zuluking's hurricane Rita trip report

[zuluking]

The weather started really going downhill last night around 8pm. At 12mid, with the wind whipping up around 80 mph, I heard, "crack....crack....BOOM!" I rushed to the back of my house and could see that my 40 foot ceder tree had gone down in my backyard. It hadn't hit the house, so I figured I'd deal with it in the morning after the storm had passed. What I didn't know was that it landed on my large shed and crushed my fence.

I kept watching the t.v. and the horozontal rain out my front window for another hour, and finally fell asleep on the couch around 1:30am, still amazed that my electricity was on. I had a restless sleep as every 100mph+ gust of wind would wake me up as it shook the house.

Finally around 5:30am I awoke to, "whump.....whump....BOOM!", as the nearby transformer finally had had enough and gave out. Pretty cool light show as my house lights and those in my neighborhood went dark.

I pulled out the portable tv and radio and settled in for a nice breakfast of diet coke and beef jerkey. Around 8am my boss called me and told me to get to Abbeville and help with the rescue efforts using the company Humvee. Seems some IDIOTS didn't take the evacuation order seriously and were trapped by the rising waters. Turned out to be ALOT of idiots, and anyone with a boat showed up to help resuce people from attics and roof tops.

So, just like Katrina 2 weeks before, I grabbed my pistol, some water, canned food, and as many first aid kits as I could find, and headed down to Vermillion Parish in 60 mph, gusting to 80 mph winds. I arrived at 10am only to be told that they had enough volunteers and I could go home. Now why would I do that? I've got a Humvee with a 3/4 full tank of diesel! So I cruised the hardest hit areas checking out the devistation and making sure nobody needed help.

I got back to the house at 2pm and was treated to a suprise by BOTH of my cats, who were totally freaked out by the storm, and had pi$$ed and $hit on my kitchen floor, foregoing the litter box routine. But the power was back on! Wheee! The wind was still whipping around 40mph, gusting to 60mph, and I figured that was safe enough for cats so out they went.

Reports on the radio say that both Harrah's and The Isle of Capri boats were pushed out of Lake Charles by the storm surge and deposited next to I-10. Grand Casino Coushatta is being used as a shelter and the casino area is shut down temporarly. Paragon Casino in Marksville only received minor damage and I don't know about the Shreveport casinos. Perhaps another bro could follow up on that one.

I sleep soon.

[BreakEvenPlayer]

Nice post. You should post a few pics though if you get a chance.