So in the confusion of the extremely brief phone call with my dad this morning, we miscommunicated. He actually has NOT spoken to my mom or her parents since the storm hit. My sister got to speak with Dad briefly tonight and she said he sounded better than I described this morning. They'd been pulling hundreds of people from rooftops and chopping people out of their attics. I probably spoke to him immediately after a long shift of that.
My sister reported that dad sounded cautiously optimistic. He said that though it is really terrible, the news is sensationalizing it a little bit, and the destruction is not (yet) quite as even handed as the media reports lead you to believe. I hope the abandonment of the levees and pumping stations won't make national news reports an accurate foretelling, as lake waters contine to rise in all of the city on the east side of the river. Dad and his mom have been evacuated from the downtown to the Westbank somewhere, probably Gretna. He's going to try to get my grandma to my sister in BR, and she'll bring my grandmother to my great aunt's house outside of Houston where she can stay indefinitely until there is someplace to return. It also sounds like with the arrival of the National Guard, my dad won't be doing as much of the really dangerous work for a while. He was actually going to get to sleep tonight.
My mom and her parents are in the NorthShore Regional Medical Center in Slidell. I know Slidell in general looks really really bad, but based on what we've heard about the hospitals in that area, we're hoping they should be ok. Another hospital in the area was evacuated, but power, water, food, etc to the remaining ones was being made a priority. Anyone who happens to see any specific information about conditions at the North Shore Regional Medical Center in Slidell please email me the link or post it here. That area has been in total communication blackout since the storm, which was why it was so unbelievable that my dad had news about them this morning. As it turns out, it was unbelievable, but a miscommunication the family was all eager to believe. We can actually reach voicemail ocasionally now, so I'm hoping some of the grids are coming back up and we'll be able to get in touch with them by cell or land line tomorrow.
Those of the family who work for national or even statewide companies are beginning to try to work out arrangements to work remotely or in a Houston, Alexandria, Baton Rouge, or Layfayette office. Now out of direct harm's way, those who still might have jobs are desprately trying to keep income coming in. So many businesses will be gone cause small locals can't afford to rebuild or larger companies will simply close up the New Orleans branch and relocate. A family group of aunts and cousins are examining the possibility of extended stay housing in Houston. most of them only have a change of clothes or so, but that is already so much more than so many others right now.
No one has talked much about property though we've all been scouring the forums for reports on neighborhood conditions. Some of our homes we know are total loss. For one or two we hold out hope they may be on slightly higher ground, but none of that may matter tomorrow morning as waters continue to flow through the breached levees they've abandoned trying to fix. I'm also hoping the dogs were able to get high enough up in the second story of the house to stay out of trouble. I know that seems a pretty petty concern given everything else, but I do think it all the same.
