From a good friend of mine (who happens to be a rescue diver) in Baton Rouge:
Thank ya'll for your concern. We were just allowed back downtown and am now at work, but it is slow due to the circumstances. As a Hurricane Andrew survivor, I was already prepared because I had beer and my manual can opener. Even though we were on the west side of the storm (the good side) we still suffered heavy wind damage (imagine your trees are horizontal). I am counting every blessing I have. A tree snapped and brushed up against our house, but no damage was done. I must have done something right with "The Man" since the tree would have destroyed the front part of my house had it snapped any lower. Right now I have A LOT of cleaning up to do. It will probably take me about 3 days, but we are dealing with temps around 90 -100 and the mosquitoes who tested positive for West Nile virus are making their presence known. I am blessed that it is all superficial and limbs and leaves are the only thing that came down. My neighbors, Janet and Doug, and I were talking in their horse field at 45 degree angles (yes, like all the other fools that stand out in a hurricane going "WOW, look at the wind" as a roof goes flying by. Unfortunately, their barn is totaled courtesy of the other neighbor's tree. Janet quit beer and moved up to gin and tonic after that. Charles and I were extremely fortunate we only lost power for 7 hours. There are so many people with trees in their homes and still have power outages. Phone lines are sketchy (many don't know where their own family members are), live power lines are down and light signals are out all over the city; travel is risky at best. Baton Rouge had 4 fatalities attributed to the storm. 3 were elderly nursing home patients that did not survive the evacuation and 1 gentleman was asleep in his home when a tree fell through the roof and crushed him. There is no good side to this situation, but overall Baton Rouge came out all right. We have had some places with ventilation patients lose power and generators fail. We have a shortage of medical personnel to help manually ventilate people and provide other care for the special needs patients. Once again, I am counting my blessings. I have been doing a lot of that lately. It could have been so much worse for us.
Charles' company has been working on a disaster plan for companies for the last year. It has been a success. Companies from New Orleans are able to come to Baton Rouge and all of their data is safe. The company sets up work stations that they can rent and continue to work. It comes with showers, kitchen and some basic home comforts. This is nice since most people don't have a home to go back to. The entire staff from the Times Picayune showed up after an emergency evacuation. They weathered the storm, but the levee broke and they building flooded. It took them 8 hours to find an exit from the city. All 250 people were in the back of 3 small delivery trucks. They were relieved that they were provided shelter (especially since no hotels are available and shelters are mainly full). I cleaned out my closet and sent the clothes with Charles so some of them would have clothes to wear. The refugees literally escaped with the clothes on their backs.
Charles and I just helped my sister-in-law move to her house on St. Charles Saturday. She is a doctor at Children's Hospital and was on call and couldn't leave. She was able to get out on Sunday when the mandatory evacuation was issued. She is very concerned about her partners who are still in the hospital with patients. The wife of one partner was evacuated by the Coast Guard helicopter yesterday. She is picking her up as we speak so she will have a place to stay. News reports are disturbing: looters are trying to break into the hospital and there are 100 children who could not be moved in there with staff. You may disagree, but the LOOTER'S RULE states that unless you are looting food and water for survival, I think looters should be shot on site and survivors should be shot again. These people have no access to the news and don't realize they need to be finding a way out or else they will die.
Now the plain truth: DO NOT READ IF YOU UPSET EASILY
New Orleans, the place of my birth, and some of the surrounding parishes to be honest are not doing well. The levees are breaking, the pumps are failing, and chaos is starting. The city is Atlantis and the body count I feel certain will be high. Southern Plaquemines Parish has basically been reclaimed by the Mississippi and the Gulf is about 40 miles inland. Mother Nature is an awesome power to behold. People are drowning in their attics because they didn't bring the tools they needed to bust out the ceiling, animals are tangled in live power lines and being electrocuted, and over time, disease, dehydration, and contamination will spread from the dead bodies and animal carcasses floating in the city. Crews cannot enter the city and fix utilities unless the water is removed which can't be done until the water is stopped and the power to the pumps is restored. The water is undrinkable due to seepage from the gasoline from station pumps and flooded cars, sewage, and household chemicals in houses. There is a boil water directive, but no one can do this because the electricity is out. Snakes and other hazardous Louisiana critters are swimming around the city. Standing water will pose a threat when the mosquitoes populate. Particularly nasty is the Asian Tiger mosquito. Many either didn't leave because of the fear they would trapped on interstate (the worst place you could be) like last year during Ivan (it took friends 11 hours to go 20 miles), they didn't have the financial resources to leave (many live paycheck to paycheck), tourists couldn't leave because flights were canceled and there was not a rental car to be found, or they just didn't. The Coast Guard and Army Reserves have evacuated over 3000 from their rooftops and are working extremely hard, but there are still so many, some I know they have not gotten to in time. Like I said, many are drowning in their attics. People that evacuated have no homes to return to. The emotional toll is starting. One man has jumped from the roof of the Superdome. Looters shot a NOPD officer and his condition is unknown and eventually there will be total chaos. Some are trying to break into Children's Hospital where my sister-in-law's partners are currently working. I am upset, but I am also thankful since she was supposed to be in there and she isn't. Due to the flooding help from the police is not coming. The city is under martial law. There aren't enough police to handle all of the lawlessness and there have been prison breaks from the Orleans Parish Prison. These prisoners (many in for murder and armed robbery = violent) were not moved and eventually the jail flooded. I am aware of one guard who is a hostage with his wife and 4 children. Yes, we just made movie of the week. They have many volunteers with boats looking for survivors, but there are just too many people and no where for them to go. I am currently on call for "clean up" after the survivors are evacuated. It is not something I look forward to, but it serves a greater good. The bodies cannot be collected now for 2 reasons: the priority is finding the survivors first and currently, there is simply no place to put them. If the bodies are not collected soon, disease will eventually spread from the decay. Have you seen the pictures of people wading/swimming in the street water? If they knew what I knew, they wouldn't. The state is working hard to get as many people out as possible, preferably before they die of exposure, dehydration, or starvation. I am not trying to sound like a pessimist or portray the image that all hope is lost. I am just telling you what is. I guess Ryan can call it the "dark place" in the true sense of the word now. We can recover, but it will be a long uneasy road. The body count is not in for our state, yet. I suspect it will be higher than any one would like unless some miracle happens. That is also assuming we can find all of them (washed away. Etc.) I have noticed everyone but Europe and George Clooney has stepped up to help. Where is George by the way? He is usually all over the telephone lines when this stuff happens. If you could see the amazing goodness that is coming out of people, you would be proud that good people are still in the world. I guess tragedies like this bring out the best and may bring out the worst in people. For those looking to take advantage of people's misfortune…see the looter's rule above.
On a lighter note, The Jesus statue in front of the 248 year old St. Louis Cathedral was spared when an Oak tree fell on him, the limbs straddling the statue. Miraculously, Jesus only lost a thumb and forefinger and is expected to make a full recovery.
People here are still going and hanging on to their senses of humor. I know I am. Sometimes it is all you have.
If anyone feels the need to do something and wants to help, I know that the Red Cross is taking donations and so is the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (
www.BRAF.org). I know they are desperately trying to get supplies such as food and water here to distribute to the refugees at the local shelters and to the people in New Orleans.
I will be intermittently checking my email. But I will be trying to take some time off since business will be slow to clean up the damage at my house.
Again, I count my blessings one day at a time.
Thank you for your concern and hopefully I have answered many questions. The news/history is happening faster than I can keep up with, but I will keep you posted.
Kaye
AmbergrisCaye.com 
