infrogmation | Entries tagged with evacucation

Short post. Back home safe in New Orleans. Looks like majority of the city has power back now, but I'm not yet among them.

Posting from a cafe about to close up early.

Had tasty gelato on Magazine Street earlier.

Glad to be back!

H & I made a day trip to Vicksburg. It was raining steadily from reminants of Gustav, but mostly not severely, and we thought Vicksburg in the rain was preferable to being cooped up all day here, comfoy though our room is.

The Welcome Center had a map with a nice driving tour, just the thing to do in the rain. We also got some good eats-- after a few days in Port Gibson, seeing menus with such items as chicken parmesan and baked potatos seemed like a return to the luxuries of high civilization.

( Historic sights of Vicksburg; 4 pix )

Our place in Port Gibson only lost power for less than 2 minutes last night; some rural areas out of town were said to still be without power this morning. Bands of rain and clear are traveling through here today, but not as bad as it sounded the other day.

( Photos around Port Gibson )

Nothing much is going on here in Port Gibson, Mississippi, which I suspect is the usual situation. Port "Too Purty To Burn" Gibson is home to mystery Loa, scarry looking but benevolent anthropomorphic pigs, and (temporarily) Louisiana evacuees.

( More details, plus pix )

Hi from beautiful downtown Port Gibson, Mississippi. It's between Vicksburg and Natchez (closer to Vicksburg) for those following on your maps at home.

We've got a room in a nice antiquey B&B in this cute quiet small town. We were on the road before 5 am and got here before noon. The Interstates were contraflowing, mostly at a fair speed early on and getting more and more congested as the day continued.

We're safe. I think I'm going to take a nap.

Barring a major change in the track of Gustav, Hollie and I will be bugging out Sunday morning.

I've seen no indication that Gustav is going to be a mega-storm like Katrina (Rita, Ivan, or Wilma), but no Hurricane is nice. And while forcasting technology keeps improving, Hurricanes are still pretty unpredicatable. We're able to take some time out of town so we'll do so.

The radio station is closing down and going off the air midnight tonight (!). Our post-K studio & offices are in a city owned building in the high ground of the French Quarter, which is apparently being commondeered for the storm.

Echoes of 2005: It looks like again I'm going to the Krewe of OAK parade the last Saturday in August then driving out of town early the next morning.

H and I are contemplating it might be road trip time again, as Hurricane Gustav is forcasted to be heading to the central Gulf Coast.

I've never seen so much activity while a storm was this far out before. There were lines at gas stations in Chalmette 2 days ago and some buildings Uptown being boarded up yesterday. While I always keep an eye on storm threats, the early track projections heading straight towards us didn't worry me much, as one thing I don't recall any hurricane doing is continuing in a straight line for 6 days.

I'll be keeping an eye on the National Hurricane Center website, and the birds. The birds bugged out the Saturday before Katrina; if they go I'm not sticking around. Rumors have it that Da Mayor may issue an evacuation order way early and at lower hit possibility than Ivan etc.

Of course people here have their minds on the terrible scenes from this time 3 years ago

The horror... the horror...

Y'know what's a real treat?

Not scrambling to pack up to leave town, maybe for good.

H & I are planning to really celebrate on the 28th, by not getting up before dawn and by not driving all day. In fact, we plan to sleep late and stay in town.

Obligitory personal retrospective anniversary post

To backtrack just before...

Beverly, an old friend and former New Orleanian, and her sweetie, Girgl, the professor of physics from Germany, were staying at my place. The previous day other old friends were passing through town, Nancy & Harrison, moving out of Bay St. Louis on the Mississippi coast up to Arkansas. We and some other aquaintances all went to lunch at Sid-Mar's, on the Bucktown peninsula where the 17th Street Canal meets Lake Pontchartrain.

My car brakes were sticking, I said maybe I should take it by a mechanic in the morning. Girgl said he'd take a look at it. He jammed the brake pedal hard and it stopped sticking. He said it was likely just a pebble caught in the mechanism, but it was fine now.

The tv news reported a category 1 hurricane named Katrina was heading towards the Florida Panhandle.

At night we had dinner at Mandina's in Mid City.

Friday morning, 26 August 2005, I'd listened to the news on the radio this morning and not heard of any change about the hurricane.

I picked up my new business cards, the first ever with my just aquired self-phone number. I'd be leading my new band at the Miss Crescent City pagent the following day. I stopped by the Unitarian Church on Claiborne where the pagent would be. Ms Hollie was one of the organizers, and I checked out the venue and looked in on some of the rehersal.

Friday night I was playing trombone as a substitute with a jazz band on Decatur Street in the Quarter.

On break, a tourist remarked how much fun they were having, and they'd managed to change their flight to leave early the next day. Why's that, I asked. The hurricane is coming! Hurricane? Others who'd heard more recent news confirmed that Katrina had changed course and strenthened and was a potential threat to New Orleans. Might come here sometime after the weekend.

Saturday the 27th Ms Hollie and I were both in a bit of a tizzy. The morning news showed the storm looking even worse. Hollie was taking care of Pagent details, and I was taking care of things regarding the band, while contemplating that we may need to evacuate. I picked up the sandwiches for the band, unsuccessfully looking to fill my gas tank on the way-- stations either had long lines or had signs announcing they were out of gas. The band's drummer, Sue, called to say she couldn't make it as she'd been called to the State Museum to do their hurricane battoning down the hatches procedure. I unsucessfully tried to get a sub, calling around thinking, "Oh no! A hurricane is comming, and I have to find a drummer!"

The band members -- sans drummer-- met at the trumpeter's house in Broadmoor, a short distance from the venue. We'd planned to do a quick rehersal, as the musicians I'd gathered had never played together as a group. We did no rehearsing, instead staring at the tv screen with a satilite image of a monster that seemed more than half the size of the whole Gulf of Mexico barrelling towards us.

On to the pagent. The band played some to fill time before anything else got started; Ms Hollie revealed that the MC didn't come into town from the North Shore due to the hurricane, and things had to be rearranged. The turn out was light but things went well considering the improvised nature. Fortunately the guitar and tuba were such good rhythm players that we overcame the lack of a drummer.

Before and after playing, the sax player, who managed a convenience store in the 7th Ward, was on his phone trying to finagle or bribe a gasoline tanker truck to make a run into town as the store had emptied their gas tanks early that morning. He was also instructing the staff to turn the freezer to maximum setting and put the perishables in it, as there might be a power outage.

