Beerslinger has written in, with words from Baton Rouge. Please take a moment to read his thoughts:

Friends,

I wanted to take a few moments to update everyone on Hurricane Gustav, and the aftermath or the storm on Baton Rouge.

First let me tell you that my family and I are all safe and secure. No one that I know was injured or killed in the events of the storm. This is primarily due to the fact that prior to the impact of Gustav, Louisiana staged the single largest mass evacuation in the history of the Unites States. Several million people fled in the face of the storm.

The winds and the rain were at record levels in Baton Rouge, where I live. The gusts were measured in several different places reaching 91 miles per hour. (That is 146 KPH for my metric friends.) The devastation is… well it is amazing. I have never in my life seen anything like it.

You see, Baton Rouge is a green city. It is covered in 100 year old oak trees, and tens of thousands of other thees. It really is a beautiful city to live in. However it is this abundance of trees that has caused us problems. As the storm came through thousands of these trees were knocked down, or simple ripped out of the ground and many of them took out power lines. At one point 3/4 of the state was without electrical power.

I lost two trees in my own yard. One fell in my back yard, and caused no real damage other than the effort I will have to go through to clean it up. The other took out my fence and is currently residing inside my neighbors house. It crushed their roof and wall, and knocked out a few windows.

They are being good sports about the whole thing, knowing it is not my fault, but I still feel pretty bad about it.

For almost 36 hours I was trapped at my house. Six large oak trees, two of which were over 5 feet in diameter, fell across the road leading to my house. This blocked traffic in both directions and kept me inside until the city could clear the roadway. The 6 trees took out a total of 15 telephone polls and their accompanying power lines, so I have no power. And do not expect to for a while.

I do have a generator. It is enough to power my refrigerator, a very small room air conditioner a TV and a couple of fans. I have also run an extension cord to my neighbors house to give them some power. However this thing goes through 5 gallons of gas every 10 hours it operates.

There is nothing more scarce in Baton Rouge right now than gasoline.

I drove outside the affected area yesterday with my truck loaded down with empty jerry cans. I had to drive two hours to North Eastern Louisiana before I was able to find an out of the way truck stop where they had gas, and fairly short lines. I pumped 60 gallons (227.12 liters) filling my truck and jerry cans. This was very expensive, but of course there is no real choice.

After I finished pumping the gas, two men approached me and demanded I give it to them. You see, when supplies are short, and tempers start flaring, ordinary people are willing to do things they would not normally do. We talked for a few seconds about it. I kept the gas because I had a gun, and they had a bat.

I swear that I thought I was going to have to shoot someone.

Last night a woman was arrested for attempted murder of a police officer. She went to a distribution center for emergency supplies, and skipped the line. (The line was managed by the state police and was 7.5 miles long. (that is 12.07km)). When the police officer leaned into her car to tell her that she couldn’t just drive up and get supplies, she had to wait in line, she grabbed him by the collar and sped off. He had to be hospitalized for injuries caused by being dragged by a car.

Now the good news: Never before in the history of this country has such a massive relief effort been mobilized. neighboring stated have sent us 11,000 utility workers to help us get power back on. (Remember that this is not just Baton rouge, but all the parishes south of us as well that are without power) FEMA is taking great pride in showing us the lessons that they learned in Katrina, and is mobilizing supplies faster than they ever have before.

All that being said, looting has started. Now, nobody blames someone that breaks into the store to get milk and diapers for their children. But when you break into the DVD store and steal a couple of car loads of DVDs, this is a crime. Home invasions have already started. Some friends in the police force were telling me that people are breaking into houses to steal cash, valuables, etc.

Power:

The single biggest problem facing Baton Rouge right now is the lack of electrical power. The vast majority of the businesses and people in the city are out of power. This is keeping us from getting the necessary stores open, this is preventing the manufacture of vital supplies such as ice.

The most recent estimate is that it will take 6-8 weeks for the entire city to come back online. Obviously this is not everyone. Some people have already had their power restored. However, I expect that it will be at least a week before most people start seeing power in their area, let alone at their house.

I am taking the time to write this from work, as it is the only place I have access to a computer or to the Internet. However, when I get time to write again, I will.

I hope everyone is well.