Hurricane Ida (Tropical Disturbance in GoM, heading towards TX/LA Aug. 2021)

[sheddi]

Raptor's AAR thread is here:
https://ufozs.com/smf/index.php?topic=431.0

[Blast]

Hurricane Ida AAR:

I worked a shelter in Orange, TX from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning. This was an overflow shelter, meaning when people arrived at another shelter that was full the people were brought to us. This shelter was located approximately 150 miles east of the storm zone and so there was no storm damage at this location.

The shelter was just off I-10, the main interstate between Houston and New Orleans. The gas station there was out of fuel by about 10pm Sunday evening but did seem to get regular fuel shipments in the following days. It became a staging area for a lot of convoys heading to the storm zone.

As an overflow shelter, the volunteers weren't local. Most were flown in from other locations. Orange, TX is two hours from Houston and I was the only TX resident working there. The other volunteers were from Oregon, Chicago, Arizona, and Washington D.C.

Clients started arriving Monday morning, coming in with nothing. Most came from areas where their entire neighborhood was flattened. We give everyone a toiletries bag (soap, shampoo, kleenix, deodorant, feminine protection, razor, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss), a towel (one towel for entire stay), two blankets, and a cot.

Pets aren't allowed in Red Cross shelters, only service animals specifically train to perform a physical feat the owner can't do. "Emotional support" animals don't meet this requirement. One family ended up having to drive an hour to deliver their cat to an animal shelter that could care for it while the owners were in the shelter.

Insurance companies book up entire hotels in the region to put up their customers who lost their homes. Remaining rooms are taken by assorted repair crews. If you needed a hotel room it was probably going to be 200 miles away from the impacted zone. Red Cross volunteers either slept in our vehicles or on cots with the rest of the clients.

Cell phone access was impacted even in Orange, TX. Most likely, since the shelter was in a fairly rural area, the nearby phone towers were being overloaded by people on I-10.

The Red Cross's goal is no one stays in a shelter more than two days. We'll work with you to find alternative lodging with a friend, family, or even a hotel somewhere. The shelters are absolutely bare bones and most people want to get out ASAP. However, there are some people that for whatever reason don't have the ability to go anywhere else. These end up making the largest percentage of clients over time.

The Red Cross is mainly an organizing organization. They supply the cots, blankets, and care kits but contract out food delivers and any other consumables. Depending on the contract with the actual owner of the shelter facility, we may or may not have full access to everything in the shelter. Where I was we had access to several large rooms, bathrooms & showers, and a cafeteria area's tables and one fridge...but no coffee pots or microwaves. No...coffee...for...three...days.

Anti-Covid rules were in place, requiring everyone to be masked and constantly wiping everything down with bleach. Normally, every Red Cross shelter has at least an RN available on-site 24/7. For whatever reason, we did not have any sort of nurse, EMTs, or other medical personal beyond my level of training.

I did bring my ham radio equipment along but only used a 5-watt, handheld unit inside the shelter. I had programed it with the repeaters in range of the location, but there was very little chatter. I made one contact Monday night and that was it. I was hoping to find the Cajun Navy radio operators but was unsuccessful.

People are people, even more so in an extreme situation.

This was my 4th deployment but my first away from my regular shelter. It really opened my eyes to how well run and organized my "home" shelter is compared to the one I was at. It may just be another side effect of Covid's impact on society as a whole, though. That being said, I still love serving like this. The other volunteers were retried and just spend their days being moved from disaster to disaster by the Red Cross. They were a great bunch of people and I could see doing this someday.

Any questions?
-Blast

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

What was the damage, if any, like in Orange and the surrounding areas?

I've got a brother that lives over in Bridge City and he's yet to call or contact us over here in West Texas. I figure he's probably busy with work or helping his neighbors and hasn't had time to check in yet.

[Blast]

What was the damage, if any, like in Orange and the surrounding areas?

No damage whatsoever in/around Orange, TX. Storm damage didn't really begin until about another 150 miles east of Orange, deep into Louisiana.
-Blast

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

What was the damage, if any, like in Orange and the surrounding areas?

No damage whatsoever in/around Orange, TX. Storm damage didn't really begin until about another 150 miles east of Orange, deep into Louisiana.
-Blast

Thanks for the info, Blast.

[sheddi]

I'm pleased to see more patches of green on the Entergy outage map this morning (UK time), although it's still a sea of red.

https://www.etrviewoutage.com/map?state=NOLA

Raptor's office building is in the green bit near the middle of the screenshot.

[Raptor]

I'm pleased to see more patches of green on the Entergy outage map this morning (UK time), although it's still a sea of red.

https://www.etrviewoutage.com/map?state=NOLA

Raptor's office building is in the green bit near the middle of the screenshot.

If you zoom into areas of Metairie and Kenner you will find green spots. Those are the major power substations. They are not generation plants so that means the main transmission plants are getting power to those isolated substations...that is a good thing. That means the power restoration delay is due to the neighborhood lines and will progressively get going rapidly. As more lines fixed then more resources for the unfixed lines.

The hurricane in 2012 that hit Baton Rouge took down 4 main feeder lines which took 10 days to fix. That does not seem to be the case here. 

[Cascade Failure]

I'm paying close attention to Metairie as the kids who bugged out to NC are set on returning Wednesday.

[Raptor]

Entergy said my house in metairie had power. The map lied. I drove in and no joy. I did see significant progress but the power in parts of metaire is at least 5 days away. The areas with a lot of trees have a lot of power line infrastructure damage.

[flybynight]

How does the city look?

[Raptor]

It really does not look bad. There are still some power or cabe tv wires askew, but over all it does not look bad. The debris is nothing like Katrina. Zeta in October had as many branches down. Many of the yards still have debris. The issue is the number of power poles down.

The areas with the newer steel power poles faired much better than the areas with the 40 year old wooden poles...like my neighborhood.

Entergy claims that more power poles were down thanh Katrina and Zeta combined.

The gas situation is still tight in whole city.  In rural MS no issue and no limits on gas.

Many folks are out of the area until Tuesday for Labor Day. I am staying on my farm until the power has been restored 24 hours.

[Cascade Failure]

Our son and family returned to Metairie today. Power is on. He stated that a bunch of the gas pumps in southern Miss and into the NOLA area are still bagged off. (I forgot to ask what route the took.) Rouses on Veteran's has food but choices are limited. I can post more of their experiences but it is probably of limited value to most.

[Raptor]

Please do post about their experiences! I think all would interested.

BTW I too relocated back to Metairie today. The commute was getting silly.

[Cascade Failure]

Food and gas options are slowly improving.

He, although born in NOLA but was not raised there, has admitted he did not want to seem like a wuss for leaving when the other natives thought that riding it out would be like every other big storm. They had a big party the night before and thought it would all be good. Then the winds came and he could hear the damage being done to his roof and, as he, his wife and son we're huddled under their table/mattress shelter, he confessed he thought that this is how it ends. They couldn't wait to get out of there. Secured the house the best they could and headed out to his brother's in NC. 10 or so days later the power is on so they go home. Everyone is freaked out being back where they experienced this. Grandson not sleeping. Son says they're considering moving to somewhere else. Helping the neighbors get houses in order but is obviously shaken.

It really messes with your head when you think, "I've got this!" but you really don't. Good prep lesson in many ways.