After the pagent the co-organizer Margaret was going to drive straight to Dallas, and tried to foist off a whole pile of perishable food on Hollie and me. As I was trying to empty the refrigerator of perishables, most went right into a trash bag and the trash can. (Alas, the emptying of the fridge was not nearly complete enough, as would be revealed over 5 weeks later.)

Sue phoned to say the museum staff had made quick work of things and she was already in her car on the road to Texas.

I finally found an open gas station with not too terrible a line (they only had super; my car takes regular, but this wasn't the time to be too picky.)

Bev & Girgl were off somewhere (I later found another friend was taking them on a driving tour all around town-- in retrospect, very fitting). I closed up the house's storm shutters and packed up suitcases-- what we needed, then extra space filled with local collectables like jazzfest and art opening shirts.

Hollie and I then tried to unwind with a splash in the back yard inflatable pool and lying in the sun a bit-- it was a very beautiful late afternoon. Somehow, however, it seemed strangely quiet. I didn't realize until hearing other folks accounts later that most of the birds had already left town.

The Krewe of OAK Midsummer Mardi Gras Parade was in my neighborhood that night. Hollie and I were throwing together costumes when Bev & Girgl came back. I told them a major hurricane was coming, and they needed to pack up-- I'd check the weather service website at dawn, and if the storm hadn't changed course, they needed to get out. Girgl said, "This hurricane sounds very interesting. I have never seen one. I think I would like to stay and watch it."

".... No." I replied. "No, you don't. Nancy and Harrison want you to visit them in Arkansas; this is the time to go there."

We all went to OAK. The turn out was lighter than usual; many folks had already left town. We heard Mayor Nagin had issued a call for a voluntary evacuation. Some friends said they'd spent the day boarding up their house and packing, and planned to drive out after the party. One costumer had "KATRINA STAY AWAY" painted on them. It was a good parade party.

Back home. Hollie needed to pick up her cell phone charger on the West Bank before leaving town. I said I didn't want to fight traffic in the morning; let's do it now. Traffic was light after midnight. Along Claiborne and Fountainbleau hundreds of cars were already parked up on the raised neutral grounds in hopes that the half foot of added elevation would protect them if there was flooding.

We all got up before dawn on Sunday 28 August. Bev and Girgl drove out of town just before dawn. Hollie and I headed out about 40 minutes later, after I spent some time anxiously pacing around the house, double checking things, and thowing a few more possessions into the car.

Between the speed of the arrival of the storm and being busy, unlike evacuations for Andrew and Ivan I had no reservations nor definite destination. Maybe to my Brother in Gainsville, my parents who were staying in Jacksonville, or see if we can get a room somewhere beyond Tallahassee... just bug out. We headed east on I-10, on the high rise across the open water of the Rigoletts. Traffic was heavy but moving through Slidell, then pretty good thereafter. My car radio didn't work, but Hollie brought a portable. Somewhere in Mississippi we heard Mayor Nagin had made the evacuation mandatory, the first in the city's history. I was having a problem with my car's brakes-- everytime I'd use them, they'd stick worse. It wasn't just a pebble, clearly. I had to jam on them repeatedly to get them unstuck. I tried to not worry Hollie by talking about the problem as an amusing minor annnoyance, but she was not fooled.

At Talahassee we stopped to eat and make some calls. My mother had already made us reservatons in Jacksonville! She said she saw an ad in the paper with a good rate at the local Quality Inn, so she booked it. Peachy, thanks!

We made it to Jacksonville. I followed the directions-- it turns out it wasn't a Quality Inn as my mother thought, it was the "OK Quality Motel" or some such-- we looked at the room and the Quality was low indeed as fleas bit our ankles. We succeeded in finding a vacancy at a better motel nearby, and used one of the obvious defects of the room as an excuse to cancel the reservation at the first place.

The next morning, Monday the 29th, at the complimetary motel breakfast the lobby tv was on showing satelite images of the hurricane coming ashore at South East Louisiana. One fellow evacuee from the area was for some reason insisting that the storm wasn't going to be hitting shore until that evening (I think that had been the prediction a day or so earlier, but the tv was clearly showing otherwise). I was trying to find a brake repair place when my parents arranged to move us to a better hotel-- with internet access (Yay). We repacked and moved to the other hotel. As we were unpacking the car Hollie got a call from Tal, who said he heard a report of those dreaded words: a levee break. A bit later, a report mentioned flooding somewhere in the 9th Ward. "Sounds like a rerun of Betsy", I sighed.

I took the car to get the brakes fixed. When it was ready, the mechanics wanted to joke at length that the Superdome now had a new skylight.

And so began my evacucation.

----
The Krewe of OAK Midsummer Mardi Gras parade 2006 was earlier tonight. Banners read "Proud to Swim Home". The post parade party may well still be going on, but I wasn't in a mood to make a late night out of it.

The population of the city is about half what it was a year ago, and 3/4ths of the neighborhoods are still in ruins.

We're keeping an eye on a storm called Ernesto.

And so....

Another Saturday night...

Oct. 1st, 2005 at 10:15 AM

I'm not feeling motivated enough to do yoga today. I am considering a class when I get back to NOLA, but only when the city opens up again.

I'm feeling ambivalent about going home. It'll be nice to go home again, but I think I'll be in shock when I begin to see everything. Froggy will camp out on my floor until he can get back to power and safe water at his place. So far, neither of the above.

I'm in a "I don't give a (Rhett Butler)" mood about everything. I just want this nightmare to be over.

Benefit show today with NOLA musicians from 12N-12M.

I'm tired of running.

Mood: tired
Music:Spider-Man cartoons in the next room.

Leaving Austin

Oct. 4th, 2005 at 5:30 AM

Today we leave Austin and crash tonight at my sister Lezli's (cute spelling, huh?) place in Baton Rouge. It'll be nice to see Alex again.

Meanwhile, froggy and I are packing up. We don't really like to leave here, but we've gotta get back home. Then froggy gets to camp out on my floor until he gets power and clean water at his place...which, according to nola.com, could take weeks. I don't mind having frogfrog as a roomie. We get along well.

Time to hit the road...way too early.

Mood: awake
Music:NPR's "Morning Edition"

Home again...

