August 2005

Well, Saj and I came out of the hurricane all right, as did most of Baton Rouge I think. All we got was some really strong wind and some rain…not even much in the way of flooding. The last minute easterly turn of Katrina helped, but even if that had not happened I don’t think we would have been hit too hard as Baton Rouge is about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans. We don’t have electricity or internet access at home. The damned power went out right when I was booting my computer up this morning at around 8:45 am!!! (I’m in my LSU office right now. LSU has its own generator.) All or nearly all of Baton Rouge is without power. We do have running water though. No telling when the power will be restored. Class resumes on Wednesday, but I’ll probably check in again tomorrow. My thoughts go out to those not as fortunate as we.

Update (8/30): Well, we’re still without power, although much of Baton Rouge seems to have power restored. It’s just rotten bad luck for us, because all of the houses, condos, and apartment complexes around us have already had their power restored for at least a day. Something about our feeder lines being messed up. With luck, our power will be restored before we go to bed tonight or before long tomorrow. Our apartment manager said that Entergy was supposed to be on it. We’ll see. I can’t help but wonder what would be the case right now if we had a fully free market in energy production and service. At any rate, we can’t complain much. Aside from some minor leaking during the hurricane, and a loss of electricity for a few days, we came out all right. On a related, academic note, LSU has thrice extended the number of days classes would be cancelled. At first, before the hurricane, classes were only to be cancelled on Monday, then it was pushed back to Tuesday. In the aftermath, LSU has extended class cancellation to this Wednesday and now classes will not resume until Tuesday, September 6th. So it looks like we’ll be getting a decidedly extended vacation of sorts. This will give me some more time to work on my Latin, my book review, and perhaps one of my working papers. On Friday, I head back to Lake Charles to visit the family and attend a friend’s wedding; I’m one of his groomsmen.

Update (8/31): Our electricity was restored sometime this afternoon. Things have largely returned to normal, at least for us. Gas prices are already starting to go up due to increased scarcity and demand. Fill up now.

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I live in Baton Rouge and it looks like Hurricane Katrina is heading right for us. We could lose power or internet access, for a day or a week, so I may not be blogging for a while. See you on the other side!

Update (9:31 pm): Vodkapundit has some information on Katrina, the damage she could cause, and past hurricanes that hit my neck of the woods as well as some discussion among his readers. New Orleans will be hard hit unless this thing turns, but hopefully Baton Rouge (being farther inland and a little to the northwest) won’t receive too much damage. As I type we haven’t had much more than some rain so far.

Update (12:10 am): The weather is pretty calm here in Baton Rouge right now. The calm before the storm, so to speak. If Katrina moves along her predicted path, Baton Rouge will be swept by her western, weaker side. I got the following info off of Accuweather.com:

The second landfall for Katrina is expected in southeastern Louisiana around 7 a.m. CT Monday with the worst wind conditions in New Orleans from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Winds will reach 100 mph sustained with gusts to 120 mph but flooding will cause the greatest amount of death and destruction. Wind and flooding will pose the greatest concerns as far east as the Florida/Alabama border. The greatest destruction will cut a 60 mile wide swath across southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi.

Katrina will spawn tornadoes across Alabama and eastern Mississippi. The threat from damaging wind gusts, flooding rains and tornadoes will spread northward through Tennessee, Kentucky and into the Midwest early this week.

The winds throughout the South will be strong enough to down not only trees and power lines. In the major destruction zone, structures will fail and collapse and make missiles out of objects that are not tied down. The storm surge will reach as high as 25 feet at landfall.

I’m off to bed soon. More in the morning if I still have power and internet access.

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