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New Orleans Off the GRID

Word has it from a t-con just completed with Louisiana's power company, Entergy, is that it may be weeks before power is restored to southern Louisiana.

The Times-Pic has the following article posted regarding this.

This info below is taken from Entergy's own website and is pretty frightening. New Orleans is an electrical ISLAND:

- Entergy’s transmission system has sustained extremely severe damage from Hurricane Gustav, damage that could make power restoration a difficult and slow process, especially in southeastern Louisiana.

- The transmission damage across the Entergy system includes 191 transmission lines and 210 substations out of service.

- Entergy’s preparations made in advance of the storm to protect its system contributed directly to the power that is still on in New Orleans. Without the planning to isolate some generators there, this transmission damage would have interrupted power everywhere in the New Orleans area. Entergy’s Waterford 1, Nine Mile Point and Little Gypsy plants are now supplying all the power available in this area.

- Thirteen of the 14 transmission lines serving the New Orleans metropolitan area are out of service due to the storm. This creates a situation where the New Orleans metropolitan area and a corridor along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge have become essentially an island, no longer electrically connected to the rest of the Entergy system and the electricity grid for the eastern United States. This “island” is south of Lake Pontchartrain and includes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles and upper Plaquemines parishes, which are sometimes referred to as the “river” parishes.

- Transmission lines in the Baton Rouge area that are needed to tie the “island” back to the system are out of service due to storm damage there, which was particularly severe.

- Entergy is therefore continuing to carefully manage the restoration process in the affected area because adding more load could create an imbalance and trip the system, putting all the lights out.

- Part of the difficulty is that there are no transmission lines to the south of New Orleans area because of the Gulf of Mexico. Transmission lines to the north, east and west are out of service.

- Entergy’s first choice to relieve the islanding issue was to use its 500,000-volt transmission line, but that line is damaged at the substation and will take several days to repair. The alternate is to use several 230,000-volt lines to tie in the system. Several lines would be needed to assure the stability of the island and avoid an outage that would affect the entire region. Assessment continues and the time needed to repair the 230,000-volt lines could still take several days.

- Entergy has experienced extensive distribution system damage, as well. This damage will be repaired in parallel with the transmission repairs so distribution will be ready as soon as possible when the transmission system repairs are made.

- Entergy continues restoring service to emergency facilities in the affected area. Other restoration continue, but energizing of completed repairs will be delayed until the area can be tied back to the rest of the system. Continued bad weather also is preventing damage assessment by helicopter at this time.

I guess this means that the little two block area that I'm in is damn lucky to have power.

It also means that New Orleans is holding on by an electrical thread.

Roadblocks for entering New Orleans

The map below lists the roadblocks for entering the New Orleans area until further notice. Source WVUE News, the LA State Police and NOYC.org.


View Larger Map

and... More Streetscapes

Been in a really nasty squall line training up from the South. Serious gusts moving through with sounds of trains and stuff coming up from behind you. Still remarkably have power and no street flooding. This storm, at least here, is way dryer than Katrina - and Katrina was really not that wet of a storm.

I've heard it doesn't look good further south of us and the surge has yet to work its way through our remaining vesitges of marsh.

Oh yeah, as far as those power lines you see in the video - I am definitely upwind of them. Still pretty freaky cruising the neighborhood though... I need a nap.

More Storm Footage/Industrial Canal

Video below of some fairly serious limbs that have crashed down. I recon-ed the neighborhood and there is still zero street flooding. No major trees down.





I'm kind of shitting my pants about that Industrial Canal footage I just saw on WWL TV. Here's the story from the Times-Picayune.

Mother of ALL Storms

The Mother of all Storms!

Gustav Videos - Big Gusts

The lights are definitely flickering. I've probably heard about eight transformers blow so far. Entergy only reports about 92,000 people without power. Looks like Gustav is hitting around Grand Isle.

Make sure you check out the wave action in the pool on this one. Still trying to catch some of the serious wind gusts. Going to do some recon and looks like we may have an issue with a pair of doors to the house weakening.

More Early Gustav with Video

Power's still holding here - bizarrely.

Heard from Benz, one of my "correspondents" out at the Lakefront. He said, "It's pretty windy." I laughed and told him that's not very descriptive. He replied, "It's pretty fucking windy."

