As many of you have heard, we have a couple of New Orleaners staying at our house. One of my other half's college buddies and her daughter are here. They arrived the Friday before the storm after much indecision. We convinced them to come on over (6 hour trip) just so they wouldn't have to worry about the storm. They live in a townhome on the shore of Lake Ponchatrain at the mouth of the Tchefuncte River. It's on the North side of Ponchatrain in Madisonville, Louisiana. It was an excellent decision to leave on Friday.
So far, she's been able to contact friends in Lafayette sporadically, but hasn't been able to hear squat about how her neighborhood fared. From the internet we've ascertained that perhaps the flooding wasn't as bad on the north side of the lake. We're hoping friends from Lafayette will be able to sneak in and take a glance at her townhome just to get an idea of how it looks.
I contemplated making a run with her this weekend, but still the roads are iffy. There's no gas, no electricity, no food or water. You'd have to gas up somewhere like Baton Rouge (after a 5 hour trip), go into Madisonville (if you can), look around, sleep in the truck most likely (no hotels) depending on how the townhouse looked, and then head back the next day. A tough long trip with iffy possibilities. Officially, her Parish is closed, so I don't know even if you'd be allowed to drive in.
Here in Houston, the refugees are arriving in droves. Hotels are all full, shelters are packed, new shelters open constantly (like the Astrodome), and lots of people have houseguests. We are working with our two other work locations and are only able to contact them through satellite phones.
Our guests are fine, except for livng with the constant worry of how things are or might be. And her two cats are a source of constant entertainment.
It's an immense tragedy. Immense.
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