Hurricane Isaac

I came home from my meeting in Clemson in time to begin possible Hurricane Isaac preparations.  The Ensemble and Spaghetti models were still showing divergent paths with a wide range of hurricane landfall locations.

Models at 8 AM Monday

Mike was tasked to work on a Emergency Task Force for Acadian.  They began by evacuating folks from nursing homes along the coast.  His task force was then transferred over to the Louisiana EOC (Emergency Operations Center).  The Louisiana Bureau of EMS is at one end of a former mall with my URS office at the other end.  I was able to take Mike and a buddy coffee while they waited to register and get orders.  The EOC schedule was 24 hours on/24 hours off with a 6A to 6A shift.

A few of the many ambulances at the Bureau office

We readied the house for the storm.  The lighter agility equipment was placed in the workshop.  Non perishable foods were purchased.  Gas and cash were readied.  URS worked on Tuesday and Mike was on a 24 hour shift.  I set the dogs up in the bedroom on Tuesday night just in case as it was getting breezy outside.  I did the last load of  laundry and ran the dishwasher prior to going to bed.  Sure enough the power went out at 10:30 PM Tuesday night - prior to Hurricane Isaac getting anywhere close to Baton Rouge but close enough that our power was out for the duration of the storm.  After the storm blew through we found the source of the power outage to be a tree downed at the end of the street - so only 27 of us were out due to the tree fall.

Tree top downed on our power line feed

Mike, Cheryl and dogs road out the hurricane on Wednesday closed up in the house.  It was lots of sitting around doing nothing.  With its wide overhangs and tinted windows, the house is very dark inside even during daylight hours.  The overhangs did allow us to open the windows during the storm blow and still not get rain in the house though - so that was a huge plus.

Here I am staring out the window watching the trees dance in the wind

Mike returned to work for his shift Thursday 6 AM. It was still breezy on Thursday but still overcast and cooler.  Thursday morning I surveyed the backyard prior to releasing the dogs and found that a tree limb had fallen on the garden area fence gate (darn).

Tree Limb on fence gate

I removed cut away the limb.  Used a sledge hammer to straighten the fence posts as much as possible.  This left the gate hanging crooked still with a gap at the bottom.  I plugged the hole with a larger diameter piece of PVC pipe and released the dogs into the yard.

Post Hurricane Isaac Garden Gate Repair

By Friday it was getting very hot in the house as the sky was clear and the heat had returned.  Entergy crews began restoring power to the area but because our outage involved so few customers we were a low priority repair.  The dogs were dropped off at the vets until the power came back on.  Meanwhile the humans slept in the hot house.  The power was finally restored at the house on Sunday.

Entergy crew restoring power Sunday afternoon

Since we were without power while it was raining during the hurricane I had not dried the dogs when they came in from outside.  It was breezy with windows open.  Breeze over a damp dog will provide evaporative cooling.  With the power restored and the AC on, the house immediately began to smell like wet dog.  I gathered up the pile of smelly crate mats and the jug of Odoban.  I was amazed at how many mats were dirty but I moved dogs around trying to find everyone a well ventilated crate with a breeze after the power went out.

Ginormous pile of dirty crate mats following the storm.

Thanks to Nedra Guthans for loaning me a washing machine, dryer, and battery powered fan following the storm.  She still had power and was happy to share.