Gustav Reporting from Sulphur, La

This is just notes of what is going on where I am right now.....

Sunday night, the atmosphere was hushed in the hotel. The children of the employees who are staying behind to help with the diaster team here in Southwest La were swimming in the hotel pool. The employees serving CNN cameramen and others barbequed hamburgers and hotdogs on the veranda........Hundreds of birds were flinting from palm tree to palm tree trying to hide and sensing danger. Ironic, sense the wind was still and the weather unusually mild.

 

Today, Monday, 10:59 a.m. the Hurricane Gustav has already hit land in Southeast La. Gulfport, Ms is getting a lot of the wind and rain force, New Orleans is having the water come up over the eight foot tall new levee walls. There is no electricity in the whole city of Houma. Anyone wondering can go to KPLCTV.com and see more of where I live and what is happening play by play.....

 

I will keep this updated and keep you informed as I go...I don't know when electricity will go out here but we are apprehensive of the flooding and power outage.

 

11:04 am

Rain begins now. I have to go move my Charger, they said the palm trees could fall, my heart is beating faster now. I have never been through one of these....

11:16 am

The clouds are literally racing by now. The rain has stopped but the wind has picked up.

Just for your information:

350 miles of levees in New Orleans and some will be breeched.......

It makes me mad that people on TV are making a big deal out of Senator Palin's 17 year old daughter being pregnant while a Hurricane destroying buildings and levees and flooding highways is going on right now.  Anyway I will stop pouting and rolling my eyes. Haha

The kids here in the hotel are drinking hot chocolate and watching CNN who promised to video them later.

~~

11:37am

ABC and CNN is here. They are headed to Lake Charles.

Baton Rouge is calm right now. But east of Lake Charles the wind speed is 110 mph, Gusts up to 130 mph. Tornado watch is in place for coastal La. 9.5 billion dollars of damage is estimated for the state so far....

11:48 am

The Hurricane is 63 miles from New Orleans.

11:53am

Texas Govenor says there has been over 50,000 La evacuees to his state so far and more on the way possibly, if the flooding gets bad.....

 11:59 a.m.

Cameron Parish is closed to motorist. The worst to come is on its way. Gustav is a category 2  but it will weaken.

12:12pm

It is darkening outside right now. Wind is picking up. We obviously still have electricity right now but I don't know how long is it is going to last. The kids are cranky and tired of being inside. My husband is playing Guitar Hero right now...haha.

12:57pm

Hanna has become a hurricane. She is off the coast of the Carolinas. The wind is stronger here and the rain is sprinkling. Nothing scary yet. Lights are still on. In New Orleans there are guys laying in the wind on its pressure. So cool! I will be doing that if it happens here! For sure! heehee

 

1:21pm

There is a steady rain. FAA has checked in. Washington Post is on their way to our hotel. Waveland, Ms is being pounded really hard. Louisiana is not the only state that is in Harm's Way. Lake Charles' waves in the lake are rising and cresting....(I think I said that right...). I took a couple of videos of the palms outside the hotel.

 1:55pm

Wind is 30 miles per hour in Lake Charles. It is getting closer but it has already been issued as a category 1 hurricane. The fear is subsiding for alot of us. The only worry will be the rainfall and flooding......

4:15pm

Baton Rouge seems to have been hit hard over the last couple of hours. Everything is quite here. We are in a break but there is another band of rain that is suppose to hit within the hour. The clouds are very dark. Things are not too bad here. We still have power. The sun is out in Lake Charles but no one is out due to the warnings and curfews that have been issued.

 

5:03 Pm

The media and people on ireport.com are calling this 'The Storm that Wasn't"

I like that. haha No, really though, there are bad things happening but it isn't as bad as they anticipated. I still have lights but the media is saying the storm has not reached me yet.

5:48 pm

My sister is in Jena, La near MIssissippi with her daughter. They do not have power and the transformer blew up there. She is fine though.

 

Thursday

The day after the storm there was a full rainbow in the sky. It was so pretty. I have a video of it. I am glad we are okay and the levee in New Orleans was not breeched. It was exciting to meet CNN crews and Journalists from the Wasington Post. I was given a CNN hat from a lady leaving the hotel to head back home. That was the exciting part. I am glad everything is finally over for now. God Bless Louisiana.

Author's Note

MORE LATER on......sorry if there are misspellings...this will be more of a blog than anything right now...

Reviews

[The Mad Prophet]

Wow, I am really out of touch. I didn't know this was going on at all. I think I remember hearing about another Hurricane, thanks for sharing.

[Tenten]

i hope you stay safe, its werid having a point of view from someone there, just stay safe. errors are easily overlooked for raw information

[Raef C. Boylan]

Hope you're ok...well, hope everyone's ok but chances are not everyone will be. Thanks for giving us some insight into what it's like to anticipate something like this happening.
I know you say it's just a blog, but you used 'now' a lot and I was wondering if that was deliberate, to maintain a sense of immediacy [sp?]?
Good description and details.
Cheers for sharing.

[The Rock And Roll Cowbo..]

Wow my dear friend thanks for the update... I will keep you in my prayers and I hope you stay safe and well... yes please keep us updated.