OT: Katrina - 19 yrs ago

[Wesson Bulldog]

Hard to believe how long ago Katrina blew up the coast and interior of MS.
I was an MPSA football official at the time living in Wesson. No games for weeks. Power out, supplies tight. First game back was at Bowling Green School in Franklinton, LA three weeks after. Played on Saturday afternoon bc of power outage. Unreal damage down that way south of Tylertown.

 

[mike tice]

#landmass

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Hard to believe how long ago Katrina blew up the coast and interior of MS.
I was an MPSA football official at the time living in Wesson. No games for weeks. Power out, supplies tight. First game back was at Bowling Green School in Franklinton, LA three weeks after. Played on Saturday afternoon bc of power outage. Unreal damage down that way south of Tylertown.

Was in an executive board meeting that day. We ended early to go home because it looked like this one might be "real". Jackson area. Wind blew sideways for 4 - 6 hours straight. It was a really crappy way to learn that my contractor did not caulk around the outside of my windows. The duct tape, tarp, garbage can water diversion canal that I built would have made MacGyver proud.

 

[CoastTrash]

The coast was trashed.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I was playing football at Co Lin at the time. Remember it like yesterday. Power was out at my family home in Brookhaven I want to say the power was out for 2 to 3 weeks if I remember correctly. We played down at MGCCC when football came back, and that place was a mess. I remember on the drive down seeing pine trees that had their tops removed almost as if a tree mower had come thru, and that was creepy to me because it was the first time I seen a storm with that kind of power. I also had a buddy that him and his dad had a dump truck service and were called to help in the clean up on the coast. They told horror stories about all the things they saw down there.

 

[dawgman42]

I was "re-routed" from my Entergy nuclear plant work to go and answer phones at our customer service center downtown, where I remained for the next week. We received about an hours-worth of training and then went live. We were basically powerless to do almost anything, but most callers didn't believe us. I would say 95% of the calls and callers were Southern gentlemen and ladies just looking for help or even a voice to listen to (which I didn't hesitate to provide). I also learned that at least half of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana were on oxygen or had the diabeetus. But it was certainly an insightful time talking phone calls. Some of the gems I received:

• Had a man in Arkansas call to complain about this custom streetlight being out and the Entergy crews were too busy eating donuts to care. He didn't even know about Katrina at all. I went off on him in a very profound and educated way (I only uttered 20 or fewer swear words).
• Was told that only the white people were getting their lights turned back on and that Entergy hated black people. I told the guy "thanks, you now know the secret behind our special electron-segregated wires."
• Had many, many calls like the one above, where they wanted to speak to "the owner of Entergy." Or sometimes, if they were reasonable, they wanted to talk to my supervisor. So, I had a friend play my supervisor, and I played his manager. That way, after he couldn't solve their problem, he'd hand the phone back to me and I'd be someone new. Eventually, we "promoted" ourselves to General Manager and Vice President.
• Had a gas station owner on Lakeland call me and said if I can get his power restored in the next two hours, he'd give me all the free gas I wanted over the next year. I tried . . . boy did I try (but it didn't happen).

The most serious call I got was a lady trapped in her car in downtown New Orleans with a live power line down across it and ending right near her driver's side door. Again, the call center supervisors were stretched thin and weren't greatly helpful. I did call the police to get to her, but I eventually had her pop the trunk, try to get in her back seat, fold the seats down, and go out the trunk. She stayed on the line and was able to do that, but she started crying in relief as she saw sparks going crazy just outside the driver's side window. She was the hero, but I felt I got lucky and was able to help someone that day.

We were also considered first responders. Later in the week, when gas was scarce, yet prices were being gouged further up, up, and away, a convoy of 6-8 of us had to get a Sherrif's escort over to the Love's on Hwy. 80 and Flowood Drive to get gas (they had their power restored). We got to bypass the long gas line, but several good ole boys stepped outside of their pickups with guns in their hands unhappy about the situation. Deputies had to get in front of us, and two drew their weapons urging those angry F150 Americans to settle down, get back in their trucks, and wait it out. It was tense for a few minutes there. All to get $3.29 gas . . . 50 cents more than 3 days before. Here's a hearty 19-year-old 17 you, Loves.

