I left my laptop back at home when we left headed to Mountain View Arkansas on Tuesday morning. I am attempting to put together something meaningful using my phone about my personal experiences for those who are not in Louisiana living through HURRICANE IDA. She deserves to be in capital letters.
I had not planned to evacuate and I stayed home through the storm.
The terrible night that HURRICANE IDA came right over us in Hammond Louisiana was unbelievably frightening with the constant extremely high winds and rain beating on the house, roof and windows and everything around me.
Of course these things seem to come through in the dark and you can’t tell what is actually going on outside which makes it more unsettling. From the sounds I knew it wasn’t good. It seemed that Hammond was being pulled apart at the seams and it went on every minute all night. Never let us once.
The trees and power lines down, and damage in the area I could see on Monday morning when the sun came up was bad. The damage in other areas of Hammond and Ponchatoula was considerably worse and heartbreaking.
My church suffered water and wind damage. The roof was blown off the softball field’s concession stand. Several friends had trees for through their roofs into living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens.
Chip and Rick came by my home i Hammond on Monday and removed the big limbs in my side and back yards dragging them to the street for whenever they can be picked up by the City. I really don’t know who will pick them up but I hope someone does.
My glass top table we use for outside entertaining was shattered and the metal torn apart. The guys put the metal pieces out for trash pick up also. The shattered glass will be taken care of whenever we go back home.
There are hundreds of small branches and leaves waiting to be cleared up when we return.
That’s just the mess at my house. Back in Amite the house and porch are fine!!! Some of the beautiful pine trees by the pond are down sadly. They will have to be removed somehow.
I’ve collected photos that others posted on Facebook to share on my blog. I’ll include them in this and future posts about the storms affects and aftermath.
I am hoping my homeowners insurance covers the tree removal, the food we lost in the refrigerator/freezer and our expenses in evacuating. I filed an initial general claim online on Tuesday and should hear from a claims adjuster soon.
I do not have a generator so I could not plug in even a small air conditioner. The awful high near 100 degree temperatures the next day and night were unbearable.
So I decided to “Get Out Of Dodge” and quickly packed up everything we could think of and headed up here to Arkansas with Chip, Buddy and Benny. The dogs traveled really well and enjoyed the adventure.
We left at 9 am from Amite and arrived in Northern Arkansas after 7 pm. We really enjoyed the cars air conditioning and being able to charge our phones on the drive up..
After getting very lost trying to find our cabin we were directed to our precious 2 bedroom Cabin 4 at Anglers White River Resort and unloaded the car. We had a really beautiful view of the river from our deck. We got a really good night sleep in the cool air conditioning and thats where I’ll stop for today.
This storm did so much damage to so many peoples lives and it will take a long long time for the area to recover from this devastation. Please pray for the people of Louisiana and all those affected in the U.S. by HURRICANE IDA.
BECAUSE HE LIVES 