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.

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.

The Outer Bands

Gustav has arrived in Acadiana in the form of light rain. Roxi and I were just out walking and as we got back home, thunder cracked accompanied by the slightest sprinkling of rain. We still have several hours to go before the strong winds arrive, but we are ready. Roxi's parents and grandmother arrived a few hours ago and we promptly started drinking hurricanes. The weather will get worse, but for now, it's time to play some Mario Kart for Wii while we still have power!

More Gustav Preparations

This morning, Roxi and I went a local park where sandbags were being filled. We got enough bags to protect the doors of our house in case flood waters rise higher than they ever have in this area. I'm really not expecting waters to come close to our doors, but over the past few years, our back yard has tended to flood more than it used to. That being the case, I'm only slightly concerned about flood waters rising several inches to our back doors, but better safe than sorry!







Out in the streets of Lafayette, there is a lot less traffic and other activity than usual. Some stores and some of our neighbors have boarded up their windows while many others have chosen not to do so. We don't have any plywood to board up our windows, but we have never done so in a hurricane and we are hoping for the same during Gustav. It's a typically beautiful pre-hurricane day here in Lafayette, so we are going to enjoy this calm before the storm.

Gustav Preparations

Although I thought it was a little premature a few days ago with the course of Gustav still so uncertain, I began getting ready for the storm on Thursday by getting plenty of bottled water. I continued my preparations by filling both of our cars with gas since there may not be any available immediately or even for several days after the storm. Today, I secured all of our outdoor furniture and other potential projectiles from the expected high winds. I also went shopping for anything that we sill needed before the storm. The stores were surprisingly unchaotic. But as the day has gone on, traffic has decreased considerably for a Saturday afternoon.

Roxi's parents and grandmother are planning to ride out the storm with us in our house. I feel good about this house as it has gone through several hurricanes since it was built including Andrew, Lili and Rita. There was some tree damage to the house from Rita, but it is really no worse for the wear. I'm a still concerned about Gustav's projected course as it will be passing directly over Lafayette sometime between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. There is currently a voluntary evacuation of Lafayette Parish and mandatory evacuations of all of the southerly bordering parishes. I'm not sure what we would do in the event of a mandatory evacuation of Lafayette. Contra-flow on I-49 will begin soon and that would help us get to Shreveport and points north but I honestly don't know where we would go because it is doubtful that there are any hotels in north Louisiana. In fact, evacuees will be lucky to find places to stay in Arkansas.

So unless a police officer comes to our house and tells us to leave, we will be staying and I will try to blog occasionally as long as we have power.