Oct. 6th, 2005 at 8:00 AM

Just wanted to let my friends know that I'm home, safe and sound. The house had some damage to the front, though the roof caved in on the house next door. There are tree branches cluttering the street, but at least we have semi-regular garbage pickup, unlike over on the other bank.

Froggy is asleep on my floor, where I'll let him sleep for a while. Poor thing needs it after inspecting his neighborhood yesterday.

Ain't Dere No More:

Oakwood Mall
Charity Hospital
University Hospital

...and a lot more I can't think of right now.

Mood: back home again
Music:froggy snoring in bed.

Back to almost normal

Oct. 6th, 2005 at 8:36 PM

Froggy got power and water back today. So he won't be camping out like we thought he would.

Nice to have your own space back, isn't it?

Mood: relieved
Music:my iPod Shuffle

"That's not a swimming pool"

Oct. 8th, 2005 at 9:05 AM

We are now proud members of the Blue Tarp Club. FEMA came over yesterday and tarped our roof. infrogmation is trying to get tarp on his, but all he's getting is a runaround. Poor frog. :(

Meanwhile, the LSUHSC School of Public Health is holding its classes online. It's weird to see virtual classes going on. I'm doing my part and letting Dr. Mike borrow my broadband connection for some of the classes because he's getting flak at home about his dialup tying up the phone line. Still, I don't think I want to be ready for 0830 every morning.

The things I do for my friends...

I want my life back the way it was before Katrina messed it up. I want Eta Pi back. I want my Toasters back. I want my pdoc back (though she's probably on a ferryboat from Finland, ja.).

I've got my health, my family, my friends, and my frog.

Mood: contemplative
Music:The Clash, "Rock the Casbah"

Monday morning...ugh!

Oct. 10th, 2005 at 1:44 PM

It's strange not hearing infrogmation on WWOZ this morning. I'm sure he wants his 'OZ back, as do I and many other listeners.

Meanwhile, I "sat in" on an epidemiology class this morning. Too much math and stats for me, but Dr. ML seemed to understand it. It was his class, anyway. He came over here to do his online classes since the phone line had to be open at his place for the roofers to get in touch.

My dad got a new toy yesterday. He got a cool phone with a camera in it, along with a nice, easy-to-read keypad and screen. I'm thinking about getting a new camera before Miss Louisiana next year, and still wanting an iPod Nano. Maybe I can get one as a 'happy birthday to me' present. Either/or.

I had my first bubble tea yesterday since coming back home. It was coconut, and it was pretty good. Mr. Bubbles is OK, but I'm waiting for Rosie Lea's to reopen. I'm told it may take a while since they have blue tarp on their roof and probably have to wait for a health inspection. Patience, grasshopper.

Dad went to Lakeview yesterday. My grandparents' old place has its front window blown out and is probably gutted inside. He said it was depressing. I won't go there.

The First UU Church had about 7 ft. of water. So, it looks like we'll have a new venue for next year.

Mood: bored
Music:my iPod Shuffle (but really want a Nano.)

Disunion, Injustice and Lack of Confidence

Oct. 13th, 2005 at 3:19 PM

I'm down to 4 days on my medication supply, and I am having a hell of a time trying to reach my pdoc. I even left her an e-mail; hope she'll answer it.

Meanwhile, I may have to take my Medication of Last Resort(tm) because I'm starting to have panic attacks again. Katrina has tested me beyond my limits, and I'm doing what I can just to survive. Rescue Remedy just ain't doing it for me, good though it is.

I want to cry in infrogmation's arms right now.

Mood: depressed
Music:Paula's Home Cooking on Food Network.

Next time, do the math...

Oct. 14th, 2005 at 8:59 PM

The good news: I got my meds today.

The bad news: I got overcharged for my purchase. My meds were $6.00 (3.00 for each Rx--thank you, Medicaid!)* and I made an additional purchase for 11.99. Walgreens charged me $32.08 for everything. Someone at the register messed up.

I should have paid 17.99+tax for my purchases. Unless Jefferson Parish has inflated their taxes since Katrina, there's no way my purchases cost $32.08.

I have the receipt and think I'll go complain tomorrow.

*in Texas I didn't get charged for my Rx. Maybe that's because it was a hurricane relief prescription.

There's a chance infrogmation and I will be going back to Austin. He was thinking at the end of this month/beginning of next month, but the congenial Dr. Elizabeth has invited us for Thanksgiving, so I suggested we wait a few weeks.

I don't know what we'll do.

Mood: bitchy
Music:the air conditioning unit outside my door

We did the math....

Oct. 16th, 2005 at 9:07 AM

I went to Walgreens yesterday to dispute my purchases. The kind souls refunded $26.00 and apologized. :)

In other news, pageant season is going strong, and I have a lot of website stuff to update. It keeps me busy and off the streets.

I need a good strong bubble tea.

Today I hope to hang out with infrogmation. I wonder if his discarded fridge will be used to construct a barrier island in Louisiana.

Best wishes to

crystalgee on her recent move to St. Pete.

Mood: awake
Music:Moody Blues, "Forever Autumn"

Cheap dates, freebies and other things...

Oct. 18th, 2005 at 4:11 PM

infrogmation and I went to a Red Cross outpost yesterday to pick up supplies. I got a bunch of cleaning stuff. My bathroom will need it.

Miss America has a date: January 21. Now all we need is a place.

I'm busy working on Amanda's website. I think it'll turn out nice. Now if she'd just send more pictures. :) No website is complete without lots of pictures.

I got my strong bubble tea the other day. It was just what I needed.

I'm still trying to get in touch with my pdoc. If nothing else, I might get back in touch with Dr. C. to see if I can get an appointment with him. He was awesome. Dr. D. hasn't gotten back in touch with me, so I'm wondering about her.

Mood: creative
Music:Pet Shop Boys, "Love Comes Quickly"

Yet Another Road Trip Update...

Oct. 20th, 2005 at 4:45 PM

So tal_greywolf is getting ready to go to Austin for Thanksgiving.

infrogmation and I haven't decided yet. Or rather, it's froggy's decision to make since he has the car.

On the grocery list at H-E-B:

a box of Texas Tasters, since they're shaped like Texas. The Texas-shaped tortilla chips are overkill.
another bottle of Rescue Remedy, since mine's gone pretty fast. And yet another one for froggy.
a "Yellow Rose of Texas" tissue box. Because I like yellow roses, and that's my sorority's symbol.

