My Evacuation and Return From Gustav Pt. 1

Here is an understatement: Last week was a very long week for me.

However, now that I have had a few days back home, in relatively normal conditions, to reflect about what happened, I wanted to take a few moments to talk about the experience, what happened to me and why I found it so hard to get back to the city and back online.

So, if you’ve got the time and are interested, I’m going to tell my tale the best that I can. This is going to be a pair of long posts, for that I apologize, and they probably won’t be up to my usual writing standard. Still, I want to get this out and down on paper as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, I fear I might forget about what happened and may never really learn from it.

Friday, August 29

For Crystal and I, Friday was a decision day. Hurricane Gustav was bearing down on the New Orleans area and we had to make a decision, get out now and beat the traffic or stick it out.

To me, the storm was borderline, dangerous enough to have me worried but not so frightening that I was clamoring to get out. However, as every update from the government had the storm coming closer to New Orleans and with greater intensity, we decided that the best thing we could do was get out then, the trend was not looking good.

We put in a full day at work and headed home where we hastily boarded up the windows with wood left behind by the previous owners. I then roamed the house taking pictures of all of our belongings (for insurance purposes) and we packed up every portable item worth over $100. After barricading both our front door against looters and the garage door against wind, we, me, my wife and our dog Calico, left in a car that was loaded down as far as it could go.

The trip was very long and difficult. We took back ways to make sure we avoided any problems and ensure we had gas available to us. Coupled with lengthy stops for the sake of the dog, what was normally a four and a half hour trip took well over six. We had left a little after midnight that morning and arrived, dead on our feet, at almost 6:30.

We went to bed straight away and didn’t come to until mid afternoon the next day.

Saturday, August 30

Not a great deal happened on Saturday. We spent most of the day tracking the storm and taking care of what we could before it hit.

The only two things that were learned then was that the storm was definitely heading to southeast Louisiana and there was a drastic shift in its post-landfall track. Instead of turning almost due West, the storm was to instead go almost straight, putting where I was in central Louisiana in the bullseye.

This meant, strangely enough, that my chances of seeing hurricane force winds were the same either in New Orleans, or in my evacuation spot.

Still, we hunkered down and prepared the best we could. My mother in law secured time away from her job but my father in law, who works maintenance at a nearby prison, was forced to stay and was working extra hours as they had brought inmates up from New Orleans to ride out the storm there.

Sunday, August 31

We knew well that Monday was going to be the day the storm arrived so Sunday was a day of intense preparation.

The first issue was supplies.

Crystal and I, prior to the decision to evacuate, had made a trip to Sam’s Club to stock up on non-perishable goods. However, due to how cramped our car was, we were not able to take most of those supplies with us. So we, Crystal, her mother and myself, headed back to Sam’s Club again, this time in Alexandria, to renew the stock.

We ended up buying many of the same items that we did before. Canned spaghetti, beef stews, cereal, breakfast bars, water, sodas and snacks were all on the menu. We got what appeared to be about five days worth of food for four people and checked out.

What struck me as odd during this trip was how lightly many were taking the storm. The store was busy, but not much more so than on any other Sunday. A few people were stocking up on supplies but most seemed to be getting normal groceries. Most were murmuring that it would not be any worse than a “bad thunderstorm” up there.

We quickly ran our other errands, including a failed attempt to buy a mattress (would not fit in either car) and got an early dinner. However, as we were preparing to head home, we ran into another problem. Crystal’s father, heading home early from his job at the prison so he could return the next day to ride out the storm, had suffered a blow out on one of his tires.

We needed to act fast as darkness wasn’t too far away and everything was at least a 45 minute drive. We decided to split up. Crystal and I went back to Sam’s Club where we bought a tire while her mom went back to their house, which was near where he had broken down and rescued him from the side of the road.

The plan was simple. We would buy the tire, take it up to the house in our car, pick up my father-in-law, transfer the tire to their van, drive over to where truck had broken down, pull the flat tire off of the truck, leave it there for a few hours while we go to the prison and have the auto body shop people there put the new tire on the rim. After all of that, we would drive back to the truck, put the new tire on and then drive off.

(If you knew my father-in-law you’d see why I call this a “simple” plan. The term is relative and this is probably the least convoluted plan associated with him.)

