone that got a signal out of Plaquemine. Up the road in Addis/Brusly, it wouldn't work. Later today, I have read online that some of those systems that were working after the storm yesterday are now failing because they too were working on backup reserve power. When I left today, most of anything that seemed to be operating in the city was doing so on reserve power. That includes the radio stations, tv stations, newspaper. They're all on NG generator power.

A note for those trying to return, traffic was very heavy traveling southbound on I-55. And by all means, don't plan to stop in Baton Rouge or the surrounding area for any supplies before heading home to the lower parishes. The BTR area really needs to everybody to stay off the streets and out of the way of recovery. The city is still under curfew, 8pm - 6am. It gets extremely dark there after sunset. All I did was turn off the flashlight and go to sleep. It was definitely depressing.
Schools are closed for the remainder of this week. Parish and state offices are closed again tomorrow, the last I check just now. The city is indeed in a state of shock.
And although I can honestly say that the city did very well during and immediately after the storm (no incidents of crime or looting), the city residents and those in the immediate area were quickly loosing patience when I left. The businesses that tried to open caused long lines that created a lot of tension between patrons trying to get in, or get gas. Police have been present at some locations to help keep the peace. People are calling the radio stations asking when they can get power restored. They sound impatient, but I understand their pain. For two days, we saw power trucks traveling all of the place, but up to the point I left today, I never saw a damn one actually stopped doing any work on any line in the BTR area. I really depressed me. It made me think, I won't get power for a week. And I live in the middle of the friggin city.
But I have to extend a kudos and thanks to our mayor-president and chief. They seem to being the best they can and when info comes out from the mayor's office, it's usually pretty detailed. I have to thank him for that. And I for one and very glad that the city is under curfew. We all should have prepared before the storm, and we really shouldn't be out and about trying to look around and getting in their way.

My office is closed again tomorrow, and may be closed for the rest of the week. If so, I doubt I head back down there before Sunday unless I have power restored before then. Best of luck to all those affected by this storm. I honestly think it caught my city by surprise.

I'll be keeping tabs from up here in central Mississippi.

[HutchersonFarms]

My family lives in Livingston Parish. We have watched the news here in KY and TN to see what was going on. Some of the news act as if Baton Rouge had very little weather to speak of. Not true. They may not have had the storm surge, but the storm caused many trees to fall destroying many homes.

[Drouzin]

Went to St. Bernard today to drop off a cake for my son's b-day. Not much damage, a few downed trees, fences, and only saw 2 buildings without a roof, (one being the hotel on Paris Rd.).

There is no electricity and as with K the rumors abound, two days, on Friday, two weeks. Like I learned with K, I'll believe it when I see it and even then I'll be skeptical.

My neighbors have pooled the meat that was still good in their freezers and will be BBQing later on this afternoon. Some restaurant is having a free BBQ at the old Shell station on Paris and Judge Perez. Main's, Walgreens, Par3 Diner, Murphy Gas at the Wal-Mart and Brad's are open.

We're lucky this time, we are able to go home and live inside our homes instead of tents, (albeit without electricity), we were able to return in three days instead of 6 weeks or 2 years, we won't have to live with debris for two years, we won't have to deal with that "Katrina Smell, " stomp around in rubber boots, shovel mud, wear masks, and cry over the loss of neighbors, friends, and community. Thank you God, from St. Bernard.

PS. Daryl, my thoughts and prayers go out to ya'll over there; I've heard from my cousin that there are trees down everywhere.

[darylwi]

Well, good news. I think I have power back. The hardline picks up again along with the answer machine and I have to have power for that to work. But I've heard from other friends that power keeps going off and back on. I guess that is to be expected as more areas of the city come back online.

From the Advocate, they're closing I-10 south of town after lunch today to repair transmission lines that cross the interstate there. They feed three substations in that area. I'm almost surprised that they haven't already repaired that. I thought they were trying to get all the substations up first. It's going on 5 days.

Also Greenwell Springs Road is closed due to river flooding from the Comite.

I take it the city is still under curfew which leads me to believe power is back on in only a handful of areas. I talked to some Entergy guys here dealing with SW Mississippi and they seemed hopeful to have Natchez and that area up and running by the middle of next week. They weren't too aware about Baton Rouge and Louisiana except that they knew we had it bad.

I'm going to stock up on a few supplies up here for some friends down there and probably ride back down that way in the morning.
Now I'm just hoping that Ike doesn't steer itself through Florida and into the Gulf. We don't need anymore this year.

[Gil3]

Darylwi,

Thanks for the update and glad you are safe. I have family in various points around Baton Rouge. Many in NBR have power, others don't. Thankfully, the ones I was able to contact had both working landlines and cell phones.

Like you mentioned, BR was not as affected during Katrina, so it was able to open it's doors somewhat and help those from N.O. and other areas during that time. However, I'm sure with the scarcity of resources in Baton Rouge after Gustav, it's rather difficult.

I am glad that there was not out of control looting or crime there, as I'm sure those who do will be dealt with severely.

I also hope and pray Ike does not hit the Gulf Coast, and wherever it lands, the damage and casualties will be minimal and the people will be spared a lot of grief.

I feel bad that I can't get down there right away to help my family, but will when it's safe to travel to town, I will.

stay safe

Gil

[darylwi]

Personal thanks and best wishes to Drouzin, Gil3 and all those who keep Louisiana in their prayers for a full recovery. We'll make it through. I've got a car full of supplies and I'm taking several ice chests of ice back with me tomorrow morning for some friends who according to Entergy may not have power for another 10-14 days. I really feel for them. I'll also be opening up my apartment for cool AC, hot showers, tele, and just a place to chill to get out of the problems of the recovery.
Cheers,

[nicoleba]

Looks like we could be getting hit with IKE. Go to accuweather.com to see how it is heading right for New Orleans or Lafayette and is Category 4.

[Drouzin]

I heard on WWL that Lafourche Parish is short on everything from MREs to ice. FEMA told officials that they would have 25 trucks with supplies there this morning. Only 5 arrived. If this is true, shame on them.