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Leaving New
Orleans (Hurricane Gustav)
Tropical Storm Fay Flooding
Blog: INSIDE RICH'S HEAD!
Front Page
LEAVING
NEW ORLEANS ...
And we're
home!
August
31st
-- [18:42] We're here! Our luggage was already here waiting for
us, so off the plane, grab the luggage and in our car heading home
within a matter of minutes. It was quite an adventure. All
in all, it was pretty smooth. Because of the advanced
preparations, everything seemed to work real well. It was
unfortunate for all of the residents and business owners there who made
it pretty clear that they may not survive another event equal to the
scale of Katrina. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed and are
happy that we were able to stay as long as we could and continue to
contribute to the economy up to the last minute. You could tell
that they were happy we were there as long as we were. So, in the
end, we had to cut our trip short by a day and a half, but are happy
that we had the time we did and made it out without any major obstacles.
Thanks to all for your words and concern. Now, let's all keep an
eye on Hanna (and her sisters, or brothers, whomever seems to be
following her through the Caribbean).
 Eating
in ATL!
August
31st
-- [14:38] We were hoping to catch the 2:15 PM to MLB but the plane
left early and missed the connection. They had us on a 8:30 PM
flight, but Brian put his Platinum Medallion status to work and we got
put on the 5:15 PM. Not as bad. And ... we're hungry.
There was nothing but junk in the New Orleans airport, so we are
grateful to be able to sit and eat something solid!
Catching a
plane!
August
31st -- [11:32] Well we made it! Brian flexed his Delta muscle
and we took the last two spots on the 11:30 AM to ATL. Gotta
run. More later ...
Still at the
airport!
August
31st -- [10:02] Still here. Looks like Delta is sending bigger
planes to get us slackers out of here. That's good news for those
of us on standby. And, I went on a clandestine scouting mission
for food. Hit the motherload at a Continental gate and brought
back some goodies.
At the
airport!
August
31st -- [8:29] Well, everything went as planned this morning. We
were able to secure a taxi to the airport at 6:30 AM. It was
smooth sailing all the way out of the city to the airport. No
traffic at all. It was a little hectic at the airport, but Delta
was fully staffed and there was no wait. WE LOVE DELTA! We
were originally scheduled for a 3:30 flight this afternoon but we are
on standby for a 10 AM to ATL. They said lots of folks either are
choosing to drive out or won't get to the airport in time for their
flight, so standby looks pretty promising. Will keep you
posted. But looks like we're set.
Posted new video here:
 Leaving
tomorrow!
August
30th -- [20:35] So, evacuation is now mandatory! But, after
talking with the folks at the front desk of the hotel, all is well for
tomorrow. They've been evacuating the city since early this
morning. The traffic is backed up on the interstate getting out
of here, but since it was such an advanced plan, everyone seems to
think tomorrow will be even smoother.
Posted video here:
Greeting from
New Orleans!
August
30th -- [10:30] OK, so Brian and I are in New Orleans, at Southern
Decadence. Obviously we are  watching
Hurricane Gustav as he
blasts Cuba and makes his way into the Gulf. We were scheduled to
leave on Monday but we've bumped up our departure by a day and now
leaving on Sunday afternoon. Evacuations are underway as I write
this, moving the infirm and physically challenged, etc. They
moved the LSU-App. State football game from 5:30 PM to 11 AM this
morning and the general evacuation will begin following the game.
It does look as the storm is moving more westerly at this point, but
the eastern side of the storm is kind of nasty and with the storm-surge
and levee concerns here in New Orleans, everyone must go.
Following last week's dance with Fay, we've had enough for an entire
hurricane season. I'm mean, I've heard of storm chasers, but
these damn things are chasing us! Anyhow, we are out the door to
a sports bar to go watch the Gators game (vs Hawaii). So, GO
GATORS! Update later!
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Leaving New Orleans (Hurricane Gustav)
Tropical Storm Fay Flooding
Blog: INSIDE RICH'S HEAD!
