Hope The Cajuns will be OK

[serial]

Hang on down there. All of our thoughts, prayers and wishes are with y'all.

Keep us posted and stay safe.

[AXEMAN]

Be SAFE After 3 direct hits last year in ST. Cloud Florida you just say

What The &%$# Hold guitars above your head. And like a shop vac helps.

[SteveC]

"To say that the HFC is behind you would be overstating the obvious.

I,myself, am WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY behind you. As far away as I can be.

Keep us posted, buddy, and we'll keep our fingers crossed. "

+1

Flipped on the tube this morning & thought about our Louisiana HFC brothers. JeffR, Cajun, Foodermon and everyone else - I'm pulling for you and your families. Stay safe & as dry as you can. Also, it goes without saying - anything we can do for you guys from up here in Pennsyltucky - all ya gotta do is ask.

First round's on me when we see you guys in Houston!

StevieC

[BCR Greg]

And the second, and the third.......

[kizanski]

Just got off the phone with Jeff REE-shard.

As he had suspected, his power got knocked out, but he and the family are fine.

They're entertaining themselves by watching the debris fly down their street.

While we were talking, his neighbor's house lost a shutter.

I read thecajunboy's above post to him, so he was glad to have an update on the Daigle Boys.

I'm just flipping back between CNN & MSNBC over here, as I suppose many of you are. Some scary stuff going on.

[pesocaster]

Have been glued to the tube, radio, and internet news... Hang tough guys! prayers are on the way....

[SteveB]

Hold together down there guys!

its gonna take a while for those nice beaches over by Gulfport to recover.

[Guest galejt]

Kiz. Any comms with JeffRo? Gulfport is down hard. Getting conflicting reports of a levee breach north of Nawlins.

[kizanski]

Kiz. Any comms with JeffRo? Gulfport is down hard. Getting conflicting reports of a levee breach north of Nawlins.

I just tried to call Jeff's house, but the phone just rang and rang. No answer.

No answer on Cajunboy's cell phone, either.

This looks like something that we'll just have to wait out and try again in a little while.

I'll post here if I hear from either of them.

[ET_KenW]

Stay low and stay healthy fellow HFC members and family members. Kiz, thanks for the updates.

[kizanski]

Just spoke to thecajunboy AND JeffR, and all is well.

They're both without power, but the phones work.

Jeff says all are well in his house, and even though there is no power (that means no air conditioning), there is enough wind to keep the house comfortable with the windows just cracked open.

Mark told me that a large oak tree (about 2' diameter) fell onto his brother's (foodermon's) house, where he is staying, and punctured the roof in a few places. He said that it was "under control" as he had set up a drainage system by duct-taping some old gutter lines to a few buckets.

Typical Coonass, as he would say.

I guess he'll find out about his own house when he is able to make the trip back to it.

That's all I know for now, but it's some good news.

[killerteddybear]

Jeff says all are well in his house, and even though there is no power (that means no air conditioning), there is enough wind to keep the house comfortable with the windows just cracked open.

"enough wind"?

You didn't mean that to be funny, did you...

[Guest galejt]

Depends...

Here's a nice link for info from Nawlins.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/

[Guest galejt]

I'm not sure I want to read about this. They best be careful. MSNBC just had a two star National Guard bubba on saying he was itching to git down there and kick some coonass (paraphrased of course).

"New Orleans, 2:15 p.m.

Returning from a fact-finding expedition from the newspaper's Howard Avenue headquarters, a group of reporters and photographers stumbled on a parade of looters streaming from Coleman's Retail Store, located at 4001 Earhart Blvd., about two blocks away from The Times-Picayune offices.

The looters, who were men and women who appeared to be in their early teens to mid-40s, braved a steady rain and infrequent tropical storm wind gusts to tote boxes of clothing and shoes from the store. Some had garbage bags stuffed with goods. Others lugged wardrobe-sized boxes or carried them on their heads.

The line going to and from the store along Earhart Boulevard numbered into the dozens and appeared to be growing.

Some looters were seen smiling and greeting each other with pleasantries as they passed. Another group was seen riding in the back of a pickup truck, honking the horn and cheering.

The scene also attracted a handful of curious bystanders, who left the safety of their homes to watch the heist.

No police were present in the area, which is flooded heavily with standing water two to four feet deep on all sides of Earhart Blvd."

[BCR Greg]

Shoot them.

[Buzzy Fretts]

That's all I know for now, but it's some good news.