The first part of the plan went smoothly, it wasn’t until we, my father-in-law and I, went to the prison that things began to fall apart.

The first problem was that I couldn’t obtain a visitor pass. That meant I had to wait outside. The second was that we had come in right at shift change and count, meaning that we had to wait at least 30 minutes to get any help.

For about an hour I stood outside the prison taking advantage of the relatively strong cell phone signal to call my parents and people I knew in the city to find out what their plans were. It was a tense time, made all the worse by the fact it was taking place under the watchful eye of sniper towers.

When we finally got the tire fixed and inflated, we drove back to the site of the breakdown. By this point, darkness had long since fallen and there were already strong gusts of wind. We raced to put the tire on but it seemed everything was working against us.

The problem started when we tried to finish jacking the truck up to put the new tire on. Though it was high enough up to remove the flat, we needed a few more inches to put on the inflated tire. Unfortunately, after getting the front end up just a hair, the soft Louisiana soil gave way and the truck slipped off completely.

Fortunately, we were both well clear when that happened so no one was hurt.

Still, we had an engineering problem before us. We had two jacks, a hydraulic one I keep in my car and a scissor one that came with the van. Neither, however, would fit under the axle. We had to jack the truck up by its frame with the scissor jack to get the hydraulic one underneath and start lifting it again.

Luckily, the second time everything worked and we were able to head home so everyone could get a few hours of sleep before the big day.

Monday, September 1

Crystal and I woke up early to watch the news. All day Sunday the storm had been weakening and shifting slightly westward so things were looking very good for New Orleans. However, after Hurricane Katrina, we were still very anxious to see what would become of the city.

We made a promise after Katrina to never watch national news should a storm hit. All of the major networks had sensationalized Katrina, which was completely unnecessary, causing us a great deal of additional heartache and worry. We were not going to do that again with Gustav or any future storm.

Fortunately, we had DirectTV at the house and they had picked up the local NBC affiliate and taken it nation-wide. They did far better reporting than any of the cable news outlets. Not only was their reporting less sensationalized, but they had more boots on the ground in the city and were getting interviews with the relevant local officials.

We watched as the storm passed and, though there were a few tense moments, it quickly became clear that the levees were going to hold and that the city had been spared. We breathed a sign of relief celebrated the good news quietly.

However, the celebration didn’t last long. Even as the storm was still lashing New Orleans on the back end, the winds started picking up where we were and started to gust loudly. The lake, visible from the windows in the front of the house, became very choppy and the trees began to sway heavily.

It was shortly after noon when a sharp gust of wind passed through the area causing the lights to go out. The house got quiet, the televisions silenced, and everyone in the house was unsure of what to do. Power had been severed to the entire road. However, at this point, the outage was not widespread. We called to a nearby gas station/restaurant and found that they were still running. After placing a food order and, after picking it up, we hunkered down in the house to ride out the rest of the storm.

My mother in law had located a battery radio and informed us that the worst of the storm would be passing through the area between 8 pm and midnight. Considering it was mid-afternoon, it was a long and difficult wait.

The wait was made worse by both the heat, which was steadily rising due to the lack of air conditioning. On the other end of the spectrum, Calico, needed to use the restroom repeatedly during the storm, forcing me and Crystal to take turns walking with him outside as winds came in well over tropical storm force.

During all of this, my father-in-law called (the land line remained working) to let us know that there had been a change of plans and he was heading home. He made it to the house shortly before dinner time, just before the dreaded eight o’clock hour.

As darkness fell the winds picked up. We all sat in the living room, five adults and three dogs, with only candle light to see by. The winds seemed to shake the whole building on a few of the stronger gusts but the part that had us all worried was the sound of tree limbs hitting the walls and the roof.

With no good interior room to go to, the small house is laid out so all rooms have at least one exterior wall, we watched as the structure became what I’ve called “God’s dartboard”. Limb after limb was thrown at the building though, fortunately, none broke through. The worst was one that struck right behind my father in law as he leaned back in his chair, stunning him with both the noise and the vibration.

After a few tense hours, we decided there was nothing we could do so we all separated to go to sleep, or at least try. However, it seemed as if most of us stayed awake for at least a few hours, listening to the wind and hoping that things don’t get any worse.