Katrina Update — Baton Rouge got lucky August 30th, 2005
Katrina has come and gone. Fortunately, east of us and even slightly east of New Orleans.
Katrina caused flooding in an estimated 80% of New Orleans. Wind damage was severe, also, but more so in the more-highly treed areas north east and north west of New Orleans. There are news reports of a 200 foot break in a levee near the central part of New Orleans. Some suburb areas suffered from water rising above levees.
Baton Rouge, on the other hand, is about 60 miles west-north-west of New Orleans. We got wind. Boy, did we get wind, but we did not get much rain out of the storm.
Baton Rouge's issues are all wind-related — some trees lost, lots of limbs down, and some of those trees and limbs on the power lines.
Personally, my power went off at 6:20am on Katrina Day and came on shortly before midnight. We lost limbs from trees, a few shingles from the roof, and an Italian Cedar tree that blew over and took out a section of fence. None of those were significant. The power outage was more frustrating than anything else, as temperatures stayed in the low 80's all day to high 70's after dark. There are still a lot of Baton Rouge areas without power.
Our thoughts and prayers go to all those residents of New Orleans, Slidell (LA), Biloxi (MS), Gulf Port (MS) neighboring areas and points north, who were affected much more dramatically, with lives lost, homes flooded, homes destroyed and businesses damaged or destroyed. The storm is now in mid-Tennessee and headed north-north-east.
The American Red Cross is in its emergency response mode as usual in situations like this. They need donations.