Gustav is history. I just got home to electricity, running water and air conditioning. I've been without power and water for the last 24 hours and believe me it is misereable. But, not nearly as miserable as those poor people south of me closer to the Gulf Coast around Morgan City, Houma and the surrounding areas. They were hit so hard by this storm and it's estimated they will be out of electricity for 2 weeks. Summer in South Louisiana without air conditioning is nearly unbearable. I believe 8 people in Louisiana died including one man here in my town when a tree fell on his house.

Please say a prayer for the families who lost a loved one and for the ones who have to start rebuilding.

Thank you
Luby

Gustav is FAR from over. I left Baton Rouge to be with my son and family in Monroe so I missed the utter distruction there but it is really bad. Thankfully my home and my daugthers are fine but at least five homes in my subdivision alone have trees through the roofs and it is estimated it may take anywhere from a week to five weeks to get power restored. Tonight Gustav is flooding the streets and homes in Monroe (where I am) We are getting up to 4 inches an hour for the last three hours! No Gustav is far from over. I am glad you were spared.

My apologies Luby. After re-reading what I sent last night I realize how rude I sounded. This is a mess that the state of Louisiana must deal with now and I do not mean to act like I was the only one to suffer, so I am sorry that I sounded so insensitive to you and any other fellow cakers from LA. I am pretty sure that most of you do not have power right now to be able to access CC but I pray that you will soon be getting your lives back to normal. I and my family were actually so very blessed through this. We still have undamaged homes and more importantly no one was hurt.

You are correct though, life in LA without air conditioning is pretty trying and tends to make me pretty grumpy. I am not sure when I will be able to go home or what exactly I'll find as my husband says everywhere looks so different with all the trees down.

I truly am glad that you were spared the worst of this storm and hope you and any other cakers I may have offended by my first reply will forgive me for responding while I was in such a stressed and exhausted state. A little sleep last night put a whole new perspective on things.

Hope we will soon have everyone back on board and would love to know that everyone is okay.

We are still without electricity. I live in Scott and took my mother back to her house in Lafayette because she has electricity and just came out of the hospital and need extra care. This is the only way I am able to post this message. We are still under tornado watch and flooding watch. Entergy makes me furious at how slow they are. Lafayette Utility worked through the night of the hurricane cleaning up and repairing the electric lines and so did Slemco while Entergy waited till the next day to go out and look around to see what needed to be done. We pay higher rates with Entergy than other companies because of hurricane Katrina and we get worse service than the other companies. I wish the Insurance Commissioner would make Entergy more responsible for their management. Sorry for the vent, maybe it is lack of sleep from the hurricane and hospital stay with my mother.

I forgot to add, I hope everyone had minor damage. Looks like I will be re-landscaping my front yard. Most of my Cassia trees uprooted and destroyed my new fence. Minor roof damage and broken shudders. We got off lucky. Hope everyone else is doing okay.

I'm glad the three of you and your families are alright. I have been thinking of those of you who are being affected. I can't imagine what you guys have been through!

I hope the cleanup goes quickly! I lived a little over a week without power once in an ice storm in NC. We did have gas logs to stay warm with. I remember heating the baby bottles in the fire place! Not something I would like to experience ever again!

Stay safe and strong!

MessyBaker

Gustav is far from over. We have had heavy rain, flooding and power outages here in Arkansas for 2 days. Some places got 9" yesterday with more expected today. It has rained for 2 solid days and no sign of letting up. We had to recall our Entergy crews from Louisiana because we have more power outages than Louisiana done. Lost of schools are closed due to flooding and no power. At least I only lost 1 tree in my yard and didn't lose my power.

I'm glad it's over is some parts but, as the saying goes "it ain't over til it's over" and it ain't over here yet.

Oh my goodness - I certainly didn't mean to upset people with this post.

I am so sorry you Louisiana folks had to go thru this again, but I am happy you are safe.

Here in Little Rock, Arkansas, things are still happening. We were without power from 6AM till 2PM today. I feel lucky we got it back so quickly considering a large portion of the city was without power and in danger of flashflood. Unfortunately, there will probably be homes still without power tomorrow. We lost no trees, but have been ever vigilant watching the creek rise toward our house. We were partially flooded in Nov 2006 and never want to go thru that again. The rain is supposed to be gone by Friday.

Please don't take my post as being upset - Gustav just really hasn't died yet. We woke up this morning to just a light rain, heavy cloudcover and a lot of water everywhere. Lots of schools are still closed today due to water and/or lack of power.

Our winds were near as bad as it was for people on the coast, it just seemed that Gustav got here and decided hang out for while.

Well...he was certainly no fun in this neck of the woods... Zachary, LA. 90 mph winds, tornado's hovering above...luckly they didn't touch down, 7 BIG trees down, 2 feet of water in the lower floor... Just got electricity back this morning...and I'm one of the LUCKY ones... sigh...clorax is my friend...

Insult to injury... All of my gumpaste flowers melted...

Tomorrow is another day, Scarlett,
Pat

Bless all you folks over there going through this. My heart goes out to you and you are all in my prayers...I can't imagine what it must be like!!! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!!!
Linda

You guys are right about Baton Rouge being a warzone, its terrible. I live in Denham Springs, right outside of B.R. and we were without power from Monday to Thursday. There are so many ppl who still dont have power and there are neighborhoods in BR that wont get power for 4 to 6 weeks, can you imagine that? A friend of ours had a baby wednesday morning and Woman's Hospital in BR was running on generators, that had no AC, they were using box fans, it was so hot. Can you imagine giving birth in what feels like a sauna, i hated leaving her there, they didnt get electricity back until Thursday. We had a generator, but we were still miserable, my heart breaks for all the ppl who wont have power for 6 weeks.

We're still without power in baton rouge. I'm at my inlaws house now but it's been six days and we still don't have electricity. it's enough to make people want to cry and they do. My poor neighbor broke down today and the only thing that snapped me out of the despair was that we got to spend the night at my inlaws house with air condtioning. At least it was only 80 degrees in the house today. Much more pleasant than the 90 degrees it has been in there for the last week. It rained for four days after the hurricane and nothing would dry. The floor was always slick because the humidity settled on it. the bathroom towels wouldn't dry. I stopped washing my hair because it took all day to dry. Everyone's house smelled of musty mildew. For those of you unfamiliar with LA weather imagine having a sauna in your attic during the height of summer. My gumpaste flowers and decorated cake dummies melted into a disgusting gummy puddle. To think that another hurricane might come towards us next week is just depressing.

Oh jsmith, i'm so sorry you're still without power, I know how miserable it is. I know everyone is really on edge and tempers and emotions start to boil over, its horrible, and yes to think Ike might hit before the ppl even recover from Gustav, is heartbreaking. My SIL left her windows open so it wouldnty be so stuffy and now her carpet and linens and furniture is all yucky, shes trying to claim it on her homeowners. I hope you guys get back up and running soon, im thinking of you.

We have power! Thanks Vanna! It's amazing how air conditioning can energize you. Before when it was so hot I could barely move and didn't feel like doing anything. But now I have tons of energy and am running around getting everything done that I couldn't before. Now I'm off to vacuum which hasn't been done in a week. Yuk!