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Shortest family visit ever??


Coytee

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My wife's brother/family live in Buras, LA.  About an hour south of New Orleans.  One of his son's lives in Asheville, NC.  

 

Big plans for the last couple months....  (my wife's) brother, wife, daughter, grand daughter, OTHER son HIS wife THEIR daughter....  were all going to go to Asheville to spend several days with the son over there.

 

Then, they were going to come here for a week and visit with us (Grandparent's also live here in town so they'd be visiting both)

 

They arrived last night about 11:00 P.M.  My wife & her nephew's wife did the chatty chat thing....  showed them around, got them to various bedrooms and everyone went to bed.

 

This morning (unsure of time) they heard an update about a hurricane that is hitting or heading towards New Orleans area....  so by 10:00 or so, they packed up here to head home to tend to their homes, cats, whatever.

 

I didn't get to say as much as "hello" to the (son's) wife...  only got to shake his hand and say "hi" to him....  and poof, all gone.

 

My wife's brother left his 11 year old son here so he'll be driving back in several days to visit and pick him up.

 

Kind of a strange turn of events.

 

 

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They've already been destroyed by Katrina (lost everything)

 

In fact, "over the years" they had created a habit of hearing a Hurricane warning, grabbing all the pictures, critical items and leaving town.

 

When Katrina hit, they got lazy and all packed into a single vehicle, leaving 3-4 autos parked at the house.  The house by the way, was 100% razed to the ground, nothing left but the pad and (if I recall) a couple walls.  Person who designed/built the house, built it to be "hurricane proof" ....  turns out it might have been hurricane proof, but it wasn't Katrina proof.

 

So yeah, they're on hair triggers anymore but... I've not heard the first word about any hurricane down there (then again, I'm not down there)

 

I just told the wife maybe they didn't like the air freshener she used.

 

 

Edit to clarify above about leaving 3-4 autos parked:   They had ADULTS packed into their van leaving their auto's behind.  All the adults had to do was choose a car and evacuate.  That alone would have saved them loads of grief because they wouldn't have had to replace everything PLUS the auto's.

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19 minutes ago, Coytee said:

So yeah, they're on hair triggers anymore but... I've not heard the first word about any hurricane down there (then again, I'm not down there)

 

I just told the wife maybe they didn't like the air freshener she used.

Definitely one a brewing.  It'll probably visit close to here as well.  We'll know a little more tomorrow.

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2 hours ago, Coytee said:

I didn't get to say as much as "hello" to the (son's) wife...  only got to shake his hand and say "hi" to him....  and poof, all gone.

I don't blame them at all, been to Buras many times, nothing there to protect anything, a house 30" in the air is not safe. Not much there either way protected or not :lol:

 

But on the other side of it, I have wished more than once for a visit that length before from relatives.

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I  wouldn't think anyone is evacuating yet unless there in a area that floods all the time, not much above a couple feet above sea level down there except for the Mississippi River levee.

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Just now saw on the morning news, pictures/comments about the current street flooding and pending storm.

 

I'm wow'ed and respect those who choose to continue to live in an area like this, subject to this kind of punishment.

 

I guess they could move to tornado country....  or earthquake country...  

 

I've only been to Buras once (prior to Katrina).  Though I didn't get "depressed" by seeing the conditions there, it was not a very uplifting visit.  Didn't strike me as a place I'd want to go visit for vacation, much less move to.

 

Amazing people that go through this stuff.  

 

Oh, and Dtel, they live right behind the levee on the Mississippi and as I recall, their "hurricane proof" house was also built on stilts, concrete (poured I think) walls and they got wiped out. 

 

I would have moved long ago.

 

Hope everyone there gets through this one with minimal damage.

 

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It looks like this storm may be upgraded to a catagory 1 hurricane with winds up to 85 mph. Nothing to fool around with, certainly not at sea level. Best of luck to them, let's hope they get out of town in time.

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5 hours ago, Coytee said:

Didn't strike me as a place I'd want to go visit for vacation, much less move to.

Visit or vacation is good, if it's a fishing vacation, great fishing.

5 hours ago, Coytee said:

Amazing people that go through this stuff.  

Over and over and over, they should take a hint...........not to be mean but.

 

OK, the Army Corps of Engineers in their infinite wisdom decided many years ago to build a levee for the Mississippi River all the way to Venice, which is the end of land down there .

This did two main things.

 

One, It diverted all the water that would have normally flooded that whole area every spring which leaves silt and many nutrients. This is what which actually built the whole bottom half of Louisiana to begin with. That flood water is diverted to the end of the river and the bottom of the state is now eroding away instead of growing.  

 

Two the silt now builds up at the mouth of the river to the point ships are now going through South West Pass instead of staying in the main river. They have to dredge the other part so other boats can pass and this is just sent out into the Gulf instead of filling the marsh and building it. 

 

An easy way for them to fix this would be to buy out everyone past a certain point and break the Mississippi levee and leave it flood the whole South Louisiana marsh again as nature did originally. There are not that many people down there, it's not like a metropolitan area by far, it would not be cheap but would fix a few problems.  

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5 hours ago, RT FAN said:

It looks like this storm may be upgraded to a catagory 1 hurricane with winds up to 85 mph. Nothing to fool around with, certainly not at sea level. Best of luck to them, let's hope they get out of town in time.

 

They left here to go BACK INTO town!  

 

The wife of nephew said she had a cat that she had to go get/rescue...

 

So they're running right into the teeth of it.  My wife's brother drove down.  He's going to deal with whatever they deal with down there, then he's going to drive back up...  maybe stay a couple days, then turn around and drive back.  He left his 11 year old son here (my wife's nephew) and he's been bouncing between our house and his grand-parent's house.  He's got to be taken back to Houston to his mothers house (parents not together).

 

My poor brother in law....  drove 12 hours up here to visit (but drove another 2 hours to go to Asheville).  Drove 12 hours back to Buras.  Will be driving 12 hours to return to here, to then, turn around and drive ?? hours to Houston, then from Houston back to Buras.

 

(no thank you (for me) please)

 

 

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