Front Page
CHECK OUT MY BLOG:
It's
very political, so don't go unless you are prepared for straight-talk!
So, how was your weekend?
 August
25th -- One of the benefits of living through a storm like TS Fay is
there is always the post-storm cleanup. Yes, how fun. The
hurricanes of 2004 left quite a mess and it wasn't that bad this time
around. Prior to the arrival of Fay, I cut away a substantial
amount of tree limbs away from our house as well as our neighbor.
But because the rain preceded the storm's arrival sooner than
forecasted, I was not able to cut it up. So, I had these massive
branches all piled up inside the fenced-in backyard. On Sunday, I
moved the stack to the driveway and began the 4-hour process of hacking
it up for county pick up today. If you're going to spend several
hours on a relatively mindless, monotonous project, why not document it
with a digital camera? So, what did you do on Sunday.
Here's what I did!
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Tropical
Storm Fay!
August
22nd -- Finally, she's gone! But she's left many of us with a
nasty hangover! Having survived the three hurricanes of 2004 with
very little damage, this was an amazingly powerful tropical
storm. The problem, of course, is that once Fay made her way up
to Central Florida's east coast, she liked it so much she didn't want
to leave. And thus the deluge! Well, the flood waters have
receded (at least in our neighborhood) and the clean up has
begun. We can get in and out of our neighborhood and there's lots
of work to do, but, knock on wood, all is well, healthy, and even the
dogs are thrilled to be pooping on solid ground! Check out my video from Wednesday! Grab
a life jacket, it's wet!
August
20th -- With
the onset of football season also comes the heart of hurricane
season. So, it can be a rather bittersweet time of year in our
house. I am enjoying all of the preseason
NFL games and all of the college football smack-talk going on in chat
rooms and message boards around the Internet. However,
we've
had
to take a short break in the preparation for the upcoming pigskin
seasons to entertain a visitor who came in uninvited and doesn't seem
to want to leave. Tropical storm Fay made landfall in south
Florida early yesterday, darted out into the Gulf of Mexico and then
turned northeasterly back into the sunshine state around the Fort Myers
area on the
west coast. She slowly made
her way up towards Central Florida,
slicing through southern Osceola county and making her way towards
Brevard and Indian counties on the east coast. And that's pretty
much where she is right now, refusing to leave and just hanging out off
of the coast, pounding us with high winds and a torrential
downpour. It has been officially raining for nearly 30-hours now
and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.
We've been under a hurricane
warning, flash flood warning, and tornado
warning on and again and off again for the past 24-hours. A
tornado did touch down just south of us, in the Barefoot Bay area off
of Palm Bay. Several manufactured homes were destroyed and
several
families have been displaced, but fortunately there does not appear to
be any serious injuries at this point. While we've experienced
wind gusts of 50-60 MPH, it's the rain that's doing most of the damage
in our
neighborhood. Since the ground is so completely saturated and the
rain is continuing, we are dealing with serious flooding issues
throughout our county.
We are locked into our home as both ends of our residential street is
flooded and inaccessible for most vehicles. And it's
rising. There's crews helping
residents with sandbags as the
water continues to rise. While we can't get out of the
neighborhood, we are not currently under water, unlike some of our less
fortunate neighbors. Fay is expected to strengthen while she
hovers off the coast and then turn once again back towards Florida,
likely just north of Volusia county and south of Flagler county.
While I don't wish this storm on anyone, ENOUGH ALREADY! We're
completely drenched and need to begin cleaning up, so anytime she
desires to leave will be none to soon. This just goes to show you
that despite not achieving hurricane status, a storm can wreak havoc on
an area with strong winds, heavy rain, and a stationary system floating
above.
And this is just the beginning, really. It's the first big storm
of the season and this one was just nasty. As of this writing
it's still raining (Wed. - 15:41).
GOOD
RIDDANCE FAY
This video was
at the height of the flood waters in our neighborhood (Wed. 5:30 PM):
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