Katrina come and gone

We got ready for the hurricane, called all the family to see where they would be and then hunkered down to wait it out. I was not worried till about 3am Monday morning. I woke up and started thinking about how bad it would be here if New Orleans got a direct hit. Baton Rouge is too close to New Orleans. Then, everyone else woke up and we watched news till we lost power. Then it started getting interesting. We had windows open because it was so hot here. My daughter lives in a small complex of about 18 townhouses that face each other across the parking lot. The wind was whistling and whining through here and it was LOUD. Reese, the baby, got scared from that and we took turns holding him and playing with him. It was mostly all over with by noon. There was still a lot of wind and rain, but the worst thing was no power, which meant no A/C.

That evening we read and ate by candle light hoping that the power would be on Tuesday at the latest. We had no way to get any news. Finally, my daughter in Michigan got through to us and told us how bad it was. I could tell it was worse that we expected for the coast because I could hear the fear in her voice.

We spent the next two days watching all the houses around us get lights and more important A/C. We sat outside and talked with the neighbors till late at night. We did drive around a little on Tuesday, mostly to get out of the heat.

Wednesday, I was getting worried about my grandson, he is 17 months old, and the heat was getting to him. He was just limp. We sprayed him with water and fanned him almost constantly for two days, but it was not enough. I took him outside and sprayed him down with the hose. We stayed out for over an hour. Then, I decided to go get some cold drinks. It felt so good to be in the A/C that when I got back, I sent my son in to get my daughter and we sat out in the car for about 3 hours. I know that gas is going to be a problem now, and I will promise not to drive for a week to make up for it, but my daughter and grandson needed to get out of the heat. My daughter is very small and when she gets too hot she cannot eat. I was afraid that she and my grandson was going to get dehydrated.

Power came on again after 9pm last night. We were outside eating burgers and everyone started dancing in the parking lot......not for long though, because we wanted to get the A/C on in the house. When we checked, the temp was 95 degrees inside.

My son-in-law went back to work Tuesday. His firm's New Orleans branch closed of course and they are having to accommodate the lawyers from there. People are so worried. His father is 67 and still works because some of his medicines are so expensive. He was worried that not only was he going to lose his house but that he was also losing his job. No word on the job, but his house got some major damage. The house is between Biloxi and Ocean Springs, in a small town called d'Iberville. He and Jamie's mother are doing good. They will be staying with one of their daughters while they decide what they are going to do.

So, right now things are slowly, very slowly, getting back to normal.