Taste of hurricane Gustav

When I first moved to Louisiana, it was just after hurricane Katrina and Rita. Though I saw some remnants of those storms, I did not personally experience any. Honestly, I did always want to experience a hurricane, not a major one but the smaller ones. Although hurricane most often leads to detrimental impacts, understanding the science behind it and wanting to experience the might of Mother Nature can be very obvious (at least for the first time). Two and half years in the bayou, nothing happened; and now as I was packing to leave there was this hurricane Gustav (claimed as “Mother of all storms” by New Orleans Mayor before the storm made landfall) heading straight towards Louisiana. I did not like the timing of my first ever hurricane; perhaps Gustav wanted to give me a proper sendoff from the Cajun Country.

The forecast at that time was that it would make a landfall as a Category 4 hurricane (wind speed of 131 -155 mph). The closest (straight) distance to the Ocean, from where I live, was about 30 miles; if the hurricane made the landfall through there it would be catastrophic for Lafayette. I had to make a quick decision: am I going to relocate somewhere up north for a while or am I going to stay in Lafayette and face the music.

There were few problems with relocation: 1) I had to drop my stuff at the moving company in few days (see previous post), so I still had to work on packing, 2) majority of the people (learning from the lessons of Katrina/Rita) had slowly started to relocate, but after the storm they would all try to return as quickly as possible leading to traffic havoc (again time was against me), and 3) perhaps in few days the storm might change its course or dissipate making relocation a waste of time.

However, staying back had its own issues too: 1) since it was my first storm I didn’t know what to expect, the anxiety was getting bigger on me, 2) if the storm held its strength and course, it might be too late for me to relocate, 3) I had to ensure that I have a week worth supply of: water, can food, dry food, batteries for lights and radio, enough ice stock in refrigerator, medical kits, full tank and extra gallon of gas (petrol), etc. The point was to be prepared for a scenario where there is no electricity or communication for at least a week. If you don’t go to the stores early enough then there would be empty shelves and empty gas pumps (on top of that a price hike). As I mentioned before, I was packing and trying to get rid of unwanted stuff, restocking/planning home again with hurricane preparedness stuff was not desirable.

At the end I decided to be prepared for both scenarios: I had an emergency bag ready in case I had to move, and I also had restocked my apartment. After that it was all about watching weather channel, I have never watched weather channel for such an extensive period before. A day before the hurricane’s landfall, we got slightly good news: the tracking model suggested that the storm will make a landfall around Houma (About 170 miles from Lafayette) as a strong category 2 storm. As the storm travel 170 miles towards us on land; it would gradually loose its strength, so I finally decided to brave this storm.

Again, anxiety due to first hand exposure was getting on top of me, what if the roof get’s blown away in middle of the night or what if the tree falls and crushes our apartment? Though I was optimistic of surviving the storm, I also continued to have doubts: is this a good decision that I have made, especially now that I am no more single?

A fellow Nepali in Lafayette finally helped me settle those nerves; he was Physics major in the local University. He invited us to stay over at his radiation lab; the radiation lab was built with 16 feet wide concrete walls (just in case to prevent possible radiation leaks) with no windows. The radiation instrument was naturally turned off, so I thought this would be the safest place in whole Louisiana for us. If something happens even there, then most of the Louisiana would be wiped off too.

After preparing for the worst case scenario, I felt more comfortable to get out of the lab, before the eye of the storm arrives, to take some pictures and feel the wind. Luckily for us, Baton Rouge (60 miles east from Lafayette) got the worst of the storm. Although there was a continuous 4-5 hours of strong winds (70 – 80 mph), it was way better scenario than the possibilities suggested in earlier forecasts. There were only few human casualties; however lot of damage was done to the local properties and infrastructures. I think all of Lafayette got their electricity back within a week (some parts of Baton Rouge were still out of electricity for almost a month). I heard that the remnants of Gustav made people in Ohio loose power for weeks (just check the map to see how far Ohio is from Louisiana).

When the hurricane made it’s landfall it was mid day, but it was pitch dark outside like in the evening. The sound of wind gusts was terrifying. Hurricane not only brings wind, rain, and storm surge but also brings along dozens of tornados. If you survive the hurricane, then tornados can still rip you off. Hurricane is such a big system that it has huge spatial coverage; directly affecting many livelihoods in many States (some of the southern States are way bigger than Nepal), and ultimately affecting the weather of the whole continent.

I waited for few more hours in dark (electricity went out) with flash lights and a portable radio. When the tornados warning were finally over I hurried back to my apartment (there was a curfew starting in an hour, perhaps to prevent looting in empty homes). As I drove home I had no clue what my apartment would look like. Fortunately, my apartment was intact and there was electricity too (my apartment complex shares electricity grid with nearby hospital).

At the end it turned out to be a minor scuffle with Mother Nature, but like I said before the anxiety before the Hurricane (especially if that’s your first) can be of a more killer than the hurricane itself. But I am thankful to god that the Gustav didn’t live up to its expectation. Ok, now that I got my first (I hope the last too) taste hurricane I need to work on my packing and moving arrangements.

Check some of the Gustav related pictures from my earlier post.

To be continued……some time eventually