It seems like forever since I last blogged here- sorry. Hurricanes are a ton of work to prepare for and even more work awaits afterward. We were VERY fortunate that we did not experience any damage at the Casa de Perry. Our house sits about 1.5 miles north of Lake Pontchartrain on higher ground and went unscathed during Katrina (we bought it after). Our main concern about staying during a storm, is that we are surrounded by pine trees. It is also a given that we will lose electricity with all these surrounding trees. Right before Gustav, a microburst came and one of our pine trees landed on our neighbor’s house. Since then, we have had all of them removed since they obviously snap like matchsticks during inclement weather. We are fortunate to have plenty of Oaks on our property and do not miss them at all. Unfortunately, many of our surrounding neighbors still have pine trees in falling distance from our house!

Evacuating is a ton of work with 3 kids, 4 cats and a neurotic dog and Isaac was only a tropical storm predicted to be a Category 1 (not to be taken lightly either). We did evacuate for Gustav but decided to ride Isaac out. The deal we made with the kids was that if we stayed, they could not go in the outer rooms that were within tree-falling distance. We had a stocked fridge, plenty of alcohol, a 5 gallon cooler of water, batteries, gassed up cars and the generator ready to go with tons of gas for backup. We are on the same electric grid as the police station so Cleco got us back up and running within 24 hours (very lucky).

At the end of the day, we are glad we stayed and we did enjoy some quality family bonding time while cooped up. We have a gas stove and nobody starved, but possibly did quite the opposite, being off our normal fitness routines and diets. We cleaned up our lawn, our neighbor’s lawn, the boat and I helped a friend clean up. Our heart goes out to all those still recovering or displaced as well as those who had to endure all that time without power. The sense of community here is amazing. We moved here after Katrina in 2007 and we truly made the right decision! Wouldn’t trade it!

As I write this, my garbage was finally picked up. The debris is still waiting for pick up, but no rush! We are the lucky ones that do not have any logs in our debris!

Thank you to all those well wishers and who offered us evacuation destinations. It means so much!

Next purchase…a window air conditioner!