Gulf Coast residents are a hardy bunch.

We put up with all manner of heat, humidity, and hurricane, just to bring the rest of you through the heart of the country a port, oil, Mardi Gras, and the best cuisine in the states, in my opinion.

And we do tolerate hurricanes.

Granted, Katrina was scary. An eye-opener at the very least. Several people got spooked, much within their right, and took off for parts north, west, and northeast. Then, you have rest of us, too poor, too old, too settled, too enamored, or too foolhardy to move away. New Orleans, and south Louisiana in general, is too unique a slice of human, not just American, culture to be lost to the ages and waves. Not on my watch at least, and not on several others.

Gustav largely missed New Orleans, instead taking a route through Cocodrie, Houma, Baton Rouge, and Bunkie. True, that had put the Crescent City on the bad (east) side of the storm, but it was still far enough away that, when I got to watch the coverage Monday, before shipping off all those MOCs with Mardi Gras beads (Those are authentic Mardi Gras beads, caught during the 2008 season.), I could tell that it was going to be all right.

Baton Rouge, however, was a different story. Top wind speeds were about 20 mph (33 km/h) faster in Baton Rouge than they were in New Orleans, and this was bad because while I evacuated to Washington DC, I had left my car with my brother & sister-in-law and her family in Baton Rouge the night before flying to DC.

(I was much more worried about my family than my car: Allstate doesn't sell comprehensive coverage on people.)

Power at my brother's house went out Monday morning (1 Sep), after breakfast. By Thursday (4 Sep), it was still out, and he & his wife & son were going to her parents' place in Plattenville (5 minutes away from where I was living when I started this blog in 2006), because the Landry's had a generator and Oliver was becoming very restless in the 91°F (32°C) heat with an absence of air conditioning.

Thus, on Thursday, Amanda & I drove 4 hours to install a battery purchased on the way in from Memphis (Did I mention that the battery died at the gas station where I was filling up Wednesday before BrickFair, not 5 minutes from their BR home?) and retrieve my car from their driveway. Also, they were running out of gasoline (using the car to charge the cell phones), so I got to deliver a couple of gallons of gasoline to my brother as he was about to leave.

(Power has since been restored to their Baton Rouge home, thanks for asking.)

Upon the successful installation of the battery, destruction of the battery cover in an attempt to replace it, and safe-wishing to my girlfriend as she got on the road back to Monroe, and my brother as he got on the road to Plattenville, I got on the road to New Orleans. I wanted to see what mine & Amanda's apartments looked like.

Unlike 3 years ago, the only mess that greeted me was the mess I left on the floor on my way out the door one week prior.

The roof had held.

The ceiling was not on the floor.

The pine tree outside my window was not through the window.

Katrina was the exception, not the rule.

This is what one should expect to find after a hurricane: a mess to clean up outside, and a sometimes tragic instance of a tree in a living room or brick façade on a car. This is, in my mind, acceptable risk. This is why we having building codes here, so that when the peroidic bad storm comes through, we can clean up & move on, instead of sit & fester like 3 years ago.

Both mine and Amanda's apartments were unscathed, save one minor detail: we didn't have power either.

In the absence of electricity, I still found it prudent to drive back to Monroe that night.

Watch that odometer spin!

Tomorrow's entry covers this past weekend.

Oh, and I still have to mail back your MOCs, Arpy. Been a bit busy this week.

-KIE