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the first parrot blog |
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Trickle Down Effect
We had limited access to the internet starting about a month ago. Last Friday we finally got cable TV and internet back, some 54 days after Katrina. We didn't post for awhile because we didn't have a desire to talk about all of the experiences we've had.
You know more about the effects of Katrina than we did during the first month. We had no power for over three weeks and all of the local TV channels were off the air. Our sole source of news was a radio station out of Baton Rouge called the United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans. They are still the most listened to station in the area. Nothing but talk about storm related items.
At home, we housed 15 people for 8 days. The last one left after 11 days. Our lives were filled with the constant droning of generators, heat, MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), foraging trips for ice and foodstuffs, heat, hard work in the house and yard, rum and coke, and heat. Did I mention it was unbearably hot?
We divided our housemates into work groups to help keep the disorder and dirt in check and to give them something meaningful to do. We had a housekeeping team, a cooking team, a clothes washing team and a yard crew. We weren't real regimented but every day we did something.
The day after the storm our daughter Rachael and Evan's girlfriend, Ashley, cleaned out a foot of limbs and leaves from the pool. We used pool water to wash clothes, flush toilets and personal hygiene. Keeping it clean was good for morale and provided a cool place to sit in the early evenings after a hard day's work.
We parked the dozen cars in a clearing in the center of our 25 acres. None of them were damaged by falling trees. It took a full day to chainsaw an emergency driveway through a neighbor's property so we could leave the property (There was no place to go since all roads were impassable for three days). We didn't clear the 30 trees blocking our driveway for another 7 days.
Food was good. The generator we had kept the refrigerator working and we hardly got into hurricane food before we had access to groceries in Baton Rouge. We got the well to work on the generator on day two but we couldn't run the fridge and the pump at the same time. We turned on the pump for three hours a night for (very) cold showers.
Hurricanes bring out the best and worst of people. We saw both sides but our lingering feelings about the group are all very positive. We plan on having a hurricane reunion next year.
- posted by J-Birds @ 7:35 PM |
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