My Lone Star card still has a $0 balance on it. That sux.

Hey, Elizabeth...can I bring homemade mozzarella sticks and make roasted garlic mashed potatoes?

Mood: okay
Music:the news

Well, I won't wear those shoes again.

Oct. 22nd, 2005 at 10:22 AM

Just like at the mall all those years ago, I stepped on a roofing nail on the sidewalk outside my house. It went through my shoe and into my foot. My foot bled like hell.

It's a good thing froggy and I had our DT shots.

So now I have this puncture wound on the sole of my foot. It hurts. Ouch.

The culprit is now in a place where it won't be stepped on again.

Mood: ditzy
Music:my shower washing my wound away.

We had a good final day in Austin-- in between errands, we had lunch at Ruby's, which was highly reccomended to us by a couple different locals for good local BBQ.

mshollie and I both had the BBQ sandwich-- frankly were not impressed. The brisket was too fatty. No complaints about the homefries.

I got my digital camera uploading to my laptop properly.

Bonner & Robbie took us out to our final (for this visit) Austin dinner at Matt's El Rancho, a Tex-Mex place dating back to the 1930s. Doc & Debbie came too. I hope Doc, Ben, and others will be able to fullfill the goal I was unable to in my stay in Austin: establish a New Orleans style brass band here.

We're planning to head out of Austin in the morning, and spend the night at Hollie's sister in Baton Rouge. Wednesday morning back into New Orleans-- Hollie's place in Terrytown, with reliable electricity and clean water, will be the base at least to start with, and I'll make my first reconiter of my home uptown.

Saturday was the "barn dance" benifit in south Austin, on some nice land towards the end of Slaughter Creek Road. It started at noon; H & I got there about 1pm. The beautiful setting is called "Freedom Oaks". It includes someone's private house (or perhaps their "country house"), with various outer buildings and sheds, two stages, a goat pen, and more land running down to a creek and boat-launch. The crowd was sparce when we arrived. There were various barbeque trailors going.

Most of the music was Texas folky/Country rock, some of it quite good. A gal named Leann, I think, led a fine group singing some Janis Joplin style vocals. Some clever original "folk song" lyrics from a couple of performers. One fellow was rocking out on some middle eastern string instrument.

The schedual was quite loose, some folks who were supposed to show up didn't, and others not schedualed played.

The other New Orleans group was a trio of keyboard, clarinet, and drums. Marcel the keyboardist was excellent, with much Professor Longhair influence. They met as evacuees here in Austin. Afterwards one of the organizers was saying they couldn't belive they'd never played together before-- with all due respect to those fine musical gentlemen, I could, but the music was still enjoyable.

We never decided on a name for our group in advance. I refered to us as "The New Orleans Evacuees and Friends", Doc as "The Mystic Orphans and Misfits of Austin", and I heard Ben refering to us as the "Bayou (something...)". Doc alternated on percussion, tuba, and valve trombone. Mark Rubin (Reuben? I dunno he never gave me his card dispite my asking), the leader of the Ridgetop Syncopators (with which he plays tenor steel guitar) was on helicon (a relative of the tuba with 4 rotary valves), Ben Schenck on clarinet, and me on trombone. Another tuba player sat in with us for part of the time, so we had some bits of 3 brass basses, and others of 2 trombones. It had the feel of the type of backyard jam at a pool party or BBQ in New Orleans. We played shortly after it got dark, the crowd was filling out, and audience was quite enthusiastic about us, I think in part because it was something fun different from the obligitory guitar groups of Austin. Doc insisted we close out with KMFA (aka "Do What Ory Say" etc) which he'd heard on my cd.

Sunday morning my amazingly gracious host Bonner was even more wonderful, and dubbed me a set of dvds of early Betty Boop, from a limited edition laser disc set in his collection taken from best availible original negatives. (Anyone with only passing familiarity with Betty Boop who has never been impressed needs to know that the best stuff is the 1931-1933 cartoons, which is not what is most commonly seen in bargin bin videos).

In the afternoon over to Kim's for a jam & soak. The party was a bit slow in starting, with neither jamming nor soaking for the first couple hours, but good food and nice people. When it started going some of the folkie music was too depressing for more people than Hollie & I (I heard Robbie also requesting "how about something more upbeat") until Kim's housemate Effron, a very good straight-ahead jazz tumpeter, started playing good stuff with a string bass and guitar accompanyment.

I had to leave for a while-- gig at the Flamingo Cantina on 6th street, pretty much the same people as the previous night. We were one of several groups, billed as a "New Orleans Austin Gumbo Ya Ya". We planned on various trad numbers to play, but we wound up doing none of it. A Mardi Gras Indian (who I'd met at Nubian Queen Lola's) was there, and Ben suggested we do Professor Longhair's "Big Cheif" together, which we did. Marcel joined us on keyboards, Oscar Rouzan on clarinet. Good, though went on too long; the brass front line tried to stop it a few times but the Indians are wont to do very extended versions of stuff. A couple more Indian tunes-- "Shoe Fly" again going on way too long, it's basically one chord, but a sax player named Hilton and an Austin trumpeter came up and did some modernistic stuff against it which worked nicely; Ben went to the back and played congas.

Back to Kim's for a bit before crashing.

Today errands, errands, and packing up; head out tomorrow morning.

Interstate 10, which had closed areas Houston through Lake Charles LA, is supposed to reopen Monday, which means we can take the shorter quicker route to go back home. Yay!

Got a buncha stuff from Home Despot to take back home for the cleanup. Depending, after I get home I may be needing to make more daytrips or 2 day trips back out for such stuff.

Yesteday night I went to Scholtz's, an old German immigrant Beer Garden from the mid 19th century. I was invited to sit in with "The Wurst Band". It was a big group, some 8 trumpets, 3 other trombones, 2 tubas, drums, assorted reeds, etc, that plays for beer Thursday nights (although curiously this was their last one, as they don't do it in October-- go figure). Apparently this is the closest thing Austin has to a Tumble. Who shows up varies. I seemed to be the only one who didn't know most of the pieces by rote &/or was able to sight read their part. I tried to beg off on the German polkas and marches which I didn't know at all, but was encouraged to dive in, and thus occasionally was able to make the Wurst band just a little worse. Ms. Hollie said the whole agravation had the sound of too little rehersal and too much beer. I had fun however. There were several music books which the leader called tunes from. A few were clearly beyond the band and fell apart and were cut short. We played some Wagner-- hey, I've heard this one in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, though Carl Stalling's arrangement was a bit diffferent. In honor of yours truly being a guest, a they called a couple of tunes like "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" and "Panama". One of the musicians who also plays Dixieland warned that the arrangements were very square, which was accurate. On a couple I did my best to drag forward in temporal hepness to about 1916 or so. Some of the results occasionally reminded me of Tom Brown's recordings with New York studio groups. Each of the three sets ended with a very loud version of "In Heaven, There Is No Beer" to prompt delivery of fresh pitchers. It wasn't jazz, but it was fun, and the Austinites could hardly be any nicer.

