Well folks, it looks like we are in the crosshairs for Hurricane Gustav. We’ve been closely watching the weather channels, and it’s pretty much focalized on our area, but as we know, that can change anytime. Everyone around here has had the pre-hurricane jitters for the last few days. Everyone’s really calm, and there’s a lot of laughter and stories about prior hurricanes, but the food, water, batteries, and dry goods are flying off the shelves.
Lynn Hair took us up to Wal-Mart in Crowley LA yesterday afternoon where we got food that can be cooked easily and quickly on our camp stove (think ramen, soup and oatmeal). They were completely out of water already, except for a few palettes of lower quality small bottles of water, and there is no camp stove fuel to be found, but we still have several liters with us. Lynn found water last night at Sam’s Club in Lafayette so she got some for us.
The clerks at Wal-Mart told me yesterday that they had people waiting in line at 5:30 in the morning for the shipments of water and batteries that were coming in, and within an hour and a half everything from the truck shipment was gone. It’s hard to believe, but we saw huge empty shelves in Wal-Mart – both the water and the bread.
Cashiers were lined up at nearly every single checkout counter at Wal-Mart, and though lines were short at 3 p.m., the cashiers reported that they had been steadily busy all day. I had to wait for about a half hour at the checkout counter and things picked up noticeably as I sat there, because school was now letting out. In addition, the Wal-Mart in Abbeville (farther south) was running out of food and key supplies, and the customers were told there would be no further shipments. The trucks would be servicing the Wal-Marts along the I-10 corridor only. That meant all those farther south would now be coming up to the I-10 corridor to get supplies.
I entertained myself by watching what people were buying, and it became really predictable: potato chips, charcoal, lighter fluid, beer, potato chips, water, batteries, diapers, sodas, juice, corn chips, potato chips, soda, beer, cat litter, cat food, and did I mention water, beer, sodas and potato chips yet? Wal-Mart clerks were positioning palettes of bottled water right at checkout, and were moving kiosks of batteries into place right next to the water. Everything was flowing quickly and smoothly and there was a feeling of “we know the drill”.
We awakened early today, in time to see a Dollar General truck go by, so we knew there’d be water soon at our local store. We were feeling the jitters too, so we got ready to head out with the bikes and trailers to see if we could get water, and to see what is going on in town. Dollar General was packed, with lines nearly to the back of the store (granted it’s a pretty small store). We did score some water, but the store manager was thinking of closing early, as everyone was paying cash in 50 and 100-dollar bills, and they were running out of cash. The two banks in town are closed, and they had signs posted yesterday on the doors “Get your evacuation money now because we won’t be open on Monday!”
It’s now Saturday afternoon and we’ve done all the errands we can do before Gustav arrives. We are hand washing some clothes this afternoon so we’ll have everything clean, and we’ll make sure to take our showers no later than tomorrow morning. We’ve cooked up some chili and poor man’s chop suey, and we have them in the freezer. The town turns off the power when things get bad, and it looks like that may be as soon as Monday morning or Monday mid-day. We are also packing up our trailers with all our belongings and we will tarp them up with bungie cords, along with our bicycles.
We love our house here, and even though it doesn’t have hurricane shutters, we’ve been assured by locals that it’s extremely strong. It has survived all hurricanes for the last 70 years, and it’s got a good roof and storm windows (the “old-fashioned” kind). It sits up on blocks, and it has never flooded, and it’s in the higher part of town as well.
The town of Gueydan is surrounded by a levee so we won’t likely be flooded by a storm surge – especially as we are about 20-30 miles from the coast. After a devastating flood in 1940, the town built a pump system, so the minute there’s standing water in the town, the pumps kick in and start getting the water out. We were assured that there is plenty of diesel on hand to run the pumps and they have someone on duty to keep checking the functioning of the pump system.
We are also across the street from the town’s police and fire department, so we went by today and introduced ourselves (they already knew who we were even though we have never spoken to them), and let them know that we are staying here for the storm. We were told that the Baptist Church right across the way from us on the other side is going to be a staging area. It’s right next to City Hall and two doors down from the police/fire department. Tom Jones, the police officer with whom we spoke, told us to come by for anything we need. As if all this isn’t enough, we have a neighbor that is an “old-timer” who lives within 2-3 blocks of us.
We’ve been scoping out the house to see where we’ll sleep or stay during the worst of the storm, and there is an interior hallway, no windows, which looks pretty good to us. Chelsea is mopping the floor tonight so we can hang out in clean surroundings.
Are we nervous? You bet. We just found out that there’s a mandatory evacuation order for everything south of us, right up to across the street from us, so our anxiety level is rising. We’d much rather stay here, but it’s getting nerve-wracking. There’s so much hyperbole by the media and panicked politicians, it’s hard to know what’s really the truth. The Hair family has offered to loan us an older car so we can evacuate, but we don’t have anywhere to go, nor are gas and hotel bills available in our budget. And we dread the thought of hours and hours and hours on the road in heavy traffic. On the other hand, it’s getting more certain that we are in the dead center of landfall, and the storm has speeded up and intensified. Sigh….
Update:
We’ve just come back from a lengthy bike ride around the town. It’s obvious that folks around here don’t know hurricanes like we know hurricanes in South Florida after the last few years. We saw very few houses boarded up, and most of those that were boarded up are done improperly. The yards are loaded with lawn statues, potted plants, latticework arbors and all kinds of things that make great projectiles in the winds. We saw several houses where they had pruned branches and left the branches piled in the median, even though there will be no pickup until well after the hurricane. We took a number of photos and we will compare the before and after pictures.
The town is really quiet. Around 5-7 pm there was a steady stream of cars headed out. All the highways are being reversed tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. for the mandatory evacuations. Some of the stores are boarded up and one of the banks has a solid plate steel shutter covering the entrance. Most of our good buddies are headed out to Texas, so we feel lonely. The Hair family is leaving for sure, and they will be dropping off a vehicle for us about 8 in the morning.
Ironically, the weather is beautiful right now. The air smells wonderful – fresh and clean from all the rice being harvested. The rice was planted late this year because of a late season cold spell in the spring, so harvest is late too. The rice farmers have been going flat out for days getting everything cut and into the rice dryers before the storm hits. We’ve seen a steady parade of trucks going past the house for days now, but they suddenly stopped this afternoon. Whatever didn’t get done probably won’t get done now.
We are going to pack everything up early in the morning just to be on the safe side, and we were told tonight that if it gets really bad, we need to stay in the hallway with a mattress over us, and say our prayers. Things fold in an A-frame, and we’ll be in the center of the house anyway, so that’s good. We may go ask to stay in the firehouse if we feel too overwhelmed, but I actually think that the house we are in has more structural soundness than the firehouse!
I’m going to end now, as we want to eat dinner and distract ourselves from the gloomy scenarios. We won’t know anything more anyway until Gustav clears Cuba and is in the Gulf, which will be early tomorrow morning. I think we’ll have enough drama in the upcoming days, so we’ll pick a lighthearted movie or a compelling book, and turn in for the night. Wish us all luck down here. One way or another, it looks like we’re in for a big adventure!!