Back in Algiers
We are all ok. My dad, Demetrios Spetsiotis is OK.
Monday Sep 5th Evening – After loading up with food, gas, water and other critical provisions Myself, George, Dave and John departed Memphis drove all night to Baton Rouge. At Kris’ house in Baton Rouge we left one of the cars and we started for New Orleans on Tues morning Sep 6th.
Tuesday Sep 6th Am - After a very long drive with lots of traffic and scarce gas, we managed to get through the road blocks and into Algiers. The area looks devastated but I think once the debris and trees are cleared, most homes and businesses came through ok.
Upon arrival I went to look for my dad. He was not at home but there were singes of him being there. While driving around looking for my dad, we came across him walking my sister’s dog. He was fine and in good spirits. He was not aware of the level of devastation that had hit the city across the river. There were a few neighbors back patrolling the streets. We all armed ourselves and contributed to the task. We came across police officers from Chicago and asked about the protocol of arming ourselves. They said if they were in our situation they would be armed.
Wednesday Sep 7th – After surveying the area and identifying the main military and police sub stations, we managed to get into a temp military facility to get ice, water and MRE’s( Meals Ready to Eat). We made contact with Derek Hoffman and Mark Avery (Good friends and neighbors that had gotten in the day before.
Much greater presence of military patrolling the streets today. Also much greater presence of mosquitoes. Trash is also starting to smell pretty bad.
We got busy cutting the tree that fell on my house. All of the other homes (my parents, my sister, John’s, Derek.s, Mark’s), came through ok. Pat Lytle also got a tree on his roof. Tree removal will be an enormous task.
Thursday Sep 8th – George’s phone at his house is working intermittently and I am preparing this e-mail for the blog if I can connect through dial up.
Today we started cutting down and pulling away trees that blocked main roads in our neighborhood. The military checked on us several times. Took our information and told us to continue doing what we were doing.
We found and ice, water and MRE distribution center today and stocked up.
John Juul packed all of his equipment , cat and birds and headed for Pensacola today.
It’s now George, Dave and myself at my house. Nights are pretty good. We run the genny and have fans to keep the air as cool as possible but it is still hot.
We are in good spirits and keeping busy with clean up. Our primary tasks at this point are tree removal and trash pick up. We are collecting trash and bringing it to pick up centers to prevent it from rotting and causing disease. In addition we are always son the look out for gas, food and water.
For anyone thinking of coming back…DON’T. Firstly, this is no place for a family. If you are an able bodied person, preferably the outdoors type, and you are resourceful and self sufficient you can make do and assist in the clean up. But it is no place for kids, elderly or anyone that is not used to roughing it. There are minimal medical facilities so you have to be very careful not to get hurt or have a cut infected.
ALGIERS SUMMARY
Entergy ois working hard on restoring power, It may be a while as there are thousands of trees to pick up and many fallen power line poles. We are constantly having to drive over them.
Military is in place with good patrols
Some distribution centers starting up with ice, food and waer but minimal supply.
Home Dept on Westbank Expressway to open soon.
Wallmart gas station on Lapalco and Barrataria selling limited gas.
Monday Sep 5th Evening – After loading up with food, gas, water and other critical provisions Myself, George, Dave and John departed Memphis drove all night to Baton Rouge. At Kris’ house in Baton Rouge we left one of the cars and we started for New Orleans on Tues morning Sep 6th.
Tuesday Sep 6th Am - After a very long drive with lots of traffic and scarce gas, we managed to get through the road blocks and into Algiers. The area looks devastated but I think once the debris and trees are cleared, most homes and businesses came through ok.
Upon arrival I went to look for my dad. He was not at home but there were singes of him being there. While driving around looking for my dad, we came across him walking my sister’s dog. He was fine and in good spirits. He was not aware of the level of devastation that had hit the city across the river. There were a few neighbors back patrolling the streets. We all armed ourselves and contributed to the task. We came across police officers from Chicago and asked about the protocol of arming ourselves. They said if they were in our situation they would be armed.
Wednesday Sep 7th – After surveying the area and identifying the main military and police sub stations, we managed to get into a temp military facility to get ice, water and MRE’s( Meals Ready to Eat). We made contact with Derek Hoffman and Mark Avery (Good friends and neighbors that had gotten in the day before.
Much greater presence of military patrolling the streets today. Also much greater presence of mosquitoes. Trash is also starting to smell pretty bad.
We got busy cutting the tree that fell on my house. All of the other homes (my parents, my sister, John’s, Derek.s, Mark’s), came through ok. Pat Lytle also got a tree on his roof. Tree removal will be an enormous task.
Thursday Sep 8th – George’s phone at his house is working intermittently and I am preparing this e-mail for the blog if I can connect through dial up.
Today we started cutting down and pulling away trees that blocked main roads in our neighborhood. The military checked on us several times. Took our information and told us to continue doing what we were doing.
We found and ice, water and MRE distribution center today and stocked up.
John Juul packed all of his equipment , cat and birds and headed for Pensacola today.
It’s now George, Dave and myself at my house. Nights are pretty good. We run the genny and have fans to keep the air as cool as possible but it is still hot.
We are in good spirits and keeping busy with clean up. Our primary tasks at this point are tree removal and trash pick up. We are collecting trash and bringing it to pick up centers to prevent it from rotting and causing disease. In addition we are always son the look out for gas, food and water.
For anyone thinking of coming back…DON’T. Firstly, this is no place for a family. If you are an able bodied person, preferably the outdoors type, and you are resourceful and self sufficient you can make do and assist in the clean up. But it is no place for kids, elderly or anyone that is not used to roughing it. There are minimal medical facilities so you have to be very careful not to get hurt or have a cut infected.
ALGIERS SUMMARY
Entergy ois working hard on restoring power, It may be a while as there are thousands of trees to pick up and many fallen power line poles. We are constantly having to drive over them.
Military is in place with good patrols
Some distribution centers starting up with ice, food and waer but minimal supply.
Home Dept on Westbank Expressway to open soon.
Wallmart gas station on Lapalco and Barrataria selling limited gas.
posted by Nick Spetsiotis at 4:01 PM
1 Comments:
Nick - are you online now?????
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