You saw more of the hurricane than I did, as power went off at 8pm Friday. Looking outside was literally like Judy Garland looking out the window after the tornado picked up the house, but black and formless. The sound was so loud that it sounded like several locomotives racing around the house, and must have continued for 18 hours. Mistake in staying? Not from the mess I saw on TV from the evacuation.
Harrahs' Casino floating complex of barges was broken up and sitting on the beach as was both of their Casino Riverboats. One of the Isle of Capri's[ Isle of Debri] boats broke loose and crashed into their pavilion breaking it in half, flooding everything.
There are over 1500 lightpoles down, and at least 1200 transformers, and trees number in the thousands. FEMA did nothing, nor has the Red Cross. What worked was the military passing out ice, MREs and bottled water. We had the 112th Infantry,Pennsylvania National Guard here, as our Guard is in Iraq [an Engineer Co., Ohio Nat. Guard showed up today].GO ARMY! Also private enterprise opening up stores to sell whatever was needed; Sams must have sold 5000 generators. But the wait in line for gas [travelling 1.5 miles took 6 hours, and if not for scalpers selling $5 gas cans for $15, the generators would have been useless, because OSHA threatened to shut down the gas station if gas was put in non OSHA approved containers.
Fifty six looters were caught as of Oct. 1, not counting 10 who were discouraged by a Deputy with a shotgun, backed up by myself with an AK-74. And yes, I was wearing body armor and a K-pot, and also carrying night vision optics. We are still under the equal of martial law, although those words do not exist in Louisiana law, as we are the only state not under English Common Law, but rather under the Napoleonic Codes.
A house down the street has a sign in the yard that says, "Anyone Found Here At Night Will Be Found Here In The Morning-Looters Will Be Shot, Survivors Will Be Shot Again." I've got a yellow sign with a skull on it and the word "Minen" underneath, in my front yard next to a dummy MK-84, 500 lb Bomb, sticking up out of the ground at an angle like it was dropped[I prefer to be understated.]
