Yesterday I got home and it was burning hot in the house, but the power was on. My mom said the power had been out most of the day, but when it came back on, the AC wouldn't start. So I start calling the AC people trying to find someone to come out, of course, it's summer in South Louisiana, they're all booked up. My dad suggested I call Demco (my electricy company) because it was working prior to the power going out. After and hour of busy signals and the dreaded "all circuits are currently busy" message from the phone company, I finally get through. After talking to several different people, I get the supervisor who I swear was on the verge of calling me "little lady". I eventually convinced him to send someone out. So I see the truck going up and down the street and I go out there. My neighbor is sitting outside with her kids. The same thing happened to her!! Her AC wasn't working. Finally the two Demco guys walk across the yard and I asked if they figured out the problem. One tells the other to not say anything. My neighbor's eyes nearly bugged out of her head....she was really pissed! Finally they tell us that they had to replace a transformer this morning, that's why the power was out earlier, and they didn't hook it up right. So I guess we were getting power, but not enough to handle the load of the ACs or something. I'm praying now it's all fixed.
Let's see what else is going on....
The Scientologists are in town helping out in the shelters. Some of the Christians are freaking out because they don't think they should be here spreading their "wicked ways".
Who cares?? If they're here helping out, why worry about them indoctrinating the evacuees? They don't have any money, the Scientologists don't really want them.
The National Guard has moved in to Baton Rouge. Between the armed guards, humvees on the road and all the helicopters, it's probably the closest thing to a war zone I'll ever see, let's pray that's the case.
FEMA has started bringing in the trailers and mobile homes to begin building the temporary cities. I saw some of the mobile homes this morning and they didn't look too bad. They announced yesterday that FEMA would begin building approximately 300,000 homes. It's an unprecedented move. Sen. Vitter says that FEMA shouldn't be in charge of doing that, it should be some independant commission. I don't know that I disagree with him. FEMA should probably stick to Emergency Management and not the rebuilding process.
There are parts of Louisiana that are gone, forever. The Gulf of Mexico has taken who knows how much land. On the marshy coastal land the soil is "fluffy" and the ecosystem is really fragile. When the storm came through is ripped out the plants and compacted the soil. Now, it's just the Gulf.
People are starting to move back into the West Bank today. Cities like Gretna and Westwego are letting people come back today. Rumor has it that people might be allowed back in to parts of New Orleans some time next week depending on an EPA study.
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