Re: [VFB] Hello Mark Delaney

[Mark Delaney]

We came back today.  The trip back was much better than the trip to Texarkana.  much cooler, and I didn't get so dehydrated this time.  (Took 2 days consuming electrolyte drinks to recover going to Texarakan, since I got to drive Bridget's truck with no air conditioning.)  The house is in pretty good shape.  Had a bunch of shingles blown off the rood causing very minor roof leaks (proabably just nails leaking, no water actually dripped, just wet ceiling tiles).  We cleaned out the refrigerator today as soon as we got home, wasn't extremely bad since the fridge was nearly empty.  Tomorrow we'll tackle the  deep freeze, which is out on the back porch (and full!).  We puposely didn't come home for a while  after the power got turned on, to make sure everything was frozen again. It is frozen solid again, but it still reeks.  I know all the tricks to get smells out though.

The yard looks like a war zone.  All kinds of junk blew up into the yard and there ar a lot of branches, but all the big trees (and small ones) survived.  I'm going to take some digital pics tomorrow, and I'll put some up on a website somewhere tomorrow evening.  I'm not supposed to pick up a thing, since the landlord is waiting for the insurance adjuster to come by, to take a look at things.  the landlord has laready contracted with some college kids to help with cleanup, so I'm supposed to do very little, except recover some of our stuff.  Most of the damage in Lake Charles is wind damage, with a few trees following on houses.  The worst damage I saw was actually to our church.  The church (no fellowship hall )was orriginally built with  a flat roof  (by a west Texas architect who also put the heating ducts under the slab = won't work in Louisiana!!)  The church (before we moved down here) finally go fed up with the roof leaks and put  a regualr peaked roof  over the flat roof.  The peaked roof was completely destroyed.  the flat roof theat was there is still in half decent shape, but the peaked roof will have to be replaced.  The new sanctuary has roof leaks, and so is completely covered with tarps.  (Brick reinforced building).

There are lots of blue tarps which were supplied by FEMA around town.  the weirdest thing is that there are cops from all over.  Coming into town we were passed by a patrol car with cops in it from Akron, Ohio.

I think we should go into the firewood export business...the number of large limbs and cut up trees is absolutely amazing.  All the streets have been cleared, and traffic is exceptionally heavy...people going around to get the repair stuff they need, I'd guess.  I'm alomost afraid to consider going down to Cameron parish to see what happned to my favorite fishing spots.

Rumor has it that classes will resume either next Thursday or  no later than a week later at McNeese, so two days before that hasppens it is back to work for me.

Tomorrow, I'll show some of the wierder things that resulted as well.

Mark Delaney