Hurricane Ida

Hello to all my fellow artists and crafts people. As many of you might remember, I am from coastal Louisiana. Our community, Houma, LA, was right in the path of destruction for Hurricane Ida. Actually we ended up just west of the path. However we were still close enough to receive damage. The west side of a hurricane, where we ended up, gets more wind and lesser rain. The east side of a hurricane is the "messy" side, as in more rain.Hurricane Ida was classified as a Category (cat) 4, at 150 mph. Technology in today's times allow the weather experts to do analysis post storm and potentially upgrade (and less often downgrade) hurricanes. I feel like it will be reclassified as a Cat 5. Reclassification does nothing to remediate current damage, but helps in future storm prediction and preparation.

 

We live in Terrebonne Parish, county to you outside Louisiana. We live in Houma, LA, 15 miles from the gulf as the crow flies. Much of what is between us and the gulf is marsh, bayous and mostly undeveloped. There are a few communities between us but they are outside the levee protection and suffer much more greatly than those further up the bayou and inside the levee protection.

 

60% of the homes in Terrebonne Parish are declared uninhabitable by the EOC. That is not a typo, sixty percent. 60% are too damaged for human living conditions. Imagine that in YOUR community.

 

All Terrebonne Parish is without electricity. Some have no water service. No landlines. Cell svc. is spotty at best. No internet or cable. No way to communicate with the outside world. We are living in Little House on the Prairie times.

 

Power is not likely to be restored on a wide basis till month's end. Power poles were laid over or snapped off or lines are down. We lost water pressure Sunday evening. We had to rush around filling containers and the bathtub. We are on a boil order for any tap water used. We have secured bottled water for drinking.

 

We are on standby power, a Generac run by natural gas. Been under this power since Sunday about 12:55 PM. We have no idea when power at our particular address will be restored.

 

Dh turned my phone into a hotspot so we can begin going online to file for assistance .... something we have NEVER done before except to file with insurance. We have just filed with Fema, dsnap and will file for unemployment. We are not likely to qualify but we have to try. We have an adjustor coming Thursday to assess damage at our home.

 

Our business, located in a building we rent, has minimum damage. Will apply for grant type assistance but most likely won't qualify. The building is without power and so we are unable to open at this time.

 

We had the following damage to our home:

* some shingles blown off (roof now tarped)

 

* lost 3 crepe myrtle trees

 

* backyard (wood) fencing is all down, except the gate. The gate was built by friends who have a fencing business and they mean business with their methods. Metal posts for this fence go at least 4 feet into the ground!

 

* some minor leakage from room. All isolated on the sunroom roof, showing through to the ceiling.

 

* entry floor, minor damage

 

* fire place cap damaged, partially blown off

 

* dh's shop (metal building) lost gutter and has roof damage. So far my shop seems unscathed.

 

We had wind driven rain start to come under our front door. It buckled/damaged one square of wood parquet flooring. Possible other damage. We applied towels to help prevent more damage ... we found it very soon after it started.

 

Though we have a gas stove top and a generator for electricity, we have not mentally been up to cooking. For the first time since the storm we are cooking supper. Dh will smoke a pork loin outside and I'll cook some green beans. Simple, yes. But it's a start. We have invited some neighbors to come eat. They are each chipping in for the meal ... mac/cheese and jambalaya and BYOW (bring your own water!). Reminds me of the story of stone soup. Never heard of it? Google it.

 

Scammers will abound (which we avoid like the plague!) but there are also some true charitable organizations down here working. If you want to help, I strongly suggest making whatever donation you can to Samaritan's Purse. They have boots on the ground and are working with locals we trust. If you want it to go to the hurricane relief just make note of that, if you can, at the time of donation. Even $5.00 helps.

 

Many in our community refuse to work with the Red Cross ever again after past personal experience with them. Our church tired working with them after Hurricane Gustav in 2008. Our pastor said NEVER AGAIN. If that is where you want to make a donation, I won't tell you not to, but they do not have a good reputation in our area.

 

One thing you can do that won't cost a cent is to pray. Pray for safe, quick recovery.

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  • UPDATE ...

    I started the Cerf app. to see if they would cover the fees for an October show I anticipated to cancel.  I found out the show is going on. The venue has minimal damage.  It is a local community resource for crisis situations like hurricanes.  This means it gets priority in repairs, etc.  So the show will go on.

    Dh and I are still under standby power, our whole house Generac.  We are using that to continue prep for the show.

  • Sending pryers Cindy, So glad your doing well. I live on the coast of Alabama I feel for you. I have family in Baton Rouge. My daughter has her power back but my brother is still without power. But they are all hanging in there. 

     

    • Thank you for the well wishes!

  • Rosemary, thanks for the encouragement from another hurricane warrior!  We do have a whole house generator, Generac.  We ordered it last July/August and it was put in this past January.  There was quite a back order of generators in our area after last summer.  It has been doing its regular weekly test every Sunday at 1:00 PM.  Till last Sunday.  It kicked on at 12:55 PM and  has been running ever since, except when dh stops it just long enough to check the oil level.  He has added a bit of oil to "top it off" without adding too much.  He does not want to let it shut off automatically due to low oil level.  He is handy and knows about engines, etc.

    The damage you mentioned, was it in a home with a whole house generator?  We're expecting to be on a generator till around month's end.

     

    I am glad you had a positive experience with Sam. Purse.

  • Robert, just remembered ... our one and only show we scheduled for the fall will most likely not take place.  It was scheduled for mid October in Amite, LA, on I-55.  I know the promoters are from the Covington, LA area and are having their own issues from Ida to take care of ... trees down, damage to home, etc.  A good percentage of the artists/crafters are from Louisiana.  I am thinking people are not going to be recovered enough to attend with their merchandise.  (We are not due to get power at home till probably month's end.)

    My question ... Does Cerf help someone who has no damage to their studio but will have a show cancelled?

  • Robert, thanks for the heads up.  My shop, where all my supplies and backstock are stored, seems to be the only place with no damage whatsoever.  It is good that I can walk in there and not see spots on the ceiling from leaks.  No windows broke, roof seems to be fully in tact.

    • ask them. I only know directly about two artists in CO who received help: flood and fire.

  • Support CERF+ for artists experiencing storm damage. Apply if you were victim. 

    https://cerfplus.org

    CERF+ | The Artist's Safety Net
    CERF+ is the leading nonprofit organization focused on safeguarding artists’ livelihoods nationwide. CERF+ is readiness, relief and resilience for st…
  • Hi Cheryl,

    Prayers coming your way from the Florida panhandle where Hurricane Michael hit almost three years ago.  Glad you personally didn't have devastating damage to your personal property.  The images we see on TV are very hard to look at.

    Samaritan's Purse stayed in our county for at least a year after the storm.  Long after the Red Cross left!  We love them!  They assisted my elderly mother by cleaning out her workroom where the suspended ceiling fell.

    Sounds like you have good survival skills!  One word of caution on the generator which sounds like you have a whole house generator.  We do as well and we were probably on generator power 5 - 6 days.  About two months after the storm, we started having issues with some of our electronics such as our Samsung TV.  We eventually got the right service tech to look at it and our power circuit board failed.  He suspected it was from power surges.  Same with an NVR for our video camera system.

    God bless you and your family plus your neighbors and friends.  Stay strong!

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