I did get to enjoy leaving the call center on that first day (Monday, 8/29), drive down Lakeland Dr. back to Laurelwood as one of the only cars on the road and drive down the middle lane, looking up at the heavily swaying light poles, and hoping I had time to swerve one way or another if they started falling on me. Got home, had no power, but said 17'it, time to grill some catfish and watch debris and patio furniture from my neighbors fly over my fence. (The fish was good, too.)

 

[thatsbaseball]

Went over most of the area that was passible about 10 days after happened. Was with a coast native/resident (we were on business and had passes) and the place was unrecognizable . Just about all the "landmarks" were gone and he could hardly tell where we were. It was a sad day and I saw many scenes I'll never forget.

 

[dorndawg]

I was "re-routed" from my Entergy nuclear plant work to go and answer phones at our customer service center downtown, where I remained for the next week. We received about an hours-worth of training and then went live. We were basically powerless to do almost anything, but most callers didn't believe us. I would say 95% of the calls and callers were Southern gentlemen and ladies just looking for help or even a voice to listen to (which I didn't hesitate to provide). I also learned that at least half of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana were on oxygen or had the diabeetus. But it was certainly an insightful time talking phone calls. Some of the gems I received:

• Had a man in Arkansas call to complain about this custom streetlight being out and the Entergy crews were too busy eating donuts to care. He didn't even know about Katrina at all. I went off on him in a very profound and educated way (I only uttered 20 or fewer swear words).
• Was told that only the white people were getting their lights turned back on and that Entergy hated black people. I told the guy "thanks, you now know the secret behind our special electron-segregated wires."
• Had many, many calls like the one above, where they wanted to speak to "the owner of Entergy." Or sometimes, if they were reasonable, they wanted to talk to my supervisor. So, I had a friend play my supervisor, and I played his manager. That way, after he couldn't solve their problem, he'd hand the phone back to me and I'd be someone new. Eventually, we "promoted" ourselves to General Manager and Vice President.
• Had a gas station owner on Lakeland call me and said if I can get his power restored in the next two hours, he'd give me all the free gas I wanted over the next year. I tried . . . boy did I try (but it didn't happen).

The most serious call I got was a lady trapped in her car in downtown New Orleans with a live power line down across it and ending right near her driver's side door. Again, the call center supervisors were stretched thin and weren't greatly helpful. I did call the police to get to her, but I eventually had her pop the trunk, try to get in her back seat, fold the seats down, and go out the trunk. She stayed on the line and was able to do that, but she started crying in relief as she saw sparks going crazy just outside the driver's side window. She was the hero, but I felt I got lucky and was able to help someone that day.

We were also considered first responders. Later in the week, when gas was scarce, yet prices were being gouged further up, up, and away, a convoy of 6-8 of us had to get a Sherrif's escort over to the Love's on Hwy. 80 and Flowood Drive to get gas (they had their power restored). We got to bypass the long gas line, but several good ole boys stepped outside of their pickups with guns in their hands unhappy about the situation. Deputies had to get in front of us, and two drew their weapons urging those angry F150 Americans to settle down, get back in their trucks, and wait it out. It was tense for a few minutes there. All to get $3.29 gas . . . 50 cents more than 3 days before. Here's a hearty 19-year-old 17 you, Loves.

I did get to enjoy leaving the call center on that first day (Monday, 8/29), drive down Lakeland Dr. back to Laurelwood as one of the only cars on the road and drive down the middle lane, looking up at the heavily swaying light poles, and hoping I had time to swerve one way or another if they started falling on me. Got home, had no power, but said 17'it, time to grill some catfish and watch debris and patio furniture from my neighbors fly over my fence. (The fish was good, too.)

I've heard a lot of hard stories about what folks went through during and after Katrina, but I didn't know anyone had to eat grilled catfish. That's a new low, I'm sorry man.