Buzzy, also on the Lakefront said it's not that bad, maybe 75 knot puffs, and she still has power.

Last spoke to Capt. Mike who's riding the storm out on his 53 foot workboat, Manana, out at Municipal Harbor last night - AOK at that point.

Early Gustav with Video

Well the first electrical transformers are blowing which means winds must be gusting to say 50 - 55 knots. The power here is still holding. When they blow they put off a crazy blue green arcing light. Doubt I can catch that on video. The rain has surprisingly been fairly light up to this point.

Most of these storms come through at night - so to have one during the day is a nice change.

As the light becomes better, I'm going to get a video of the wave action in the pool - pretty interesting. Also one of the dog trying to go pee out in the yard. She keeps trying to make a run for it, but then charges back from the wind and the rain.

While I'm uploading this video, the only thing that keeps running through my head is Mel Gibson in Braveheart screaming to his troops, "Hold. Hold. Hold! HOLD!" except I'm talking about the electricity.

I started my ice factory last night... maybe made about an extra bag. lol.

Twitter Gustav

FYI - I'm mostly doing quick twitter updates (they can be found on the right hand side of the page) and will try and do some more in depth things normally.

As of now, nothing much exciting is going on weather wise. Most of the feeder bands have fizzled before reaching New Orleans other than the first one around 7pm Sunday. The neighborhood is nearly 90% deserted - basically exactly where it was for Katrina, until the onset of the levee failures. A couple of cop cars cruise up and down the street every now and then with their lights flashing.

As I stated in my earlier post, I still think this storm should only slightly effect New Orleans. However, it is astounding to watch the disconnect between the National and the local media. The local guys are all breathing a sigh of relief, yet the MSM is screaming hysterically simultaneously.

This will still be a serious storm down in Houma, Morgan City, Lafayette and cause flooding further to the northwest, but unless another catastrophic event happens - New Orleans should be fine, other than torrential tropical rain.

One final note for the night. I watched a local news video filmed yesterday of the head of the Army Corps of Engineers defending the incredibly slow progress on rebuilding Southeast Louisiana's levees. He stated, and I quote here, "You can't build a levee overnight."

Well, one lowly south Louisiana parish has and with no help from the Corps.

Gustav's First Wave

First feeder band is coming through now. Nice wall of gusts and then the rain. It's now pitch black outside where a minute ago it wasn't.

Realized right after that I left my window down in the jeep. Then I spoke to a good friend still in Lakeview, she thought it was beautiful. I explained that she hadn't really seen anything yet.




The bottom photo is from the Lakefront a few minutes ago and is courtesy of someone from Southern YC.

GUSTAV THREATENS - I'm doing laundry.

Alright, so apparently this storm is coming for my fair state... but guess what, I'm non-plussed. After going through the last five days filled with violent post traumatic stressful flashbacks, group therapy consumption and actually considering not staying for the "Mother of All Storms" - I am back where I knew I would be the whole time and really not at all that concerned for a rehashing of events from three years ago. I think Gustav is fizzling out... probably hit only as a Cat-and-a-half. Maybe two.

However, I am prepared. Cell phone, camera, generator, twitter, coca-cola ham, guns, coffee, a couple of cases of MRE's left over from the last event, and most of a case of Havana Club Rum (Siete Anos) that I smuggled in from a sailboat race to Mexico. My one concern is again for internet connection. I'm on a DSL line now, which is good because cable goes out whenever a crow sneezes in China and DSL has its own power source - but it is still a weakness.

Have no fear though my texting skills are even now far superior to where they were those first nights of Katrina. I even use punctuation.

Now I'm not really being nonchalant about this storm who's name apparently means "Staff of the Gods". With only about a month left on the reconstruction of the house in Lakeview before I can move back in, I'm pretty sickened to think that something could happen to it. For instance my stupid FEMA trailer out in the front yard getting hustled into the air by a strong feeder band and then dropped right through the new drywalls. That would suck. Tornados are also problematic.

