kscarrol

Well, at least 50 dead in Mississippi, folks who stayed behind to ride out the storm in an apartment building, which collapsed. Reports of bodies floating in New Orleans, but the National Guard keeping folks out, so it will likely be days before I can get home to survey the damage. If you see pictures of the Hyatt Hotel with all its windows blown out on one side, my office building is right behind it, so hopefully the Hyatt blocked the worst of the wind.

One report about 1/2 a mile from our house has 6+ feet of water in the area. Our house is elevated, but only about four feet, so we'll see. Elevations change from area to area, so we could still be alright. We are in a bit higher area where we rarely see street flooding. ADT was kind enough to call this morning to let us know our glass break sensor had been activated, setting off the alarm! Had to explain to the operator about the hurricane, guess she doesn't watch the news. At least we had sealed the paintings in heavy duty plastic bags and stored them on an upper floor, so they should be OK as long as the house is still somewhat structurally sound. Same for the oriental rugs. This is going to be expensive, both personally and for the insurance companies. Several fires around town, but no way to put them out. First was the Southern Yacht Club on the lakefront, burned to the waterline.

Well at least the wife, kids, the dog and our two BMWs are safe here in Houston! May drive back tomorrow and stop at the inlaws in Baton Rouge so that I can head into town as soon as they will let us in. But they don't have power either. Actually, as I type this, I'm going to buy a generator here in Houston tomorrow to bring back home, looks like I'll need it for at least several weeks. Anybody recommend a good brand or offer any other tips on size etc, it would be appreciated.

Ken

cobradav

Glad to hear your circumstances are not all that dire and u did the smart thing. Easy to fall trap to complacency. Any of the units Home Depot or Lowes offers are ok. Troy Built, Honda etc. Used mine plenty last year (15 days total) Tempted to go whole house back up but just too much involved. Good luck.

Rudy

Keep us posted ks on your damage discoveries. As long as you and your family are safe, that's all that matters.

I don't have first hand generator experience but I took a glance at Consumer Reports and, depending on wattage needs, they like the Honda, the Generac, and the Troy-Bilt.

Let me know if you need more specifics like model numbers or wattage figures...

alohalc

glad to hear everybody is ok, kscarrol ! i've been watching the news and it's just insane :'(.

wiszmaster

1. Glad you guys did the right thing and left, seeing it really was the smartest thing to do.
2. If you want to see your tax dollars at work, MAKE SURE to keep all receipts for Temporary Housing (hotel), Generator if you buy one & other items you bought specially for the hurricane - and turn them into FEMA - they will reimburse you for it.

I'm currently waiting for my Whole House Generator to be installed - will be another 1-2 months before that'll happen though. 30KW Genrack Quiet Source with a 500 gallon LP tank & backed up by my 2 x 200 gallon LP tank for the pool equiptment.
that should give me about a 5-8 days on backup power with 75% of the house ran.

JDN

I hope the homestead is high and dry.

If you shop at Sam's, they would have a good brand of generator at a reasonable price. Next, try Lowes or Home Depot. Find a knowledgeable sales person. Bigger is better unil you start feeding it. Hope the best for you. One of the daughters in Mobile has 4' of water in the recently remodeled home. We feel really helpless. Can't figure how to help.

kscarrol

Thanks JDN! From the descriptions we're getting, there is now probably 8' of water in our house. The big problem is that if the water is there for more than say 20 hours, the structure is likey beyond repair and is a tear down. Unfortunately, that is going to apply to 80+% of New Orleans. Already house hunting in Baton Rouge!

Sorry to hear about your daughter in Mobile, I hope they left town as well. It really is a helpless feeling, along with anger sadness and about any other emotion you can think of... The worst is having the boys (5 and 4) asking all the time when we can go home. Kind of hard to get them to understand that we really don't have a home anymore.

Rudy

ks, sorry to hear the news about your home. You seem to be taking it quite well -- I imagine you prepared yourself for the worst and now you're able to face whatever you have to face.

My thougts are with you (and JDN's daughter) out there...things are getting worse in the French Quarter now...

JDN

She and the family got out all right and have managed to get back for a look see. Very depressing, but probably not as bad as what you and your family are experiencing. I've never experienced that kind of a loss, so I can only imagine.

kscarrol

Thanks Rudy! Guess the best term is resignation, not much we can do so not much sense in beating ourselves or others over it. That's why I've paid insurance for years, finally get a return on my investment I guess! Houses and material things can be replaced. Now trying to get the kids in a school in Baton Rouge so that we can try and get them back on a somewhat normal routine, though the new school will be a bit of an adjustment. The firm I work for has people scattered all over the south though we are in touch through several conference calls daily. We had a pretty good disaster plan in place and all our networks and operations have been saved and are in the process of being restored. Will still take a while to get back to some sense of normallcy...

Things are getting worse in New Orleans, the attempts to shore up the levees have failed and they are now expecting 9-10 ft of water city wide, though deeper in lower lying areas. As I said earlier, just as California waits for the "Big One", so did we. Guess ours came first. Not sure how New Orleans will ever be rebuilt. I don't expect to have my house knocked down and rebuilt for at least two years, probably longer.

Bigger issues are the economic impact, not just in New Orleans and Louisiana, but nation wide. 10% of total U.S. refining capacity is currently shut down and prospects for re-start are uncertain. Get ready for much higher gasoline prices! The impact to producing facilities in the Gulf of Mexico is still unknown. Again pushing prices higher.

Anyway, living large here in Houston. Guess I'll squeeze in some golf this weekend! Beating the little white ball may help vent some frustrations. For now, a cold beer will have to be my consolation...