 

[Anon1697564126]

My in-laws lived on a canal off of the water in Gautier. While the power was out, several people in their neighborhood who had 2 story houses were running generators for power and living in the second story. Genius neighbor drives around at night and see houses with lights on. He sets his house on fire and claims the fire started when he threw the main breaker to get power from the street. It didn't end well legally for him.

 

[johnson86-1]

I was "re-routed" from my Entergy nuclear plant work to go and answer phones at our customer service center downtown, where I remained for the next week. We received about an hours-worth of training and then went live. We were basically powerless to do almost anything, but most callers didn't believe us. I would say 95% of the calls and callers were Southern gentlemen and ladies just looking for help or even a voice to listen to (which I didn't hesitate to provide). I also learned that at least half of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana were on oxygen or had the diabeetus. But it was certainly an insightful time talking phone calls. Some of the gems I received:

• Had a man in Arkansas call to complain about this custom streetlight being out and the Entergy crews were too busy eating donuts to care. He didn't even know about Katrina at all. I went off on him in a very profound and educated way (I only uttered 20 or fewer swear words).
• Was told that only the white people were getting their lights turned back on and that Entergy hated black people. I told the guy "thanks, you now know the secret behind our special electron-segregated wires."
• Had many, many calls like the one above, where they wanted to speak to "the owner of Entergy." Or sometimes, if they were reasonable, they wanted to talk to my supervisor. So, I had a friend play my supervisor, and I played his manager. That way, after he couldn't solve their problem, he'd hand the phone back to me and I'd be someone new. Eventually, we "promoted" ourselves to General Manager and Vice President.
• Had a gas station owner on Lakeland call me and said if I can get his power restored in the next two hours, he'd give me all the free gas I wanted over the next year. I tried . . . boy did I try (but it didn't happen).

The most serious call I got was a lady trapped in her car in downtown New Orleans with a live power line down across it and ending right near her driver's side door. Again, the call center supervisors were stretched thin and weren't greatly helpful. I did call the police to get to her, but I eventually had her pop the trunk, try to get in her back seat, fold the seats down, and go out the trunk. She stayed on the line and was able to do that, but she started crying in relief as she saw sparks going crazy just outside the driver's side window. She was the hero, but I felt I got lucky and was able to help someone that day.

We were also considered first responders. Later in the week, when gas was scarce, yet prices were being gouged further up, up, and away, a convoy of 6-8 of us had to get a Sherrif's escort over to the Love's on Hwy. 80 and Flowood Drive to get gas (they had their power restored). We got to bypass the long gas line, but several good ole boys stepped outside of their pickups with guns in their hands unhappy about the situation. Deputies had to get in front of us, and two drew their weapons urging those angry F150 Americans to settle down, get back in their trucks, and wait it out. It was tense for a few minutes there. All to get $3.29 gas . . . 50 cents more than 3 days before. Here's a hearty 19-year-old 17 you, Loves.

I did get to enjoy leaving the call center on that first day (Monday, 8/29), drive down Lakeland Dr. back to Laurelwood as one of the only cars on the road and drive down the middle lane, looking up at the heavily swaying light poles, and hoping I had time to swerve one way or another if they started falling on me. Got home, had no power, but said 17'it, time to grill some catfish and watch debris and patio furniture from my neighbors fly over my fence. (The fish was good, too.)

I don't remember for sure, but I would bet that their prices definitely went up $0.50 per gallon the day Katrina hit. Probably more likely with Ike which I think hit more production, but costs going up by 18% because of a Cat 5 moving through the gulf doesn't seem crazy to me.

 

[The Peeper]

Hard to believe how long ago Katrina blew up the coast and interior of MS.
I was an MPSA football official at the time living in Wesson. No games for weeks. Power out, supplies tight. First game back was at Bowling Green School in Franklinton, LA three weeks after. Played on Saturday afternoon bc of power outage. Unreal damage down that way south of Tylertown.

