9/4/05

Re: Refugee Update

Most of the "refugees" stayed at my sister's today. 4 of us went to see
if we could get back to our houses to get more stuff to bring back to
my sister's and we'll bring Stacey's car back, too.

4:00am - Up and at 'em! -- made sandwiches, packed soft drinks and
water in the ice chest.

4:30am - Planned departure time. We left on the dot.

Stopped in Donaldsonville, LA to gas up the truck, fill 2 gas cans 
(for our neighbor's generator), and get ice. At one point in the trip -- 
it was still dark -- on I-10 somewhere -- we passed a line of school
busses from (I think) Houston Independent School District... there were
thirty one (31) busses in the convoy.. I counted them.

There was a road block at Washington Parish and we were told that they
weren't supposed to let anybody go through Washington Parish if they
were going to Jefferson Parish. The sheriff let us thru, though, and
told us to be prepared to be turned back when we got to the Jefferson
Parish road block.

Arrived at the Jefferson Parish road block about 6am and got in line.
We saw MANY cars turned around and headed back the way they came. When
it got to our turn, we told them that we had spoken to our neighbor 
the night before and that he had told us that they had plenty of food 
and water, but that they needed gas for their generator. The deputy
surveyed the back of the truck, saw the two gas cans and said "Man, I
hate to do this (then a LONG pause)... go on in!"

So there we were... whipping along on the normally-pretty-slow westbank
expressway... most other vehicles were emergency or utility vehicles.
We passed through Terrytown and went to the house of my friend's sister
and took 6 pictures of that house. Then we went to our houses. This was
around 7:00am and as soon as we arrived, our neighbor (who has been
staying there and needed the gas) came out to say hello. 

We went to work -- we took pictures, cleaned out both refrigerators &
one freezer, picked up limbs, sheet metal and insulation from the
trailer next to Stacey's house, burned trash, drained the water out of
the boat, moved a lot of Stacey's bedroom furniture to my house, packed
up my computer and more clothes... the tasks seemed to be endless and
we had to be out of Jefferson Parish by "sundown", so some stuff just
didn't get done.

We felt VERY lucky to have gotten into Jefferson Parish the day before
we were to be "officially" allowed to enter. We were leaving aroaund
6pm and as we passed the road block on our way out, there were many
many cars already lined up on the highway -- no doubt waiting to be
allowed into the parish officially at 6am the following morning. It was
dark when we got back to my sister's and we had eaten all the
sandwiches and drank all the soft drinks and water... and we were
TIRED.

Click here to see the pictures we took

Go to 9/5/05