Hurricane Gustav

Well, to say the least, the last 2 weeks have been a whirl wind. Life has been anything but ordinary for the folks down here in Louisiana. We knew 2 weeks ago that Hurricane Gustav was coming our way and did everything we could to get prepared. We assumed that we would be without power and so we had sufficient batteries, flashlights, candles, food that could be cooked on the grill, etc. We lived through Hurricane Katrina and Rita so we figured we knew what to expect. What we did not expect was the extent of damage Gustav could really cause. It was bad with Katrina, but nothing like this. Katrina mainly affected us because we got all of the overflow of people from New Orleans which caused shortages of food and gas. There simply was not a great enough supply to meet the demand. This time it was the huge and prolonged power outages that caused the problems. Every single block has at least 2 huge trees down. Some fell on houses, others blocked streets. Some parts of Baton Rouge are still without power and with the humidity and heat down here that makes for a very uncomfortable situation. Gas was in short supply because people were using all the gas for their generators. We had lots of shingles from the roof fly off and that caused a small leak in our roof. Loren and our neighbor put a arp on it for now and our fence is now leaning pretty good. Our. neighborhood was without power from Monday to Saturday night. Fortunately our friends in Gonzaled got power on thursday so we went to stay with them. Our nieghbors had a generator so we got to keep our frdge stuff cold but lost most of our freezer food. What made things miserable for us was that the kids kept waking up because it was too hot to sleep. Denton developed a heat rash on his chest and back. Cooking was tricky because we only had a small propane grill. I wish we had a gas stove like some people do.

We also had no hot water and with a spit- uppy baby and a 3 year old who is still potty training it was difficult to clean well. The house was starting to get really damp from the humidity, the tile sweat and our carpet was damp. Not good. It was a bit cooler outside but the mosquitos are so bad after a storm that we got eaten alive. By 3 days without power and not much sleep we were getting cranky and so were the kids. WE tried to keep them occupied with games and driving to friends houses, and helping the neighbord clean up fallen limbs and branches. That was one positive thing, the neighbors all pulled together and helped out.

We had 2 missionaries from down south stay with us for 4 days. They helped in the clean up and helped to entertain our kids. They both talked star wars and video games with Logan. Last Saturday and Sunday were huricane relief days where groups of men and boys went to members homes from church and chain sawed fallen trees off of roofs, etc.

We still dont have much food in the freezer sections or fresh produce sections at the stores. After the hurricane any stores that were open accepted cash only and would only let in a few people at time. Lines were blocks long for both grocery stores and gas. Luckily we were prepared so we did not have to stand in line. The only thing I forgot to stock up on was nursing pads and since I couldn't wash with hot water I had to go out on day 3 to get some. There were still long lines and no pwer. The kids finally went back to school today and are not sure how the kids are going to make up the school days. In retrospect I am grateful we did not have a tree fall on our roof, grateful for good neighbors, grateful we had enough to eat and drink, and grateful for all of your prayers on our behalf. Here are a few photos just from our street. The first is across the street, the second is our front yard and the third is our back yard. Many streets had it a lot worse. We saw houses in two because of trees falling on them. Crazy what nature can do