Hurricane Frederick made land at the AL-MS line on Sept 12 '79 w/ max winds 130mph. We were scheduled to play Moss Point High on Friday night the 21st. We drove to MP on the 21st in our chartered Gulf Transport (think Greyhound) bus, man what a mess they had.

No power, light poles snapped, they had rescheduled us to play at 1:00 p.m. due to the lights. We parked our bus in front of the visitors locker room and left the doors open because it was hotter than Lucifers Den and we couldn't see anything inside w/out leaving the doors open. We had to take all of our water down there because they didn't have service. We pre-mixed Gatorade too and had parents taking extra water jugs, cans, coolers, etc in trucks and cars and took sack lunches instead of the usual pre-game meal at a local restaurant. On top of that they kicked our butts 19-0

 

[bulldognation]

For days afterward, the substation in St. Martin would receive “phantom calls” from addresses that were leveled to mere slabs. They reasoned that these calls were hung up in the system from residents who couldn’t get through.
Creepy and sad.

 

[Scottfield1]

I rode it out just south of exit 50 Ocean Springs. I had my 1 and 2 year old with me who were oblivious to it all. You could watch the rafters of the house lift up and down. Fortunately we were surrounded by pine tree Forrest that were far away enough from the house and cut down on the wind sheer. We had an emergency radio and would listen to distress calls of those trapped with water rising. It was torture. Immediately after it stopped I made my way Hwy 90, where my dad lived a block off the beach. To witness the utter devastation of 2 city blocks mostly gone. Slabbed as we refer to it. The worst part was watching people loot with backpacks full of others stuff. When I found my dad, he was sitting on a chair outside of his house with a pistol in each hand ready to kill someone. You could see the anger in his eyes.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I flew on a Blackhawk down to the coast, trees down everywhere. Being AF, flying Urmy was certainly an experience, no briefing, no instructions, etc, but I did have a box of MREs to sit on. Two serious looking guys were on the flight, no name, rank, etc. Whenever you see military aged males in "sanitized uniforms" you don't want to know too much. They continued on the Blackhawk after I got off at Gulfport (to NOLA I'm assuming).

The destruction along Hwy 90 was indescribable. By the time I got there the produce in the semi trailers at the port in Gulfport had rotted, the smell was also indescribable. With in a few days, the NG base in Gulfport was overflowing with people, supplies and equipment. Flight operations were continuous day and night. MS responded very well. Even a week later, goods were still on the shelves in damaged stores in Gulfport, no looting that I saw.

 

[Digging dog]

Was south of Slidel that weekend for a water garden seminar.

We were getting second hand information from others that were getting calls and updates

Already hearing I-10 was getting congested. So we went up through Abita Springs to Tylertown and over to McComb

first time I saw the preliminary steps of setting up a contra flow by the highway department.

 

[GloryDawg]

My house was brand new when Katria hit. There have been numerous hailstorms since. I have the same roof. I had a roofer come out today. Yes, it is hail damage to hell. No leaks. My policy roof repair does not use depreciation. It's replacement cost minus deductible. up to 300.00 per square foot. That is changing when my policy renewals. Depreciation will then be taken into account. The roofer is going to eat my 2K deductible. I am getting a 20-year-old roof replaced for free. Here is what crazy. HO plans now will hit your premium hard when the roof is old. Once the new roof is on, my agent said my homeowners will go from 3300.00 a year to 1620.00 years.

 

[SirBarksalot]

Katrina….Led me to buy my first AR-15

 

[Anon1684630174]

Katrina…Led my now wife to buy her first AR-15.

Hattiesburg was a hoot. It was pretty educational and offered a glimpse into what societal breakdown would be like. I’m taking H’burg. It was a complete breakdown in N.O.

 

[Mobile Bay]

This was the warning

 

[biodawg]

I've heard a lot of hard stories about what folks went through during and after Katrina, but I didn't know anyone had to eat grilled catfish. That's a new low, I'm sorry man.

Hard lesson to learn, but I bet he keeps a little peanut oil and LA fish fry on hand at all times, now.