Caught in the storm

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:44 pm

Well, last night Cindy came straight over New Orleans. It wasn't pretty. 10,000 people were without power for an extended amount of time. My electricity was out from 7 pm last night up until 5pm today (the next day).

I had to drive last night to my g/f's house to get her medicine (she stayed at my house for the night). 70 mph winds, rain, darkness, and all is no fun. I drove during it's peak too. I don't think I even reached 20 mph anywhere. Debris was everywhere. Flooding was everywhere. Flooding wasn't bad though, not much higher than shin deep, but still too deep to drive through most places. I had to park about 2 blocks away from my g/f's house and walk through the water just to get there. I think I drove over a power line on my way back, that scared me pretty bad being that I didn't see it until it was right in front of me. I had to make different detours in several places, go down the wrong way a few streets, and put it in reverse a few times.

Today, I finally got to see what happened. Debris ALL over the place being mostly leaves and branches. Several trees uprooted, some fell on power lines, and basically a few thousand people still without power till around 6pm.

On a brighter note, my class today was cancelled :) (I was supposed to have a midterm :) )

breakjunki · Post by **breakjunki** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:56 pm

I feel you on that.
I live in N. Central Florida, we got hammered by all those hurricanes last year. And it seems like we got a few to look forward to this year.. sucks!

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:02 pm

Here is a news video before it hit: (the first minute of it is as interesting as it will get)
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/ ... 505wx4.wmv

Here is the aftermath at Grand Isle (Grand Isle is at the south-eastern most tip of Louisiana, not too far from New Orleans):
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/ ... 05dave.wmv

This one is worth watching:
The underpass they talk about in the beginning is about 2 blocks from my house (one of the times I had to put it in reverse).
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/ ... 05hoss.wmv

And think about this, this was only a tropical storm. By this weekend, we may have hurricane Dennis at our doors at about a category 3 hurricane. Most people evacuate for that.

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:04 pm

breakjunki wrote:I feel you on that.
I live in N. Central Florida, we got hammered by all those hurricanes last year. And it seems like we got a few to look forward to this year.. sucks!

Yea, you guys got it bad there.

breakjunki · Post by **breakjunki** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:11 pm

yeah man. we got tore up last year, a few times. You better strap up for this one comin. looks like its heading right for ya. Best of luck. I know how bad it can get when it's 100 + degrees outside with no power!

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 5:18 pm

Yea, thank god it was only 80 degrees last night. But I still had trouble sleeping from the heat.

If Dennis comes, I'll have pics and video this time

audiobass10 · Post by **audiobass10** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 9:03 pm

William from NOLA wrote:Yea, you guys got it bad there.

And even worse in SW FL when Charley hit. Port Charlotte was absolutely devistated. We got real lucky with just loosing our pool enclosure. We have a fairly new roof, but many people lost theirs. I went outside when the winds were starting to pick up and the sand and whatever else was in the air hurt when it hit me. Our house lost power for 4 days I believe it was but others went without it for over a week. You really don't realize how much you take elecricity for grantid until its gone and you don't know when it's comin back on heh.

Ryan from Ohio · Post by **Ryan from Ohio** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 2:57 am

Seems here in the Ohio area we have been having wind storms lately.

Last year the wind was so powerful it litteraly ripped a metal street sign down the side of one of them steel posts (small ones like a U). When I say ripped, I mean like a piece of paper, not pulled out the screws...

Just last month we had one and there are probably 12-15 trees that uprooted...

Other than that we have tornado's. Which seems to miss the area right where I live almost always

audiofreak12 · Post by **audiofreak12** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:52 pm

I just got back from a 6 day vaction to florida. We stayed in orlando at the Peabody(freakin nice, i recomend) but we went all over the cape-canaveral/cocoa beach area to the beach at Jetty Park(some of you florida guys might have herd of it.) We were supposed to go to the cubs vs. marlins game in miami saturday night but we didnt get to because of denis, but we sold the tickets so it wasent to bad. Weather wasent to bad, i miss florida's weather and everything else about it, MO sucks compared to down there IMO, did you have any damage from denis down in Nola?

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:16 pm

Thankfully not. The worst we got was 30 mph winds. If any hurricane makes a direct hit here, the mississippi river will most likely overflow, flooding the entire city. New Orleans is about 5-7 feet below sea level, basically a bowl. I think during Cindy, the river rose 3 feet.

I have pics and video from Dennis up at the lakefront here. I can get either if anyone wants to see them. Nothing real major.