Chad took this picture from the top of the 210 bridge this morning. He wasn’t the driver!
Chad is staying in the hotel in the back and to the let of the front hotel. I think the front hotel is Golden Nugget but I’m not sure. All of those have been built since I lived there.
My guess is that any lights are from generators. Chad’s hotel is using generators for power and they have big water trucks in to provide water. Can you imagine how much water it takes to run a hotel??
The sunrise, the calm water .. hard to believe the beauty provided by mother nature, as well as the tremendous destruction. Looking at that picture, it’s so hard to believe there’s so much damage there. Ten days after the storm and still no power to 97% of the Lake Charles area and that includes pretty much all of Calcasieu Parish. I believe a lot of the area does have running water now so that’s an improvement. Electricity will speed things up a lot but the energy company there isn’t very optimistic about getting it back on soon. They are saying they’re having to pretty much rebuild the entire grid.
Chad is saying he’s ready to be home but that isn’t happening soon either.
Teri says
That is a pretty picture. Thankful for workers like Chad. How are your folks and Uncle doing?
Liz says
I read an article about how many huge transmission poles, transformers, regular poles, and miles of wire that will be required to rebuild the LA grid. It was shocking, but it makes sense when they say it will take over a month or two to everyone re-connected.
The utility tree trimmer trucks usually work in the fall and spring around here to deal with the trees that are around transmission lines. I haven’t seen any of the trucks for a while. I’m glad that the lines in my neighborhood are all underground and the nearest power station is about one mile from me.
A few years ago, we had a 5.6 earthquake and the emergency breakers worked and shut the power. But, it was at night, so it took about an hour before the on-call guys made it to the station to reset everything. We had another quake a week later with the same power outage. I started making a thermos of hot water at night so I could have a cup of tea while I wait for the power to return. Yes, I could have set up my camp stove, but it was still night time. Still, it is nice that I am prepared, thanks to Judy and her posts.
Judy Laquidara says
That’s the beauty of a gas stove – always ready! 🙂
The tree trimmers with the electric crews – some of them will have been gone from home two – three months (or longer) after having gone to New York, Iowa and now Louisiana so they’re going to have to work overtime to get the work done in their own areas when they get home.
Nelle Coursey says
It is amazing how much destruction can happen in just a few minutes. Hope Chad is home soon.
Susan Nixon says
It’s only been 100 years that our country has pretty much taken running water and electricity for granted – less for some places even in the US. How blessed we are to have it! This disaster, like every one, makes me grateful for what I usually take for granted.