The hospital’s power came back on last evening and I don’t think you you would’ve seen a happier group of people - it was almost like we hit the jackpot at the casino.  Air conditioning is a wonderful thing.  So, is hot water.  However, I am tired of the hospital and want to go home - no power at my house yet.  The house’ll be hot when we finally get to go home because I turned off the air, but at least I don’t have to worry about my fridge reaking since I already got everything out.  My large stores of Schwan’s frozen food has been feeding the staff at the hospital - better someone to eat it than have it go to waste.

Not to seem overly critical of the hospital that has served as my evacuation shelter for the past 4 days, but the owner and administrators (Hammond only, the West Bank administrator was here during the storm) just don’t have a clue - they both high-tailed it out of here before the storm and left behind the staff and patients - cowardice.  However, on that note - these nurses that I have seen work through this hurricane are some of the hardest working and kindest people I have met. Most of them have been here 24/7 for the past 5-7 days.  The patient’s have been taken care of and the hospital has remained clean and functional - as a hospital should.  Both of the West Bank and Hammond staff have been amazing - both Directors of Nursing have been working tirelessly for days without knowing how their own home have fared.

Mary is zonked out right now, taking a nap, after working 7 days straight.  She’s an incredible nurse and I am glad I have had this opportunity to see her working as a nurse.  I have had many of her employees and several patients tell me what an incredible nurse she is - I have never been so proud of my partner than I am now.

Now onto my political commentary.

Bush is an idiot.  I love Governor Bobby Jindal.  Both Republicans, but I swear they are from completely different planets.  I’ve actually always liked Bobby Jindal - I’m not really sure why he runs on the Republican ticket - he’s more like Guiliani or Schwartzeneggar.  It’s been 2 days since Gustav and already Jindal has railed against the energy companies, oil companies and federal government - Kathleen Blanco would still be standing around going - huh, what happened?  a hurricane?  I saw Jindal’s address this morning in response to Entergy (LAs largest electric company) stating it may be weeks before power is restored to many homes as 13 of 14 major transmission lines between Baton Rouge and New Orleans are down.  Jindal has emphatically stated that this is unacceptable and the government needs to step up (state and federal) and bring in the resources necessary to fix the system.  In addition, Jindal has said it was completely irresponsible for Entergy to not have built in redundancy especially after Katrina.  I completely agree - Gustav was not nearly as devastating as Katrina and yet Entergy is saying the power outages are much more extensive than Katrina - how can this be?  Let me share my most recent electric bill with you - For the bill due at the end of this month - $324.94 - of which only $130 is really my fuel bill - the rest are hurricane surcharges and adjustments - from Katrina three years ago.  I can’t even remember when my electric bill was last under $200 - and I live in an average size house - and since I am such a retentive person, I know what my electric bills were 5 years ago - an average of $120 with winter being about half that.  Now, why do I pay so much for a system that doesn’t have a better grid in place?

I’m not really sure how I feel about Ray Nagin.  I know a lot of people are upset that he still has the mandatory evacuation in place with the city not officially opening until tomorrow.  Those who were bused to shelters outside the area are pissed off because they aren’t able to  come home this weekend.  I say - deal with it, but then again I am sitting in a hospital which had its power restored fairly quickly and had generators going.  I’m not in a shelter with thousands of other people.  But then again - I prepared after Katrina.  But then again - I am not destitute and poor.  The old adage is true - you can’t please every one all the time.  Someone’s always going to go home unhappy.  I do agree that the state and the city did the right with evacuating and I think things could’ve run smoother, but our government over all was designed to be inefficient.

Amazingly, the patients at the hospital have held up well.  I know they must be miserable.  The good news is that the generator is holding up just fine and is not in any danger of going out anytime soon.  We have running water, working toliets, ice and a number of fans trying to push the humid air around.  It’s ok, but I’m not interested in spending any more time than necessary here.  How people lived in this god-forsaken place prior to air conditioning is beyond me.  We’ve heard the power trucks are working up the road trying to get this grid restored.  I know that I shouldn’t be complaining - at least we aren’t in the shape they were in the New Orleans hospitals like during Katrina.  Ice is a magical thing.

I’ve been out and checked on my house and it is ok - actually, the damage I saw was fairly minimal - some trees uprooted and power lines down, but all in all, we escaped major damage.  I have heard that Baton Rouge sustained a lot of damage.  Downtown Madisonville flooded pretty badly and the river is still rising as the rain falls.  They expect this trend to continue during the next 24 hours.  One of our favorite restaurants has about 3 feet of water in it.  I’ve updated my website to include pictures of what I saw:

Hurricane Gustav

Verizon Wireless is awesome - never went down!

The hurricane has made landfall and while it is nasty outside, it’s manageable.  The eyewall is about an hour away.  I just came back from a drive to Mary’s Director of Nursing’s apartment.  Yes, we are crazy.  Mary wanted some scrambled eggs for breakfast and well, there aren’t any stores open.  Mary’s DON’s name is also Tracy and we made it back ok, so there is no need to write an article entitled the The Incredibly Stupid Adventures of Two Girls Named Tracy.  We got the eggs and made it back ok.  It’s not too bad right now - just some rain and a bit of wind.  I’ve already had my camera out, but I have to admit, it’s a bit anti-climatic.  Maybe in an hour, it’ll get more exciting.  So, far, the power is fine.  Phones are p and as you can see, my wireless aircard is still connected.

Apparently the majority of the areas around us are without power, so I don’t believe we have escaped yet, but I can be hopeful.  Of course, it means that I will have to cart the week’s worth of supplies back to the house tomorrow.  Well - better that than to not have a house to cart stuff back too.  So far, Gustav has not lived up to his name of killer storm.  I am glad, but I imagine it will lull folks into a false sense of security for the next hurricane and folks won’t want the hassle of evacuating for a manageable storm.