I Don't Like Ike

I'm not freaking out yet but I'm not happy with this picture. We have just cleaned out the shelters and gotten those poor people back home! I seriously hope this track changes over the next few days; I don't wish a hurricane on anybody but we've had it in Louisiana. It wasn't on the national news so much, but we got some major damage from Gustav. Once the levees in NOLA didn't break and flood everything, the national media got up and left, but in Alexandria, Natchitoches, Baton Rouge, and other places further south and west, they took a hit. Huge numbers of people were still without power yesterday.

As far as the shelter business goes, Darrell Rebouche covered that pretty well in his blog and posted some photos as well. For me, the last photo he posted tells the story (go ahead, go look!). Steve's department went on 12s, (12 hour shifts) and he just went back to regular schedule yesterday. He's beyond exhausted.

From all accounts, most of the evacs were grateful for the help but as always, there were some that were not. There were some that thought FEMA ought to put them up in a Ramada Inn instead of a shelter. Some didn't want to obey the rules at the shelter, such as the curfew. Others wanted to fight and several were arrested. Some complained about the food and some complained about the facilities themselves.

We got into a discussion about this in my first block class yesterday as we were talking about this new hurricane. Even my students had heard the press about the ungrateful evacs and were displeased. I tried to caution them that we need to put ourselves "in their skin" as Atticus Finch would say, and try to imagine the incredible stress they are under. Most of those people did not know if their homes were okay; everyone remembers the Katrina pictures and certainly people were worried about looting. And then Ray Nagin was telling them they couldn't come home (as soon as they wanted to). Quite stressful, I'm sure. People were worried about their pets, and some pets were even evacuated here and were housed in a special shelter. In Steve's shelter a chihuahua got left behind when its owner left and Steve has been worrying about that dog getting back home for days. (It will).

At any rate, Dear Ike, we hope you weaken to a little late summer thunderstorm and drift away to someplace other than Louisiana. We don't need you.