Tomorrow Saturday is a music festival to benifit New Orleans musicians which will be iin South Austin.

Sunday we have our private jam & soak party at a friend's.

Monday, proably take care of any final errands, get some groceries for ourselves and for our gracious amazing hosts, and perhaps one last Tex-Mex meal.

Austin area internet aquaintances are hereby warned that chances possible IRL meetings are in limited supply; grab 'em while you can.

Safe and sound...road trip update again

Sep. 15th, 2005 at 10:11 PM

I'm safe and sound in Austin with infrogmation's friends Bonner and Robbie. I'm typing this from their computer.

So this will be home for a little while until we can get back to NOLA. Measnwhile, I'm just sitting back and enjoying things.

Mood: tired
Music:Yes, "All Good People" (in Bonner's car CD player)

Settling Down in Austin

Sep. 16th, 2005 at 3:27 PM

I slept until almost noon today. Froggy said I was snoring pretty hard. I must have needed it.

Today we spent doing domestic chores like laundry and groceries. Froggy and I ended up getting matching pairs of Texas sandals at Walgreens, and was amazed that I saw my first grocery store with its own tortilleria. I didn't even get to see anything like that in California.

We ate lunch at Las Manitas, a hole in the wall cafe on Congress. I had quesadillas. They were good, though smaller than what I'm used to seeing. Their salsa kicked some serious major butt.

Meanwhile, we're getting in touch with friends and family, and calling Austin our temporary home.

Mood: amused
Music:froggy's self-phone

"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Sep. 18th, 2005 at 8:11 AM

It's amazing how much people are willing to help when I mention that I'm an evacuee. I was able to get another 30 day supply of my meds, courtesy of a couple of friends/family members of Bonner and Robbie's. One is a friendly pdoc named Elizabeth Taylor (no kidding!), and the other, Kim, works for the Texas health department. They've been fantastic. Girl power in action! :)

Meanwhole, I get a nastygram in my e-mail last night. I wanted to write back with the salutation, "**** you", but Robbie suggested I hand-write my response, then shred it. I must admit that's quite therapeutic.

Today froggy and I are going to a benefit concert for Katrina survivors (I hesitate to use the word "victim") with some New Orleans musicians. It should be fun. Froggy jammed with some friends last night at our impromptu gathering. It was fun.

I think I drank too much last night. I started to get sleepy, then depressed again. That sucked.

It's breakfast time. I think I'll have some.

Mood: awake
Music:the ceiling fan in the computer/guest room

There's no place like home...

Sep. 20th, 2005 at 4:01 PM

I talked to my dad this morning. He said we have some external damage to the house, but the inside is OK. We have power and water, but no cable. He advised us to stay put here in Austin until we know what Rita's going to do.

I sorta want to stick around for the Austin City Limits festival this weekend. That should be fun. Froggy's going to sit in with a band tonight, while Bonner and Robbie won tickets to the Ravi Shankar concert tonight.

In other news, the hot tub got fixed here. Yay. Now to get Froggy's tub fixed.

I wonder where froggy is right now.

Mood: complacent
Music:KGSR. "Radio Austin"

infrogmation replies:
Sep. 20th, 2005 11:17 pm (UTC)
Froggy's right here
Sounds like I have a downed tree to take care of and a fence to rebuild before getting the hot tub working.

But all in all, pretty lucky.

Especially to have you, evacuation buddy!

Oh, no...here we go again...

Sep. 20th, 2005 at 6:16 PM

First Katrina, now Rita. Mayor Nagin's got his hands full on this one, folks. He's advised people not to return to New Orleans. We don't know what this storm's going to do yet, but Galveston is already being evacuated and the evacuees from Houston are moving to Arkansas.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here at a Schlotzky's with awesome wireless access. The only problem is not being able to plug the computer into a wall because I didn't see any outlets. I'm running on battery power. At least I was able to get my website work done. Go me.

Mood: confused
Music:"Dueling Computers" by Hollie and Froggy

Sep. 21st, 2005

11:00 AM

I'm not sure I want to go home. I'm afraid of what I'll see once I get there. A&P is open, but they're charging very expensive prices for things. Dad's been getting water and MREs from the military stationed near there. Froggy can't get home yet because the mayor has rescinded the repopulation plan. We're still left wondering what Rita's going to do.

Meanwhihle, my bottle of Rescue Remedy fell out of my purse last night and subsequently got run over/broken. I have a coupon for $1 off a new bottle. I think I'll take advantage of it this afternoon. I'm also thinking of buying a bottle of Holly essence. Just because.

We tried to find Froggy's gig last night, but it turned out the venue was closed...all this after we went driving all over east Austin to find the place. We consoled ourselves by getting cups of Amy's ice cream. I got Texas Mud and Mexican vanilla. The Mexican vanilla is awesome.

I'm not burned out on Tex-Mex food yet.

Mood: frustrated
Music:froggy singing in the shower

Don't tell us what kind of day to have!

Sep. 21st, 2005 at 6:22 PM

Today hasn't been very productive. Poor frog has been hassling with the folks at his cell provider about not being able to get calls into/out of our area code. They won't give him a temporary Austin number. That sucks.

I was able to get two large bottles of Rescue Remedy at Central Market. We'll both need them.

We were looking for wi-fi access. Both BN and Borders require that you PAY for wi-fi access and it's FREE at Schlotzky's. The food isn't bad either.

We looked for a bank to cash my check from the Red Cross, but the first place we tried wouldn't cash the check. We ended up at a H-E-B where they cashed the check with NO PROBLEM, and NO CHARGE! I think I'm beginning to like H-E-B.

