Monday August 29 - Hurricane Comes Ashore

We had a conference call around lunchtime on Monday as the storm was petering out. My boss wanted me to get to New Orleans immediately and was a little upset with me because I was not already back in the city. I explained that it had been unsafe to travel and still might be, but he said it was my job to get there and sort out the damage. I hung up the phone a little pissed off since I had done everything that was asked of me so far and began gathering my things. I think my favorite part of the phone call was when I asked about food and I was told that we had vending machines in the office. I remember thinking how generous it was that they wanted me to eat out of the vending machines, since nothing was open. I packed my Jeep and told Kevin that I appreciated his hospitality. He told me that I would probably be back because the roads were probably still closed. We supposedly had a room at the Red Roof Inn in BTR thanks to accounting, but since they had no power, they couldn't verify reservations and just gave away the rooms.

I drove out of Baton Rouge looking desparately for something that was open so that I could get some edible supplies, but nothing was open until I got to Gonzales. A Shell Station was running off of a generator and the line was out the door. This was the first in a long string of instances where I waited in line after Katrina. I went in and the store looked like it had been robbed. There was virtually nothing on the shelves. I managed to fight some old lady for 3 packs of chocolate donuts, 2 packs of peanuts, 3 warm Mountain Dews, 2 packages of Brown Sugar pop tarts, and some of those cheap lemon cookies. I also bought 3 packs of Camel Lights and a lighter. I would rather not eat than not smoke in this situation. I got back in the car and headed for New Orleans. Everything was fine until I got to where US61 goes under I-10, there, the State Police were directing traffic to US61. At this point I was still hopeful that I could make it. I got to Gramercy before the police had the road closed. There were probably 200 cars sitting either in the truck stop parking lot or on the side of the road. Police with bullhorns were telling people to leave the area, or possibly face arrest for loitering. No one seemed to be paying them attention. I decided to be sneaky and try some back ways to get through. I tried river road and found an absurdly young soldier blocking the way. He was wearing a uniform so new it still had the creases where he had unfolded it out of the package and no insignias. I asked him why the road was closed and he told me that he didn't know. He was part of the local ROTC and they had called them in to block roads. His pants were not even tucked into his boots, and I considered just going around him. About that time a truck pulled up with armed soldiers that did look rather pissed off and scared, so I made the intelligent decision and turned around. I tried to cross the bridge to the other side of the river, but more soldiers prevented me from going that way. They told me no one was getting anywhere near New Orleans yet, so I might as well go back to wherever I was coming from. I called my boss and let him know and he was really angry that I couldn't talk my way through the checkpoint. I headed back towards Baton Rouge. I called and talked to Lisa and my mom and let them know what I had tried to do, but that I was going back to Baton Rouge.
I called Kevin and he let me know that we were supposed to go up to the Baton Rouge office and check for damages. I met Steve up there. The power was off, but everything looked fine. We went in and were informed that we had another conference call. By this time, Jackson was getting hit pretty badly and they had to close their office. Ironically, Birdie, the customer I mentioned earlier was panicking that Katrina was still a Hurricane when it was hitting them. They closed shop and headed home. Apparently their lives are worth more than mine. The Mobile office had also lost power and it looked as if Montgomery would also. The Birmingham office wanted to close because they were under tornado watches and warnings. When the hell is Central Alabama not under a tornado watch? He was worried about his drivers driving in the boonies in the dark. Forgive me, but isn't that what we do on normal days? Kevin and I were looking at each other and putting the mute button on so we could make negative comments about him, when luckily our boss finally spoke up and said that BHM couldn't close because that is normal bad weather. We agreed that I would attempt to go to New Orleans again in the morning and also try to get Sara to go there since she was closer. The power came back on in the office and we headed back to Kevin's house.

At this time, we had no idea what was happening in New Orleans. We heard that Katrina had missed New Orleans and the eye had passed through Chalmette and then gone on to Slidell and Bay St Louis. We heard rumors of 50 ft waves hitting the beach in Mississippi, but nothing was confirmed. We got back to Kevin's house and his power had returned, but not the cable. We turned on the TV and I think watched a movie or something. I went to bed around 10am and felt good about my house and the city of New Orleans. Lisa called me panicking and crying sometime in the middle of the night. I think she had gone up to her mom's that day with the greedy refugees from SBux. She must not have been able to sleep because it was well after midnight when she called. Apparently the levees in New Orleans had broken, the pumps had failed, and the city was filling up with water. I asked her what canal and she said the 17th street canal. I didn't want to worry her, but I knew that was close to our house in Mid City and told her everything would be all right. Plus I told her it was silly to worry about something we couldn't do anything about. All we could do was watch and pray. She got mad at me for not caring and I think she hung up and wouldn't answer when I called back. Later I understood her pain, but not at that moment. I went back to sleep not quite as calm as I had a few hours earlier. My house was probably gone.....but nothing was certain.