Today is second day after Tropical Storm Lee blew through here, in a ragged series of bands that left open spaces of hours at a time when you could see sunshine and a bit of blue sky through all the grey clouds. Today, like yesterday, is a beautiful day, clear blue skies, no clouds, low humidity, sunshine, and temperatures in the 70s. Everyone is saying if every storm brought this kind of weather, we'd gladly have more storms. (Not really, but it's the kind of thing that folks say.)
It started raining on Thursday morning. I thought the rain and the coming storm would mean the cancellation -- once again -- of the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans clergy tour of the improved flood system, but apparently the Corps was just as tired of canceling and rescheduling as clergy were. So we all climbed into the bus in the drizzle, and were driven first way out into New Orleans East, to view the new fortifications on Bayou Bienvenu. This involved climbing up a steep new levee, so new it had only grass seeds and no grass and, with all the rain, it was basically a mud levee. Everyone got back on the bus with caked-on river mud on their shoes. And if you've ever dealt with river mud, you know that stuff's not coming off, not any time soon, not without a LOT of effort. Pretty soon, that bus was looking pretty sorry.
The next stop was the gigantic hole in the waterway being worked on under the Seabrook Bridge. They evidently had to pump out millions and millions of gallons of water to get down under there. When they are finished constructing the underwater gate system, they will let the water back in by pulling up the temporary metal wall they sank in to hold it back while the work was going on. I sure would like to be there *that* day!
As the tour went on, the rain kept on coming down. At 4:30 pm, when they dropped us off back at the Lakeview Community Center, it was still lightly raining. (Not enough to clean off my shoes, I can tell you that.) That evening I attended an event for the Human Rights Coalition at Tulane University, and the story was the same -- steady, if somewhat light, rain fell the whole time. While I was there, I got an alert on my phone about Tropical Storm Lee and went home to discuss with Big Man our possible preparations.
Friday morning, it was raining pretty hard, and had rained all Thursday night. Big Man declined to move the patio furniture, thinking it wasn't that big of a deal wind-wise, but agreed to get emergency groceries to supplement our supplies. Yeah, us, and the rest of New Orleans. The Walmart parking lot was packed; it looked like they were giving stuff away, which of course they weren't. We continued on to Rouse's where the scene was somewhat better, but we found out why when we entered, dripping wet from the soaking we got.
Many of the shelves of storm-staples were already picked clean. White bread was nearly all gone -- luckily, we don't eat white bread, so there was still plenty of the whole-wheat, heavy-fiber stuff we eat. The battery aisle was picked clean; good thing I had already stocked up, mainly because our new battery storage cabinet makes me feel bad if there are too many empty spaces. Rouse's had just restocked the gallon water jugs, so we were OK there too, picking up another 3 to go with the one left over from the last storm stock-up. To get to the tuna fish cans that were left you had to reach back into the shelf, but we did find some there. We decided on 2 big bags of ice in case electricity went out and we needed to keep things cold. We also got some rawhide chews to help calm Keely our dog. (Storms make her nervous and nervous makes her chewy.)
It rained all of Friday, sometimes very hard indeed. Church leaders began discussions of whether or not to cancel services on Sunday. After all, our corner floods during heavy regular rains, let alone days and days of tropical storm. It rained all Friday night and was raining when we woke up on Saturday. Big Man made some phone calls as soon as he was up, fearing that the shrimp boil he was scheduled to pay for had been cancelled, but no, the house owner had decided it was Tropical Storm Lee and Labor Day Weekend Shrimp Boil, so it was still on. (Maybe he figured he had already bought the shrimp and all, so...) Meanwhile, I frantically made phone calls and emails, to alert church members and the public that the Sunday service was definitely cancelled.
The party was a strange affair. It was held in a recently renovated shotgun off Freret Street, with a makeshift deck covered with a tarp. The renovation was clearly done by a man, for men. For one thing, there were not enough electric outlets, the floor had been highly polyurethaned, like a gym floor (which I guess was helpful, because they had all the windows on the yard house open, and the floor was soaking wet), and the kitchen had a high eat-on counter made of recycled wood that had 2 things wrong with it: it was too high to prep on and it was unfinished on the underside (I know, 'cause I got a nasty splinter from it). Another sign of careless masculine-flavored renovation was the bathroom, with its shiny corrugated metal wall on one side, the multi-toned slate tile on the other walls and floor, the fancy bowl-type sink -- and the plain old regulation rub. And there was no lock on the bathroom door, really. (Really?)
The resident(s), whoever they were (it was never clear to me), had moved nearly all the living room furniture into the back bedroom to make room for the band, and so that's where they set up. It rained on and off all day (with the sun weirdly breaking through at one point as another one of the bands of Lee made it was across the city), but folks kept coming in and out, the windows wide open. The band got a break just as the first batch was done, and I have to say they were some of the biggest boiled shrimp I've ever had, even in a restaurant. They were well-seasoned too, and the boil included Manda's hot sausage (LOVE Manda's!), giant heads of garlic, lots of halved onions, stalks of celery, lemon halves, and corn on the cob (no new potatoes, though).
The band played from about 12:30 to a little after 5 pm (Big Man said that the horn was REALLY going to need cleaning after that, and it was TMI for me, UGH). The rain went back to hard teeming rain that evening, and pretty much rained all night, and all the next day, Sunday. Good thing we cancelled church. It then proceeded to rain all day Labor Day Monday as well.
We did not suffer. Except for a little blown rain around the upstairs dormer window, nothing leaked; our street didn't even flood as it sometimes does, and our electricity never went off. We were well-stocked, safe, and cozy, and we sure ate well. (I made stuffed merliton casserole with hot sausage, a meaty spaghetti sauce over angel hair pasta, and a beef and turkey meatloaf to try to work on that full freezer.) Some folks had more trouble than we did -- water on first floors in parts of Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes, as well as on Madeville's lakefront; street flooding around the city in low-lying neighborhoods, and lots and lots of trees got "trimmed"by the storm, and some trees got knocked over. But all in all, all of us were lucky. Could've been a lot worse.
When Tuesday came up cool and beautiful, it was like a gift. And then today as well.