I'm fairly certain that this will be a serious rain event, so street flooding in the chronic areas and streets will happen, but the house is five feet off the ground. Flooding was never a monster problem until Katrina. I also think the new gates at the mouths of the outfall canals that breached and drowned New Orleans will hold. There really shouldn't be a new need to print up sixteen thousand bumper stickers that say, "Army Corps of Engineers - We Put the Lake in Lakeview." Notice I only said New Orleans... because if that happens again, I'm afraid my city may very well be roped off before Obama sets foot in the Oval Office.

Issues for catastrophic flooding lie in the other Federally forgotten people and areas of this state where the White House lingers over drawings for levees and rebuilt wetlands. Why does that even matter you may ask? I answer, check your gasoline prices a week from now. Port Fourchon, which may be ground zero for the eye of Gustav, is where nearly 40% of this nations fuel comes through. Oh yeah, and Louisiana refines like 30% of all that liquid that gets most everyone to work.

Ok, enough ranting. Today I boarded up the house in Lakeview and then went for a nice leisurely drive through the city. It was pretty much me, the NOPD and National Guardsmen. Very quiet, and it brought back too many memories. Houses and businesses boarded up, leaves blowing into the empty streets, humvees, soldiers with M-16s on a few corners, skies filled with Blackhawks, reporters interviewing reporters - I kept wondering where the buses the cops commandeered and spray painted NOPD on to identify them were, the broken out store windows, the de facto military base at Audubon Zoo. All of it. It really creeped me out.

It's not that a day doesn't go by that I don't have a quick memory about something on some random corner from Katrina. A smell, a dark stretch of road where the streetlights are still out. But then, oh yeah, all I need to do to understand that Katrina still ain't over is to look at my FEMA trailer, the water lines that still reside on houses down the street from me, the fact that all of my immediate neighbors houses have been bulldozed and are now idle and empty lots.

But then you realize how much has come back. The spirit and heart of all New Orleanians who have returned, the young minds who have migrated to my city to help her renew herself, the open businesses, the fact that 47% of my neighbors in Lakeview have returned and have re-planted their gardens - it all helps.

Maybe that's partly why I don't feel overly concerned for this storm.

I think these New Orleanians, these Americans, have fought far too hard and straight into the heart of gross odds to rebuild a way of life for it to be so simply snatched away from us...

Well, the first feeder bands should be coming through shortly. Until then.

Update

We are still not OK.

I've spent some time today re-reading my blog which I've never really done... It wasn't strange to relive those events, they're with me all the time. But what got me was reading people's comments. That broke me down for hours. All I can say is thanks to the many people who either posted prayers or thanks, and I will be eternally grateful to those individuals who came to my rescue, physically or mentally, in some small or large way. Thanks.

As far as an update, the book has been picked up by Gibbs-Smith Publishing and will be released nationally in the Fall of '08. Obviously I'm excited about that, but man do you have to learn patience in the publishing world.

I'm still writing for the likes of Gambit, New Orleans CityBusiness, Sailing World, etc. Here's a few links to some recent stories.

- A New Frontier
- Economic Boom Fails
- MRGO's Dead Zone
- Set Sail
- Dining With a Few Reservations
- Katrina's Marinas
- Nearly Lost, Not Forgotton
- Zephyr!

I'm also on the radio these days. I have a small weekly show, Radio Diner, reviewing New Orleans restaurants. Radio Diner airs on WWNO during NPR news on Thursdays at 4:45pm. You can listen live on the internet and they have a few archived shows also.

I'm still living in my FEMA trailer and, big shock here, have yet to receive any of my Road Home grant. With my house having rested five feet off the ground, I did not have flood insurance. Well after nearly ten feet of water inundated the neighborhood... I still wait in a trailer sitting in front of a gutted house. I always have wanted to live aboard a boat, I've kind of gotten my wish, but it is getting trying.

My neighborhood, Lakeview, is actually coming back nicely. In my block alone nearly half of the houses are undergoing renovation... trust me, that's incredible.

I'm still actively working on some projects that you can check out below.

- Ryan Finn Ocean Racing
- New Basin Lighthouse Rescue
- Renew NOLA
- ReLeaf New Orleans

I also have two large new book projects that I am working on. One will be a novelized version of the Regatta Diaries and the other is top secret.

All the best and until next time.

___________