Post-Gustav Report

Here it is, Thursday evening, September 11, ten days after Hurricane Gustav roared through Louisiana, causing the largest evacuation of people in Louisiana’s history, and nearly half of the State to be without power. Although I evacuated to Thibodaux, only 25 minutes from Houma to be on higher ground, because Thibodaux is in Lafourche Parish, I could not officially return to Houma until Friday due to the curfew imposed on re-entering Terrebonne Parish to see what damage may have occurred to our property.

I stayed with our new Bishop, Chris Diket, and his family. I arrived Sunday morning at his house. By early Monday morning, we could hear the wind pick up, and by 10:00 am, Hurricane-force winds were slamming into Thibodaux. We could see the eye of the storm going over Houma on TV, and we knew it would be a matter of minutes before we would be without power. Chris’s daughters were looking out the front door when a carport ripped off from a house across the road and sheared an electric pole in half, causing the wires from the top half of the pole to dangle in the middle of the road, making the road in front of their house impassable. Large trees started falling on people’s homes. Shingles and other debris were flying everywhere.

After a few hours, the storm passed. It started raining fiercely, and the Diket home started springing so many leaks that there weren’t enough pots and pans to contain them. The wind was still blowing too hard for the Bishop and I to get on the roof to put a tarp over the most seriously damaged area. For the balance of the day, the Bishop was very busy answering phone calls. He had an hour-long conference call with New Orleans Stake President Scott Conlin and the other bishops in the Stake from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. This was repeated every evening while I was in their home.

On Tuesday, the Bishop and I spent most of the day on the Bishop’s roof, tacking down shingles and tarpaper. I think we did a pretty good job of stopping the leaking.

On Wednesday, I sat in a line of cars for over two hours to get gas for the Bishop’s car, while the Bishop stood in a nearby line at Lowe’s to pick up some essentials. We rode around afterward to assess damage done at nearby members’ homes.

On Thursday evening, I found a back way into Houma and decided to see how well I could handle the night without air conditioning. I was amazed that there was no shingle damage at our house. Most of the neighborhood homes had shingle damage, some quite severe, but not a shingle was missing at our house. Staying overnight was pretty awful. I regretted that I didn’t stay a fifth night at the Dikets. My generator quit running properly after a while so I didn’t even have a fan running Thursday evening.

On Friday, I went to the work place, and was shocked to see the level of damage done to our greenhouses. I was equally shocked to see that six out of seven carts of breeding canes were healthy and green. How was this even possible, since we were all under mandatory evacuation? I fully expected the breeding canes to be dead or in very bad condition from lack of water. One of our senior technicians apparently stayed in the main building to ride out the storm, so he was on the premises to care for the plants. A big aluminum door that blew in from the front of the greenhouse damaged most of the plants on one cart. I helped move salvageable plants from this cart to an area where they could be hooked up to a watering system. I spent the balance of the day picking up glass after the above-mentioned technician had a shard of glass go 4-inches deep into the calf of his leg. Another scientist on site rushed him to the local hospital. Our Bishop found a used generator for me to use until we got our power back, which I was deeply grateful for. Nevertheless, I set up our tent in the evening and slept outdoors, and found the outdoors to be much more pleasant, because of greater airflow and temperature drop outdoors.

On Saturday, I learned of the severity of the damage done at the farm from Ed Dufrene. Apparently the shop area took a real beating. I went in to the work place for about four hours, spending the whole time picking up glass. After leaving work, I went directly to the church, amazingly getting there exactly when a shipment of supplies arrived from the Church, so I assisted in offloading the supplies from large trailer truck. In the evening, I slept in the tent again.

On Sunday, I picked up glass again at work for about 2-hrs, then cleaned up and went to church. We had church in a small room rather than in the main chapel area. We actually had about 1/4 our normal attendance. I was surprised that there was even that many people at church. I slept indoors this time with a fan blowing on me, and let some kids in our neighborhood sleep in the tent.

On Monday, one week out from Hurricane, we no still no power. We were given the entire week off at work, but several people volunteered to come in, to assist in the cleanup. Most of us spent the day picking up more glass. I stayed over at a friend’s house, to do my laundry, to watch Monday night football, and to have a comfortable night’s sleep.

On Tuesday, power was back. Hurray! No more generator noise! Blue tarps are everywhere on people’s roofs. Streets are 6-ft deep with piles of wood on both sides of the road for long stretches. Stores are crowded and half empty. We made a few crosses at work, worked on the automated irrigation system to accommodate the plants re-located a few days earlier.

On Wednesday, I picked Judy up at the airport. It’s good to have her back. Things are definitely starting to feel more normal now.

On Thursday, I finally have Internet service back. The wind is blowing at tropical storm strength outdoors to remind us that there is another hurricane out there in the gulf called Ike, and that we just barely passed the peak of the hurricane season.