I want to go home, but I'm scared of what I'll find there. No mail, no cable. Water, ice and MREs from the military. Dad said the MREs actually aren't bad. I'm not sure what to think of that. A&P is open, but they're very expensive. I want to be able to cook my own food, dammit.

(All together now...)
No phones, no lights, no motorcars, not a single luxury...

Music:the speaker system at Schlotzky's

Hurricane Update

Sep. 22nd, 2005 at 6:42 PM

Froggy and I got tetanus/diptheria vaccines today. He got a Snoopy bandage, while I settled for Bugs Bunny since they didn't have Spongebob.

H-E-B was a zoo this morning as people bought provisions for Rita. Personally, we'll just get some wind and rain. It may drown out ACL this weekend.

We went to a bubble tea place, Momoko, and then to the mothership of all Whole Foods Markets at 6th and Lamar. They were $2 cheaper on the large bottles of Rescue Remedy than Central Market was. I bought another bottle, along with a bottle of Holly essence, just because. That place is dangerous. We had to get out before we succumbed to temptation.

Went splashing around today.

I'm hungry. I want food.

Mood: hungry
Music:KUT 90.5FM

Here comes another one...

Sep. 23rd, 2005 at 10:12 AM

My dad has evacuated to Bowling Green. Again.

Froggy and I have evacuated. Still.

I'm tired of living out of a suitcase, even though it's a Vera Bradley large duffle bag in Bermuda Pink.

That is all.

Mood: discontent
Music:Beatles, "Lovely Rita Meter Maid"

Rita makes landfall, and other things...

Sep. 24th, 2005 at 7:36 PM

Rita made landfall near the LA/TX border early this morning. Lake Charles is trashed.

In other news, froggy and I went to Highland Mall this afternoon to take in some trad jazz. Rather, he took in the music while I wandered around the mall. I found a Crabtree and Evelyn with some Vera stuff...took all my willpower to resist buying yet another piece. I did, though, get some Godiva chocolate while froggy got a prepaid cheap cell (self-) phone with an Austin number from T-Mobile.

Went to yoga class with Robbie this morning. We both needed it, what with Robbie being stressed out and my being out of practice. The class was very relaxing. I should think about a regular class when I get back to NOLA.

Had lunch at Burger Tex. Good burgers. And fries.

So what's for dinner tonight?

Mood: content
Music:froggy's trombone

Various and sundry...

Sep. 27th, 2005 at 9:18 AM

We went and did refugee things yesterday. Froggy opened a second checking account, while we went to an optician to get my glasses fixed. They broke during yoga class the other day, and I'd spent the weekend pushing them back into place. The optician did a temporary fix; for something more permanent I would have to go to an optical lab. Gina, where are you when I need you? :)

The night wasn't without fun, however. We went to the Spider House for an a.r.k.p.l.e. (alt.religion.kibology party-like event), and had fun, despite their wireless Internet connection to be less-than-ideal. We then went to the Elephant Room to hear some jazz. Froggy was hoping to jam with the musicians, but they sounded too be-bop for him. Personally, I liked them.

And so today we call around to optical labs for a fix for my glasses, while I help froggy out with a new checkbook. What are friends for?

Mood: moody
Music:froggy singing in the shower

Bureaucracy, Texas Style

Sep. 27th, 2005 at 6:40 PM

We went to South Austin Optical to get my glasses fixed. The optician there replaced the nylon bands that held the nose piece together, but advised me to get polycarbonate lenses my next pair, and to go for a rimmed rather than a rimless style. Help...Gina?

We then later spent close to 3 hours at the Texas Departrment of Human Services waiting to be interviewed for Lone Star cards (the TX equivalent of Louisiana Purchase, better known as "food stamps"), I heard some very bad Spanish over the intercom system, and I'll probably spend tonight dreaming en espan~ol . (sorry; don't know how to type one of those cute "n" letters with the tilde over it on a Mac, which is what Bonner & Robbie have.)

I can speak better Spanish than the droids at TDHS did, and my knowledge is limited to futbol and concursos de belleza , and whatever else I can find on Univision.

Mood: bitchy
Music:the Don Adams Memorial Cartoon Festival

We have the necessities of life.

Sep. 29th, 2005 at 10:27 AM

We [Terrytown] have power. We have water, and most importantly, we have cable and Internet! This will make my webmastering a lot easier when I get home. Yay!!!

But I'll be staying in Austin through the weekend, as there really is no rush to go home. Besides, there's a party we've been invited to Sunday, and I want to do another yoga class on Saturday.

Happy belated birthday to Margaret. I almost completely forgot about it...hope it was a good one.

Mood: happy
Music:TV in the background

On going home...

Sep. 30th, 2005 at 9:44 AM

"I've traveled places where the water was unsanitary, but I'd never thought it would be my own home." : froggy, as he was talking to me last night.

We'll be going home after the weekend, to a whole different reality. I don't know how prepared we are for that eventuality, but I'm sure staying in Austin has taken its toll on our hosts, gracious though they are. I'm sure Bonner and Robbie want their house back to some semblance of normalcy, and we'd like for them to have that.

This is the longest I've been away from home since my college days at now-ULL. On the upside, it's the longest I've been together with froggy. If we can survive this, we can survive anything. :)

We have the basics over in my part of town, and Terrytown is functioning as its own little island. We have an open grocery store (A&P), a gas station (Terrytown Shell), and a few other neighborhood businesses. The nearest open Wal-Mart is in Boutte. the Hong Kong Market is set to reopen next week...meaning bubble tea!!! (I can keep my sanity by having bubble tea!!!)

We're considering returning to Austin for a short time, but we haven't decided for sure yet.

I wonder what will become of LSUHSC. Do I have to go to Baton Rouge for a pdoc appointment now?

*sigh* I wish this were all just a nightmare.

Can I wake up now?

Mood: profound
Music:froggy cleaning out the car

H & I just got back from hearing a great Western Swing band, the "Ridgetop Syncopators", who have a regular Wednesday night gig at the Hole In The Wall on Guadelupe.

What an excellent band! And the string bass player, one Ricky Rees, is phenomenal, one of the best I've heard. I had a chance to talk with him a bit afterwards-- Pops Foster influence.

Amazing band-- no cover-- and $2 draft beers. Man! That right there is almost enough to make me decide to stay in Austin.
And that's without even mentioning that I don't feel like I need a shower going to hear music, as the bars in Austin are now non-smoking.

