Texas A&M vs. Army

The Aggies got their first home victory of the season against Army with a final score of 21-17. It was hardly a stellar performance by the Aggies but it was a win nonetheless. Conference play starts next week and I worry that the Ags will face a tough game on the road. Congrats on the win and good luck on the road Ags.

Texas A&M vs. Miami

The Aggies committed just enough mistakes today to lose the game against Miami by a score of 41-23. Thankfully I was working and only got to listen to a few minutes of the third quarter on the radio. It was abysmal. I heard Miami score three times in a matter of minutes. By the time I got home ABC wasn't even showing our game any more, so I didn't get to see the Aggies "rally" from being thirty-one points behind to finish only eighteen points down. I love Aggie football and I hate Aggie football. The only thing that sucks worse than this loss is the headlines in tomorrow's papers that will say something about Texas getting hit by another hurricane. Stay tuned for some lazy sports journalism.

Ike Evacuees

My parents let Houston Thursday afternoon and thankfully beat the rush of people trying to flee Hurricane Ike on Friday. It looks like they will be staying with us for at least another day or two as it is unclear when downtown Houston will be open to residents returning. By all reports, the water is receding so that the roads and interstates leading into the city are clear, but there it no drinking water, limited power, limited fuel and limited food in the city. I'm not sure how long it will be before city officials give the okay to return to downtown, but I surely don't want my parents to go back to a home without air conditioning, water or food.

Galveston

I will be amazed if there is anything left of the barrier island city after Hurricane Ike. Galveston is no stranger to tremendous hurricane damage, but seeing what is happening down there already, hours before the eye of Ike makes landfall, has me fearful for the city and those that decided to ride out the storm. Good luck to all those on the island over the course of the night and the days to come.

Ike Turns Southwest

It's looking less and less likely that Ike will make landfall anywhere in south Louisiana. Yesterday it looked like Ike might hit Galveston and Houston directly sometime this weekend, but it has continued to move southwest and now looks like it will make landfall around Matagorda Bay in south Texas. So now that there is little to no threat to Lafayette, can the garbage men come and take my trash? It's been a week since Gustav and all of the city's piles dead branches and leaves are starting to stink.

Texas A&M vs. New Mexico

The Aggies got their first win of the Mike Sherman era by defeating the New Mexico Lobos by a score of 28-22. It would have been nice to get the win last week as well because the season is only going to get harder. Nevertheless, congrats to the Ags on todays win!

What will Ike be like?

Since Gustav moved on a few days ago, I have been checking the storm tracks of Hanna, Ike and Josephine. It seems pretty definite that Hanna will be skirting along the east coast over the next few days and that Josephine might lose steam before it even gets to the east coast, but Ike may be a different story. For the past couple of days I have watched as Ike has changed course southward from it's originally projected path along the east coast to now entering the Gulf of Mexico sometime around Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Hurricane Ike



This morning was the first indication that I saw that it might actually cross Florida around Miami. I couldn't help but think of Hurricane Andrew back in 1992 that started by wiping out Dade County, Florida before moving on to restrengthen in the Gulf before hitting the Louisiana Gulf Coast hard near Morgan City. Lafayette fared pretty well, but my high school which was about twenty miles south, was closed for about ten days. Many of my friends from further south didn't return home for several weeks.

Hurricane Andrew



Once I got to work today, some of my co-workers were noting Ike's similar track to Hurricane Katrina which also crossed over Florida near Miami before restrengthening in the Gulf before becoming the storm that has left New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in ruins. I was living in Nashville at the time, but my friends and family here in Lafayette were hardly affected by Katrina other than the influx of refugees. In fact, on the day of Katrina, Roxi said it barely even rained in town.

Hurricane Katrina



In looking at the most recent hurricane to really impact Lafayette, I turned to Rita. Again it was worse for people south and west of Lafayette including the Texas Gulf Coast. It was probably as bad for Lafayette as Gustav. Our house had a tree fall on it but power was never lost.

Hurricane Rita



Ike's five day track looks the most like Rita, but there is that little northward hitch that Ike is projected to take once it gets past Florida. That could be bad for the west coast of Florida and the panhandle. Unfortunately it is still too early to tell where this storm will be going but if it looks like it is heading our way and it is picking up strength, we might just pack up and leave for a while. I just don't want to go through the things that our friends in Houma, Baton Rouge and even Lafayette had to endure or are still enduring as a result of a Gustav.

Before and After Gustav Cleanup

As promised here are some pictures that I took of the trash in the yard this morning followed by pictures of what things look like now including the large piles of the trash lined up for garbage collection. Luckily, we had no damage to the house but the cleanup was still a real pain.

BEFORE CLEANUP:













AFTER CLEANUP:

The Day After Gustav

Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday afternoon, but we lost the internet after (!) the storm even though we never lost power. We spent today cleaning up the debris in the yard and got a lot done but there is still a fair amount of extraneous sticks and leaves in the back yard. Here are some pictures and a video that I took as the eye passed over Lafayette yesterday afternoon. I'll post the cleanup pictures soon.

The Eye of the Storm

The eye of Hurricane Gustav has moved into Lafayette Parish and it is pretty evident by the increase in the winds and rain. The wind gusts have gotten a lot more frequent and louder. We are getting the strength of what's left of the eye wall before we get to the eerie calm of the eye itself. I'm not sure how fast Gustav is moving right now, but this strong weather will probably keep up for at least an hour before the reprieve of the eye. I hope to get outside during the lull to get some pictures, but from inside the house it just looks like most of what we will see is down tree limbs and leaves everywhere.

Hurricane Gustav Is Here

The light drizzle that came and went intermittently was replaced by a calm partly cloudy sky this morning around 6 AM. After a light breeze and darkening sky, the heavy rains began falling at around 9 AM here in Lafayette. In the last hour the wind has really picked up but it they are not of tropical storm strength yet. From news reports we have been watching all morning, it looks like Gustav will weaken considerably before the eye of the storm reaches us this afternoon. It appears that Grand Isle, Houma and Morgan City will be taking the brunt of Gustav, but if you are watching the national news all you'll be hearing about is New Orleans.