Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, and all those affected.

 

very glad to hear you are taking it positively . not many people can do this . i really hope that everything will be back to normal soon . btw, i just came back from the driving range few hours ago and got some freaking sun burn . so beating the little white ball may not help much .

 

Good news from Mobile for the daughter and family. The 4' of water has receded and a contractor friend ripped out the carpets and put big fans in the house to start the drying and repair process. Insurance adjustor told her to do what she had to do. She and her husband have always had a lot of energy and will hit the ground running.

 

Best way to help is to donate to the Red Cross. This is bad news for the whole country. Amazing how much goes through that port, fish, grain, fuel...

http://www.redcross.org/

Good luck to everyone affected.

 

For all those folks who are complaining about gas prices, you better fill up now. 10% of US refining capacity is currently offline and restart is unknown. But the bigger issue is pipeline capacity, with major crude and product pipelines down. A number of refineries up river are still operating but using crude in storage. No new crude is reaching these refineries and they may be forced to reduce runs as their crude supply dwindles. In the near term, $3 a gallon may seem cheap. A little longer-term, there is a significant portion of both crude oil and natural gas production shut in around the Gulf of Mexico and a big chunk will take 6 months plus to get back on-line, making a tight supply situation even worse. Currently 1.4 million barrels a day of oil and 8.9 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas are shut-in. This compares to US consumption of roughly 20 million barrels a day and 60 billion cubic feet a day. Welcome to $70 oil and $12 gas. This is going to be an expensive winter! For all the doomsayers who I thought were foolish in forecasting $100 oil, Katrina may have made them right.

Other than that, New Orleans is making Haiti look like a vacation destination and we will likely not be allowed back in the city for at least 3 months, though some estimates are closer to 6 months. Rebuilding will take years. The area I live in is under 10 feet of water. Any house that has had water in it for more than 24 hours will have to be torn down, and that is most of New Orleans on the east bank. We are talking tens of thousands of homes and businesses to be taken down and rebuilt. Guess my positive outlook has taken on a shade of gray. We are currently looking to buy a house in nearby Baton Rouge, though the market is already feeling the effects with rental prices going up dramatically and homes that had been on the matket for months having seven people bidding on them this week! May have to sell the 545 to finance the new house. Nah, just kidding about that!

Sorry for the venting folks, the whole thing is just hard to believe. Have to vent somewhere and kicking the dog is not an option...

 

Glad you got the family and the cars out, kcs. Hope you can recover most of your possessions eventually. FEMA is a good deal if you can get in early.

 

KSC,

Very sorry to hear about your loss, but You still lucked out! As long as all of the Family, friends & extended relatives are safe, everything is OK.

Alone the fact that your office is already setting up camp somewhere else & you still have a job is probably better than 75% of the people in the area right now, with their factories, retail buildings, & other service facilities being down.
What is it that you do anyway, if I may ask?

I'm sure that the housing market is probably out the roof right now, with the little supply & huge demand. That is one of the factors that have driven prices through the roof here in the past 12 months.

JDN,
Also glad to hear that your family is safe & sound.


Today the news came for us .. as of today the wait for Roof Tiles went from 6 weeks to 11 months, and Roof Shingles from 3 weeks to 4 months.
and season is not even over yet.
Local gas went from $2.81 to $3.12 for premium - CRAZY! if it hits $3.50/GAL, i WILL take the car to toyota, or lexus & trade it for a hybrid (providing that BMW has finalized the trade assist paperword & replaced the VINs on the lease payoff)

 

Thanks, wiz. One daughter staying at the beach place in Gulf Shores which has power. $80 worth of laundry yesterday trying to salvage clothes that were swamped. Husband staying with the house and cleanup operation back in Mobile. Other daughter with twins born during Dennis, also in Mobile, has no power yet but has gas stove and water, and most of all, a dry house. So, compared to what's going on in NO with kcs and others, we feel like both girls are very lucky.

Talking to one this morning said gasoline is getting critical in the Mobile/Gulf Shores/Pensacola area. Few stations have power, long lines. $3.50/gallon, won't let you fill up, etc. -- shades of the 70s and price controls. There are stories of doctors stranded in Pensacola having problems getting the gas to get back to their practices in Mobile. So, we will all be having fun at the pump. My favorite discount store, Sam's Club, is up to $2.999 this morning for 93 octane. Read a good article yesterday on why price controls are bad. Author said that if a choice between price gouging and price control, we will all be better off with gouging and letting water seek it's own level, so to speak.

 

KSC,

Take care, buddy. I know things look dismal now, but you will come through. I hope everyhting works out.

Best regards,
Tim C.

 

I just checked on two former employees that "retired" to New Orleans to run B&Bs. Both they and their families came through ok but lost everything which in their cases is both home and livelihood. I feel so helpless and want to help. But I also find that many of these formal organizations take the $$ and use elsewhere other than where I want the help to go and I get frustrated with the dilution of every $$ that reaches the needy.