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Hi everyone,
Just a note to let you know that it looks like the big one's going to
hit New Orleans. My parents and their dog are on their way out of
town--right now to northern Mississppi, and possibly at a later date
up here to Chicago. One brother is staying at school in Baton Rouge,
which looks like it's going to be safe, and I think the other brother
is on his way to Texas (the third lives in Washington state).
Right now, the hurricane is a category 5, as big as they come, with
sustained winds of 175 mph. It looks like my family will be safe, but
my dad says he expects their house won't be there when they get
back--which is saying something, because my parents are pretty chill
about storms. It may be weeks before they can go back there, because
of flooding, lack of electricity and sewer backups. Needless to say,
I'm really worried about them, and other family friends in the area.
If you pray, please keep them in your prayers. I'll keep you updated.
Thanks,
Jeni
Just a note to let you know that it looks like the big one's going to
hit New Orleans. My parents and their dog are on their way out of
town--right now to northern Mississppi, and possibly at a later date
up here to Chicago. One brother is staying at school in Baton Rouge,
which looks like it's going to be safe, and I think the other brother
is on his way to Texas (the third lives in Washington state).
Right now, the hurricane is a category 5, as big as they come, with
sustained winds of 175 mph. It looks like my family will be safe, but
my dad says he expects their house won't be there when they get
back--which is saying something, because my parents are pretty chill
about storms. It may be weeks before they can go back there, because
of flooding, lack of electricity and sewer backups. Needless to say,
I'm really worried about them, and other family friends in the area.
If you pray, please keep them in your prayers. I'll keep you updated.
Thanks,
Jeni
Hi,
Another update. TV crews are finally getting into Slidell. It looks like the parts that we would normally expect to flood are flooded, to say the least. The Slidell mayor says that 90% of the homes in the city are damaged in some way, with 50% destroyed. Official word is that there was major flooding from Gause Blvd. south--my parents live one block south of Gause, in a heavily wooded area. Based on footage I've seen and the official reports, I'd guess they got water in the house, and probably at least one tree. But at long as the house is still there, there'll be something to go through and try to pick up.
Still no word from Chris. At this point, we're thinking he probably decided to stick it out in Slidell, but if he stayed at the friend's house where my mom saw him last, it was near my parents and probably not completely destroyed. There were lots of people walking around the town on the news, so I know there are lots of survivors. They're still totally cut off from all communications, though, and no one can get in or out (except, obviously, news crews). I've got postings on every message board I can find asking for info on him, so hopefully he's got a friend out there who evacuated who can give me some news.
My mom will move up here as soon as we hear something from Chris. I'm going to try to convince her to come up sooner, because it may be weeks before he can get out to make a phone call. They're estimating 6 to 12 weeks before there's any power. My dad will go to Canton, OH, where his company is based, to try to get work in the Midwest, at least for now. When they let people back into Slidell, Karl will probably go from Baton Rouge to see what's left of the house. Since my parents rent, the house isn't really their problem, it's just a matter of getting whatever's salvagable out.
Also, I've been in touch with Cara (my maid of honor), who just moved into a new apartment in Gulfport, MS, last Friday. Miraculously, her building was spared. She has no damage at all, but the buildings around her were hard hit. Her parents house in Pearlington, MS, was completely destroyed. They managed to get in to see it yesterday on their way from Mobile to Texas. The storm surge picked it up and moved it to the middle of the road.
Thanks to everyone who's emailed me, and everyone who's thinking of and praying for us.
By the way, I got this from Pete:
FWIW: If anyone wants to contribute to relief efforts specifically
targeted there, apparently Chris Duhon of the Bulls is from Slidell
and is organizing a relief effort there:
http://www.nba.com/bulls
[just trying to maintain the delusion that my listening to sports talk
radio is somehow useful. As Shyni said, our thoughts and prayers are
with your family.]
Just an FYI.
--Jeni
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Found him!
Chris called me a little bit ago. He's fine. He did stay in Slidell. He and his friend Chris had gotten out of the city and were on their way into Mississippi to try to find food, water and gas, then they were going to go back and help. I didn't get to talk to him for long because his phone was dying and the other Chris still had to use it. He has instructions to call as soon as he charges it again (they have a generator).
What I did hear from him is that our house still has about 3 inches of water in it, and a couple of trees fell on it. I'm not clear if they actually went through the roof or not, so I don't know if the house is salvagable. He said Slidell is in really bad shape, and to tell my parents not to try to come back yet.
The next step is to get my mom up here. Since part of my dad's coverage area for work wasn't too badly damaged he may go back there to start working again as soon as there's an okay from the government. Basically, he'll do whatever his company says in order to start work again. It may still be weeks before we know how much of our house is salvagable, but now everyone in the family is safe, at least.
Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. I'll stick my updates on the blog now, to avoid anymore mass emails.
--Jeni
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