Gustav problems

For those of you not directly affected by Gustav, the damage in Baton Rouge and much of S. Louisiana is worse than Katrina. Unlike Katrina, it is mostly wind damage and loss of electricity.

It's funny how we keep being reminded how fragile our modern world is. Right now in Baton Rouge you still cannot find gasoline.

The power companies are doing an amazing job getting electricity back given the wide-spread damage.

I hate to think what will happen when we have a more wide-spread disaster of some sort where the rest of the country is not able to help out. I see power equipment here from all over the place.

lex

I don't envy those of you that live there AT ALL. Storms scare the bajesus out of me.    :-(

tidbit

And more coming, too.

lex

Lex, I think there will always be others willing to come to anothers area to help out. I know that quite a few of my fellow firefighters & EMS personnel are down there now with more leaving everyday to relieve those who have been down there since the beginning. We know that were the problems up here in the northern part of the state, the S. Louisianans would come running to the rescue if possible.

The whole problem is with those that don't appreciate the help they are given! I haven't watched the local news in 2 days because I got tired of the whining & moaning of some of the evacuees at our shelters. Seems they are expecting to be taken care of like at a 5 star hotel!

Sorry about the rant! Lex, glad to hear ya'll came out of this better than expected! For a while, it was expected to be stronger when it hit land but fortunately it fizzled a little before coming ashore!

bassadict69

I'm not sure I can agree that Gustav created more damage than Katrina. Loss of homes and entire communitiess is more devastating than loss of electricity. Loss of life is even more profoundly saddening. Gustav is nothing in comparison to Katrina and Rita in which entire towns were obliterated and many lives were lost.

Perhaps it is that areas that are not accustomed to being affected by a hurricane have been affected with this one. I know what it's like to be without power for extended time. I went without power for almost 4 weeks in a hurricane a few years ago. Many of my neighboring towns also went without power for that long. We lost more than half of the trees in my city and 95% of our homes had damage. It's miserable, but it's not in any way comparable to the vast and total devastation that Katrina and Rita left in their wakes.

NurseNancy

It's a matter of perspective.  

Katrina put 11 feet of water in my home, i lost everything.  It was well over a year before i could find a new place to live down here (St. Bernard Parish) and the parish as a whole will never be the same.  (BTW, it took about 6 weeks after Katrina to get power back to the area i'm in now).  to other areas of the state (heck, even the Metro New Orleans are) Katrina was an inconvenience.

For Gustav I spent the first 2 days doing volunteer work on the north shore, spent 3 nights at the office sleeping on the floor in the conference room, and power returned to the house this afternoon.  Gustav was just an inconvenience to me.

I feel for you Lex, been there, done that.  it gets better with time.

singledad

When I said Gustav did more damage I was speaking specifically of Baton Rouge only.

lex

[My life has been crazier than a work of fiction.....who'da believed?]

me. I figured you meant to your own personal peace of mind and private stash of beef jerky and toilet paper......we're all human and I for one guage impact on how it affects us and our area and domain.

.

3kidsmom

Lex,

How did Gustav compare to Andrew (1992)?  More damage?  i remember Andrew doing a number on Baton Rouge also.

singledad

Local papers say that Gustav has produced 4 times more debris  from wind damage than Katrina. So, both storms worse than Andrew. The worry now is that there are curbside stacks of missiles to worry about in case Ike comes this way. Baton Rouge still only has 50% of power restored. The rural areas around BR are much worse. I think I heard that St. James parish had 0% power restored.

lex

IMHO it seems that the drive by media portrays Katrina as having done more damage because of ALL the pictures of the flooding and those poor people in the superdome.  To me, it just seems like New Orleans got all the media coverage. When in fact Rita and Gustav did damage as well.

Holiday Golightly

[My life has been crazier than a work of fiction.....who'da believed?]

I have the sources for all of these tidbits if you wish to look them up:

Katrina/Rita resulted in damage to 81,000 businesses, of which 18,000 closed permanently

Out of 45,000+ homes in St. Bernard housing 65,000+ people, 5 (as in FIVE) were livable after the flood

Job availability in the New Orleans area is only 83% of what it was pre-Katrina

The unemployment rate ranges from 3% in NO to 5+% in St. Bernard, with many people who are willing to work unable to do so because the jobs that remain open (and indeed are using trained foreign labor) require skills that the residents don't have and can't learn

The number of english-as-a-second-language students has increased tremendously, putting a drain on already stressed schools

St. Bernard and the 9th Ward still do not have fully working sewer systems 3 years post-katrina

I could go on and on. UNDOUBTEDLY Gustave caused more problems in Baton Rouge, where the residents tend to be somewhat protected by location. However, in the Greater New Orleans area, Katrina was matchless.

3kidsmom

hollygolight wrote:
IMHO it seems that the drive by media portrays Katrina as having done more damage because of ALL the pictures of the flooding and those poor people in the superdome.  To me, it just seems like New Orleans got all the media coverage. When in fact Rita and Gustav did damage as well.

One of the communities that Rita wiped off the map was Cameron. But no lives lost because they had a 100% evacuation. Not one home survived it, but at least everyone got the hell outta dodge before it hit.

Rita and Katrina, in my opinion, were equal in property damage and their abilities to ruins lives. But Rita came after katrina and people obeyed the mandatory evacuations because katrina was too fresh on their minds. Katrina kept the spotlight because too many lives were lost and because New Orleans was such a densely populated area. The towns and parishes that Rita destroyed were just blips on a map that few outsiders even knew existed.

NurseNancy

Gustav did major wind damage to Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. Before we could even get the power back, Ike was on our heels inundating the lower parts of the parishes with water and flooding other neighborhoods closer to the city that had never before flooded.

I am not sure there is one house in Houma that doesn't have at least a shingle gone.

For Hurricane Katrina, Terrebonne parish had 700 utility poles down. For Hurricane Gustav, 1800 utility poles were down. Many were simply temporary fixes to get some power up. Ike took many of those right back down again.

There are estimations that 10,000 homes have at least 5 feet or more of water in them, and another 10,000 with water of some level in them.

I know other southern parishes were greatly affected, but I am only speaking about the two above because I am witness to those.

I have seen national media reports about how New Orleans fared for Gustav, but I am not sure that I have seen any national media about other nearby areas that were/are devasted.

Searching4Justice

the bigger problem we all have is our goverment ... not the hurricanes

gussrn