There I unexpectedly met Steve Gav and Dr. Eddie, two other Tumblers and members of the MOM's Royal Band, out club hopping. They were similarly impressed.

The Ridgetop Syncopators are flying up to Washington D.C. for a day to play at the Kennedy Center.

Current Music: Sweet Sue, Just You

Well, plan now is we'll be staying in Austin through the weekend, as things have been moving slowly in New Orleans and quickly here.

Various jam opportunities, but even more of interest: I got a paid gig Thursday night thanks to Doc, at Quality Seafood. We're putting togther a small New Orleans style band.
Doc said it might be regular weekly gig-- I said don't count on me to be staying in town, but as it sounds like my clarinetist friend plans to stay in Austin a while he might be a great choice as a regular.

Nifty jam & soak party planned for Sunday evening.

jennconspiracy is passing breifly through town, maybe I'll get to see here then too.

Last couple of days spent taking care of refugee paperwork and doing errands, but last night had a good time meeting a couple of internet aquaintances from the old Usenet days In Real Life.

I hope to get back to New Orleans after the weekend, circumstances permitting. So much I dunno.

(And there might be just a chance I may get in on some of the first gigs of a re-opening music venue...)

Eating, playing jazz, meeting people, and more eating.

Ms. Hollie & I were taken out to brunch by Bonner's cousin Elizabeth "ET". We, Bonner, Robbie, Little Brian, a couple other cousins, and another New Orleans refugee who E.T. is putting up went to the Bake House. I had the "Carlos' Favorite" omlette in a tortilla; Hollie the chocolate chip pancakes. Then to "Donn's Depot", an old train station that is a bar & music venue, The event was put on the Austin Traditional Jazz Society, featuring Tommy Griffith's New Orleans Jazz Band of Austin, who are quite good. There was a good crowd, mostly older; perhaps the younger music fans were mostly at the Austin City Limits Festival (Bonner offered to scrounge up ACL tickets for us when we got to town, but I said we probably wouldn't be here that long...) The second set they brought up guests. I was one of three trombones (between the band's regular one and a valve trombonist). My lip is rather down from hardly playing in a month and the other two trombonists had more technique than I, but I got a number of compliments. I played more of the old tailgate style than the others, and a couple folks remarked on the Kid Ory influence and one lady in the audinece said I was the best trombonist she'd ever heard at one of these events. There was one other displaced New Orleanian -- clarinetist Ben Schenck! The exclamation point is because he's an old friend and I hadn't known he was in town. He's staying with a guitarist/bass horn player who lives here who played heilicon in his brass band for Carnival. Ben and his wife had been in Baton Rouge, then came here to Austin. His place in New Orleans didn't flood. Until 1997 I lived 5 blocks from his place, and flood maps showed that my old place flooded, so it was good to hear that his didn't.

After chatting with folks after the jam, I drove by Nubian Queen Lola's (someoene said they thought there might be something else going on there this week, but there wasn't), then killed a little time at Highland Mall before it was time for our dinner invitation over at

askesis's place. I'd only known Askesis on Usenet and LJ, and took up his offer of food. His directions included describing the destination as "the cool house", which it certainly is, much artistically designed and built by his house mate. Hollie & I enjoyed the hospitality and company of Askesis and his cool housemates and friends over bread dipped in decadent cheese sause, BBQ'ed meat, red wine, and other excellent commestables.

Today, back to "work" taking care of refugee related stuff (plus errands like getting Hollie's glasses fixed), ...then tonight I plan to meet up with Askesis and other internet aquaintances at the Spider House coffee house for an alt.religion.kibology usenet newsgroup get together.

If ya gotta be evacuated from New Orleans, Austin is a pretty nifty place to be, especially with such wonderful friends/hosts as Bonner & Robbie.

On the 16th Ms Hollie & I slept late, then had lunch at Las Manitas, did laundry, shopping, and catching up on our interneting, then we went for dinner with Bonner, Robbie, and Brian to a nice neighborhood Mexican place, "Evita's Bonitas", I think, with many salsas and as Robbie said excellent Molé. We only realized halfway through dinner that it was the 16 de Setiembre, so appropriate we had Mexican twice.

Next day was extremely productive. We went to Jo's Coffee on South Congress to meet Janie Z, an old friend from New Orleans who has been living in Austin for a few years doing her doctorate (Janie was one of the co-founders of the kiddie-pool jam & soak party tradition, which so far she's only had limited success in importing to Austin). The vast majority of folks we know got out of the city all right, but there's someone who last we heard was insisting on staying in a part of town that got major flooding. We still hope, but I fear it's only a matter of time before I hear that some friend didn't make it.

We stopped by J.Z.'s house, where she had some clothes set aside for Katrina evacuees and offered Ms. Hollie first dibs; Hollie got some sandles, a zebra-print purse, and cute Victoria's Secret shorts.

After Amy's Icecream (good local gourmet; great Mexican vanilla) to Hippie Hollow to enjoy the sun and swim in Lake Travis. Hollie is even more of a flatlander than I, and climbing over the rocks was a bit of a challenge, but I just had to remind her to take her time and make sure each foot is secure on each step.

More splashing later when Robbie took us over to her friend Kim's place which has a nice pool (a bit cool) and hot tub (yay!). A BBQ back at B&R's place, with some good friends, including Bonner's cousin E.T., and I got out my trombone for the first time since the Saturday before Katrina to jam with Doc Norden on tuba, a banjo, and guitarist.

Next morning I helped B & R set up the above ground pool in their backyard. H & I checked out the trendy shops and venues along South Congress (bumper stickers "Keep Austin Weird"), then up to the east side to Nubian Queen Lola's where there was a benifit for Katrina Evacuees. A couple of Austin musicians along with a bunch of New Orleanians, though noone I knew personally. A bunch of people there had gone through the hell of the Superdome and Convention Center, and about half planned not to return to New Orleans. I sat in with the band for a set; I was the only horn, but it worked. ( A number of Mardi Gras Indian songs, some of which I'd been creating tailgate trombone parts less than 2 months before for the Little Big Horn band. Oh, I heard from Ms. J and from one of the musicians at Lolas that Rev Goat is in Austin.) I was invited to play with a group Tuesday night.
Ms. J also showed up, and said she really liked the music, and never expected to see people second lining like that in Austin.

