Lake Charles, Beumont, Houston looking at trouble...

[vapros]

Just an ugly, rainy day today in Baton Rouge, but still under a tornado watch. The storm surge at Lake Charles was only ten feet - very lucky - but plenty of damage from the wind. Two deaths reported so far from falling trees. There is a casino boat wedged under a bridge in L.C., and literally hundreds of windows blown out in the 21-story Bank One building. Two more weather systems headed for the Gulf. Let's play some one-pocket!

 

[lll]

bill
i was going to call you to see how you were doing
thanks for the update
seems most of our texas/louisianna members survived the storm ok
thank god

 

[vapros]

Major-league catastrophe. I won't try to describe it, because there are already a thousand hours of video for anyone who is interested. Many people will wait weeks for power, and even water, to be restored. At least seven people have died of carbon monoxide poisoning from private generators, including a family of four. Generators are a big item in south Louisiana.

 

[Bob Jewett]

I lived in Lake Charles a while ago. I was afraid there would be more flooding. Twice during storms -- not hurricanes -- my brother and I got to swim in the front yard (by Huber Park, a mile from the lake). We were 17 feet above sea level (according to airport info). It was interesting following a news camera team with a before picture on Google Street View. The damage is not nearly as intense as from a tornado, but it's pretty much everywhere. Power is the big problem now.

 

[gulfportdoc]

I can relate to the folks who are struggling now, after we lived through the destruction from Katrina.

But for much of the Gulf Coast area the big pain in the neck will be the closure of I-10 between Atchafalaya and Beaumont. Everyone is re-routed to the north at I-20, but that's a major detour. I-10 is a tremendous East-West corridor which gets tons of traffic from N.O. to Houston. Hopefully there's no structural damage to bridges or highway, so they'll be able to get I-10 back opened to traffic soon.