Kaitlin Flynn
Contributor
I did not expect to experience a hurricane this year, but since I will be studying abroad in London this fall and the program has been delayed, I traveled to my hometown, Lafayette, Louisiana, to enjoy my extended summer. As it turned out, Hurricane Gustav was headed straight toward south Louisiana, where I am from.
When news of Gustav spread in Lafayette, many people boarded up their windows, packed their valuables and headed north. The meteorologists’ reports said that Gustav may be a category five hurricane (the worst on the scale), and after seeing what happened in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisianans did not want to take any risks.
I was in Baton Rouge, an hour away from Lafayette, visiting friends at Louisiana State University when most people decided to evacuate. LSU’s first football game of the season was moved to 10 a.m. on Saturday so that LSU fans would not miss the game because of the hurricane.
Instead of going to the game, I hurried home to Lafayette to be with my family and to prepare for Gustav. A voluntary evacuation was ordered for Lafayette Parish (Louisiana has parishes instead of counties), while mandatory evacuations were ordered for our surrounding parishes.
My stepsister and I wanted to evacuate, but my dad refused to go. “We made it through other hurricanes just fine,” he said. “We were home for Hurricanes Andrew, Lily, Katrina, and Rita.” He did not seem very worried. I did not want to leave town without him, so I decided to stay unless an evacuation for Lafayette became mandatory.
Government officials were on television, assuring Louisianans that they were taking the necessary precautions to make sure Gustav would not become another Katrina. In Lafayette and across the rest of south Louisiana, there were meeting places for those who had no transportation and wanted to evacuate.
My family and I stocked up on nonperishable food items, as well as bottled water and took inside anything that could be blown away by strong winds. We were fortunate enough to fill up our tanks with gas before all of the gas stations ran out of gas in Lafayette. Many ATMs ran out of money also.
The owner of one of local coffee houses, CC’s, boarded up the windows to his building. “I’m not worried about the storm,” he said. “I’m worried about what people will do after the storm, all of the looters.”
Gustav made landfall on Monday in south Louisiana. At around 2:30 p.m., my family and I hopped into the car for a quick ride to a relative’s house. The storm had worsened greatly from earlier. As we drove around neighborhoods, we saw trees, power lines, and debris that had fallen on the roads. Thus, it is unsurprising that many people are experiencing power outages.
I spoke to my aunt, Elizabeth Baudoin, who lives in Baton Rouge, with her family. She has an eight-year old daughter, Kate. “The storm has been terrible,” my aunt said. “Kate and I spent over three hours in the closet because the wind gusts were so bad. Kate was scared, and I was scared too.”
Although damage has certainly been done once again to Louisiana, so far, it is minimal in comparison with Hurricane Katrina, which marked its three-year anniversary on Aug. 29. It seems as though people have learned from the mistakes of the past, especially government officials, and are now more prepared than ever for hurricanes.
09-02-2008