After the storm

My mom asked how it was after the storm, so this is what I can assess so far:

Last night we came in at dusk, so it was hard to see a lot of damage. The stoplights were still not working and I could see that some businesses had lost their signs. You could see spots where trees had been over roadways but they were all cut away by the time I came through. Our neighborhood looks amazingly good - a couple of tree branches around, and some fences down - but it looks like most people are home and cleaning up.

I went outside this morning to move things back out that we stored inside, and to start picking up the limbs. There were a couple of scary things there that made me glad we'd left. One is that one of the biggest limbs that fell (maybe 2-3 inches in diameter) was literally speared into the ground - hard enough that I really had to wiggle it and work at it to pull it out. I wouldn't want to be in the path of something coming at me with that kind of force!

The other thing was that there were quite a few limbs stuck in the bush that is right outside of our family room window. It looks like they were headed right for the windows but were stopped. That's good. Otherwise I think we would have had at least one big broken window and possibly the water that comes with that.

I'm staying off the roads, as to not overwhelm an already exhausted police force who are trying to direct traffic through intersections and such. Later today I will go out and check on a couple of friend's homes who have not returned yet. It seems that most of town has power back now, and the sewers and water are working now. I don't know if our 911 system is back up yet or not.

Doug is now at his office, trying to assess what the needs are for wards and stakes in our area. I'm guessing that the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Denham Springs, and Gulfport stakes are going to need some assistance for church members. I know the stake president in Baton Rouge had 3 trees fall on his house, for example.
Tomorrow he is off to Baton Rouge to the command center to start assessing needs. He'll be busy the next few weeks helping people deal with everything.