Ms. Hollie was about burned out for the day, so I dropped her "home" I went to another benifit party, a "Barn Dance", which included Theresa Anderson, Mardi Gras Indians (no costumes), and some street circus people.

Fort Walton Beach, through Alabama & Mississippi to Monroe, on to Texas

Friends in Florida, Worst Beach Ever, Bug attacks in a Birdless Wilderness, High Civilization in North East Louisiana, and other post hurricane observations

From Jacksonville, Florida,

mshollie and I drove from the Atlantic to Florida's Gulf Coast. We availied ourself of a short free winery tour at De Funiac Springs, then took a look at De Funiac's cute old town, before heading out to the coast to Fort Walton Beach, where

tal_greywolf showed us the Indian Mound, took us out to dinner, and put us up for the night.

The next morning Tal took us to "The Breakfast Place". After dropping him off at work we took care of some evacuee business; change of addresses to Austin, and stopped by a Salvation Army building that was a busy evacuee processing center. We still havn't gotten registered with FEMA (despite trying various ways), and there was a several day wait there, but we did register with the Red Cross.

While there we both took a can of water from one of the ice chests. It's Anhauser Busch Not For Sale Water in white cans. It tasted stale and metalic. Hollie & I are usually up for a nice cold container of water, but we didn't finish these.

Late morning we got together with fellow New Orleans evacuee Cristina (of National Ahh Spa Day). Cristina and her 15 month old daughter Ayala were staying with her dad in Fort Walton Beach, where she had grown up.

We packed up some soft drinks and Hollie and Cristina put on cute matching bathing suits for a visit to nearby Navarre Beach. Cristina hadn't been there since before Ayala was born. The sign for the turn-off said "Navarre Beach: Florida's Best Kept Secret". We were looking forward to a pleasant beach day. When we got there, we found that the auto turn-off to the clothing optional area was closed, the road still covered in vast dunes not cleared from Ivan last year &/or Dennis earlier this year. Still, the white sand looked nice and we started hoofing it. Cristina noted that the usually very clear water was all cloudy with strange black particles like asphalt in it. In the background was the fishing pier,the middle segment missing since Ivan. After we'd gone a ways Cristina started getting bitten by some bugs. We stopped to spray on bug repelent, but as soon as we stayed in one place for a while the nasty biting flies came on us in droves. (Someone later told us they were "Alabama flies".) Cristina said she'd never encountered anything like this. Even the Backwoods Off only slowed them down a bit. Retreat! We headed back towards the car at a brisk trot, with Cristina setting the pace in front with Ayala on her hip. When we got to the parking lot we realized that Hollie, who's had less exprience walking in sand, was red-faced and out of breath. Worst Day at the Beach Ever! After showers, Chinese food, and naps, Cristina took us to a friend's high-end subdivision, where we had a gorgeous complex with a gigantic swimming pool and a hot tub all to ourselves. Best pool ever!

Cristina left her clarinet in New Orleans, but when she found out I'd brought one of my trombones in the car (the c. 1913 White "King") she contemplated getting another clarinet, and noted her dad played accordian. This was the closest I've come to playing in a band again since leaving New Orleans.

The next morning Cristina made us French Toast and bacon (Nicest hostess ever!) before Hollie and I hit the road West. Lots of Hurricane Ivan damage evident, including one of the spans of the highway connecting Pensacola Beach with Pensacola still had large sections knocked out. Despite much damage still not repaired, it was good seeing Pensacola back in business.

Further west through Alabama, it was hard to tell where the Ivan damage ended and the Katrina damage began. We started heading inland at Mobile. Since Florida the love-bugs were out in vast clouds over the highways. I'd seen love-bug season while driving through northern Florida before, but never anything like this. I stopped every 90 minutes to clear bug corpses from enough of my windshield to see out of. I realized I hadn't seen any birds the whole day's drive-- and for that matter, no sea-gulls at the beach the previous day. I presume the birds were driven off by the storm, but it was strange that they were still gone some 2 weeks later.

Hurricane damage was especially evident in and around Hattiesburg, but the city seemed up & running. No problem finding gas.

The bugs and damage continued up to Jackson, MS. When we crossed the Mississippi River in to Lousiana, suddenly there were birds again, and no bugs.

Along I-20, those entering Louisiana from Mississippi find a liquor store before they get to the state welcome center. Priorities.

North east Louisiana was once one of the continent's great centers of civilization. But that was some 2,500 years ago.
As we were making good time, I made an unschedualed detour off the interstate to visit Poverty Point. This is a vast paleo-Indian site, with huge mound constructions. Excavations show trade goods from as far away as Michigan. Poverty Point is remarkable not just for its size, but also how early it was-- much of its heyday being pre-ceramic.

After our quick look around Poverty Point, on to Monroe, Louisiana. As Poverty Point had extensive trade contacts but no pottery, Monroe has an NPR station but as yet no Starbucks. They do, however, have a Copelands, which we nostalgically ate a mostly not bad meal at.

Lots of fellow refugees in Monroe. We talked to one who has spent the whole time since Katrina in a Motel 6 room. We're glad our situation is somewhat better than that.

Next day, we hit the road again early. We heard a Kermit Ruffins song on the radio while passing through Ruston.

Hollie & I are now at Bonner & Robbie's place in South Austin. They took us out to eat at Threadgil's last night.

And that catches things up.

Ms. Hollie & I stopped in a Schlotzsky's for a sandwich, and hey, they havee free Wi-Fi.

After 2 nights in Fort Walton Beach, we spent a night in Monroe, LA, and are now on our way to Austin.

Maybe they'll let us go home soon.

A few stories later.

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The Information Super-Frog

Your cyber-pal way down yonder in New Orleans

Entries tagged with evacucation

Back home, post Gustav Evacucation

Vicksburg

Port Gibson Illustrated

Port Gibson

Evacuation 2008: Port Gibson.

Evacucation, 2008 Edition

Gustav, be nice

Last Saturday in August

One year ago tonight I was told a hurricane was heading our way.

From MsHollie's Journal: Austin back to New Orleans after Katrina

Eastward, Ho!

Last weekend in Austin (for now)

The Wurst is Over

Katrina evacucation in Austin from MsHollie's LiveJournal

Good Music

Tues 27 Sept: Two cities pulling strongly at me.

Yesterday's adventures

Austin is nifty

Last few days adventures

Hi from Waco