That is good. While this was by no means THE worst case senario, its pretty damn bad for a lot of people. As Cajun mentioned ealier in this thread, it will be pretty bad for some days to come for even more people. A big piece of the power grid sounds like its been shredded. The flooding must suck. Areas to the east got hit with the full storm surge too. There is going to be some serious search and rescue going down over the next 24 to 48.

[kizanski]

Jeff says all are well in his house, and even though there is no power (that means no air conditioning), there is enough wind to keep the house comfortable with the windows just cracked open.

"enough wind"?

You didn't mean that to be funny, did you...

No, I was pointing out how windy it was, as the house was comfortable with the windows open a mere quarter of an inch.

[JohnnyB]

Gives new meaning to Katrina and the Waves.

[Guest galejt]

We just launched teams to Gulfport and New Orleans. This is getting old. Can't we just say Unkle and the storms will stop?

[wyldbil]

One word: prayers...

[mc2]

Well...looks like my place in New Orleans is gone from the reports. It's in the 9th Ward and the TV reports all said the levee breached there. I was hoping to luck out since the 9th Ward, locally, is referred to the "9th Ward" AND "the lower 9th Ward." The two sections are seperated by a canal lock and draw bridge. The "lower" 9th Ward is the more lower-lying area...mainly ghetto...in the big 1960s hurricane the City of New Orleans apparently opened the flood gates to deliberately flood that area in order to save the rest of the City...killing thousands of poor people.

One interesting thing in the Lower 9th Ward is Fats Dominoe's house...wacking brick place with wacky light/darck alternating brick pattern, monster old satellite dish and some iron fencing. I saw him playing dice a few years back with the locals.

Anyway, the rest of the 9th Ward is also referred to as The Bywater...some sort of attempt to shake off the implications of the other side of the river area of the Lower 9th Ward,

I guess they can now change the name from The Bywater to The Underwater.

My one tenant...early 20s hippie chick cutie from Connecticut, phoned me tonight to say she just barely got out and had just made it to Atlanta after an all-night drive. My other tenant, a Vietnam Vet Burbon Street bartender at Big Daddies, we think stayed to ride it out. We haven't been able to reach him. Hope he's OK somewhere.

I got back to NY Sunday 1 a.m. and am glad we got out, since I'm about a dozen houses off the Mississippi. Still hoping maybe my place survives since it's the higher ground of the area...but mainly I'm hoping my many friends and neighbors there are safe.

-jon

This from the link someone posted above from the daily NOLA Times Picayune on my area:

Treme, Bywater, Gentilly, the 9th Ward hit hard

Monday, 8 p.m.

Even as reports of damage continued coming in Monday night, the full extent of the destruction in Katrina's wake was hard to gauge.

But one thing was clear: Gentilly, Treme, Bywater and the 9th Ward had been swallowed.

The exit from I-10 onto to Claiborne Avenue - and then Claiborne itself - was underwater. Ditto the intersection of I-10 and Elysian Fields, where water reached near the roof lines of homes. Homes were also inundated at the I-10 exit at Louisa Street.

St. Claude Avenue, east of the French Quarter and into St. Bernard Parish, was almost undewater.

Oddities abounded: For instance, a house on Kentucky, off St. Claude, was surrounded by floodwater - yet it had just burned to the ground.

In addition to being flooded, many of the stores along St. Claude had their windows front blown out.

But some residents still managed to keep sense of irony: One homeowner had painted a sign on plywood. "Take care, Katrina,'' it read.

[thecajunboy]

Heeeeeeyaw! We's back up and running. Foodermon has a crew coming in early today for tree removal, power's back on as of about 6:00 PM yesterday. My place is okay per an inspection by a neighbor that I called. The power is back on there, but I'm uncertain if the roads are open yet. Gonna try and get there today.

The destruction is absolutely unreal. We watched a long video of a helicopter flyover of the NOLA metro area. The flooding is just everywhere. Life is gonna suck real hard for lots of people for weeks to come.

More later, if I get home and my internet connection is working.

[gwayne]

Heeeeeeyaw! We's back up and running. Foodermon has a crew coming in early today for tree removal, power's back on as of about 6:00 PM yesterday. My place is okay per an inspection by a neighbor that I called. The power is back on there, but I'm uncertain if the roads are open yet. Gonna try and get there today.

Very glad to hear it. You and JeffR have been on my mind continuously.

[edgar_allan_poe]

My place is okay per an inspection by a neighbor that I called

Which neighbor?

[BCR Greg]

Sorry to hear it, Jon.

Glad to hear it, Cajun.

Bittersweet days, these.