Gustav... WHAT A RIDE!!! (Pictures added)
Been there, done that.. NO MORE PLEASE! That was the first bad hurrican I ever went through and that was enough!! Yes, I was sitting at the dinning room table when the tree fell on the house, I heard it hit the roof above me and took off running. Marie was screaming at me.. All we knew was there was a limb in the celing but it didn't look that bad but almost as soon as it hit, there was someone at the door beating on it screaming "ARE YOU ALL ALRIGHT!" It was the neighbor behind us in another subdivision armed with a ax.. He told us he saw the tress fall on the house and jumped his 6 foot privacy fence when he saw the tree fall on the house.. I went to the kitchen window and yelled at Marie to come look... There was her whole carport, collasped on her NEW Dodge Nitro and her sons truck.. They went to grabbing kids and baby stuff ready to run to the neighbor across the street in front of us when someone spotted a big split in a tree in the front yard.. We knew that was going to go next so everyone was warned to stay out of the path of that tree.. Between the time they got out and I was ready to leave, that tree had fallen.. The one that landed on the house was a massive tree, HUDGE! The man behind us said they stood in his house and watched it going over one way, then the other and knew it was going to fall and told his friend they had to come warn us and while his friend was putting on his shoes, it went over on the house.. None of us had ever met this guy before and let me tell you folks something, he came every day since asking if there was ANYTHING we needed or he could do!
The very evening of the storm, there were neighbors there to help cut what they could off of the roof and get a blue tarp on it... Yes,Rie's house is now a member of the Blue Tarped Roof Society! Neighbors rallied around, each night someone else cooked for us, every day they were there to use chain saws, pick up and clean up. About day 3, Marie's husband was finally able to get in touch with his family and by golly, they showed up with 3 chain saws and ate those trees up as best they could. All they left was for heavy equipment and yesterday, that showed up and the whole mess is out on the curb waiting for the parish to come pick it up..
The worst damage happened on towards the end of the storm. There were many houses in her subdivision damaged towards the end. I have never seen wind or rain like that but I was not scared until that darn tree fell. The trees are what did all the damage. Some homes lost shingles but no one lost a roof. One of Rie's neighbord has a sister that had 3 trees fall on her house and it is a total loss. The sad part of her situation is she is a single Mom and had ONE payment left on her house.. It was in her purse, ready to send off and she decided she better keep it just in case she needed it after the storm..
The most amazing part of this whole event was how people rallied around to help and the hard work a lot of them put into helping. One guy made daily runs for gas for the generators, anyone going for gas always stopped to see if we needed gas. Getting gas was a major event, sometimes having to go miles away to get it, having to get in lines to wait hours to get gas. Anytime anyone went to a store, they would stop by to see what everyone else needed and going to the few stores that were open, also meant standing in long lines. There are still few gas stations open and grocery stores have little to choose from. More or opening every day so I expect things to continue to improve around here.
Cell phones were of little use. People have tried to call for days and not been able to get trough. Text messeages we would eventually get but sometimes it would take 12 to 24 hours to get and then you would get them all at one time but had no service to respond to them..
I got the call about 9 pm that we now had power and I loaded up the girls and brought them home immediately! The park my home is in had some damage but not much and that also happened towards the end of the storm. The girls did well considering what they have been through too... but other night we had a thunder storm and Giz woke me up in my face screaming at me "MEEEEEEOOOOOW!". She never gets on the bed with me and she never has woke me up or even acted remotely scared of a storm.. They are SOOO glad to be at home..
I got pictures, ton of them, even a little short video I shout about 1 1/2 hours before the tree fell but I got to get them uploaded.. I will add a note to the thread name when I get them uploaded..
Marie and family will not get their power back for a long time. Let me explaine. There was a covered breezeway from her house to her car port, and the car port attached to what they called the shed. The main power feed box to the house was in that shed. The carport and breezeway is gone completely and all the main wires for their house was through the carport and breezeway under the roof, all enclosed. So right now, there are NO power lines even running to their house. They have 3 holes in the roof of their house and water damage in the kitchen and dinning room. The cleing is about ready to fall in. Curtis has removed all the insluation and nails boards up as the celing sags to hold it up. Their insurance adjuster will be there Sunday.
I am tired and wore out so I will correct any mistakes I made here typing this in tomorrow and get pictures uploaded then also.
PHEW! IT IS GREAT TO BE BACK HOME!!! Thank God we are all safe and thank all of you for all the prayers, I know He heard them...
