We've had brown outs and power flickers all day. Our cell phones aren't getting signals, but Mom managed to call us on the land line. She's out at Sam's and they've been asked to evacuate. Apparently I-10 is not closed around Lafayette. You can only head away from the city where they are. The bridges in town have all been put up so you can't cross the river. Not like any cars are allowed on the road, but that's weird. From our house, you can usually hear the constant traffic going over the grills of the drawbridge, but now it's silent. It's made even creepier by the absence of birds. Even the cicadas aren't doing their usual annoying buzz. It's hot and humid and gross, but none of their buzzing. Every once in a while you hear some dogs barking or howling or a few neighbors grouping together, but other than that, a very unnatural silence.
Mom and Sam tried to drive down here but there's a road block just before Tel Jean Road, so they weren't able to get down. With the power being so unreliable, a lot of people in the neighborhood are actually barbecuing. You can smell it out there in addition to the weird smogginess, there's grill smoke everywhere. It's a nasty mess. Regardless, Andrew and I have begun to pack up our cars with some clothes and other essentials. We're hoping that we get evacuated soon as well. Of course, we don't know what the fuck we're evacuating from, but I'd feel much better being on the road heading for Texas than sitting around here in the dark, wondering. If nobody comes to evacuate us, I'm seriously considering going over the condemned bridge. Just past this end of Tel Jean, there's a bridge over the river. If you go over it, you can get out to Sam's house. It was damaged in the flooding a few hurricanes ago and has since been deemed unsafe. It's still standing, but I guess unsteady. I'm wondering if we can drive down there, clear whatever barriers they have on it and pump it as we go over the bridge. Once over the bridge, we should be able to blend in with the rest of the evacuating traffic and meet up with Mom and Sam.
I'm hoping that there's just a few sand barrels or something easily moved out of the way. I never go down towards the bridge. There's a road block that detours you down Tel Jean anyway. If we do that, it's best to wait till it's darker. Then we can drive down the street with our headlights off and be a hell of a lot less noticeable. Not that there's many people to notice, other than the neighbors. There's been the occasional police cruiser through the neighborhood, usually using the loud speaker to tell people to return to their homes and remain calm. Yeah right, as if! Once they drive off, everyone's back out there chattering like a group of angry chipmunks. And I don't blame them!
This is so weird. The quiet, the color of the sky, the smog, the patchy electricity, the lack of information. Talking to other people is the only thing that keeps you sane. Sitting around and stewing in the situation is what drives you mad, leads to all that crazy stuff. It's only been a few hours and you can tell people are jumpy and edgy. Even though people are talking, some of them will look at you funny and you kind of wonder what the fuck is on their mind to stare at you that way. After the first time or two, I just stopped going out there with them and continued to put stuff in the car.
Andrew got his new computer in the car. We've got clothes, food, dog food, some family photos. I stole the box of cash from mom's room. Money is a great motivator. If we can't make it over the bridge, maybe we can pay off the road block with a couple hundred bucks. At this point, we're just playing the waiting game. I'm waiting till the last minute to put my computer in the car. It's one of the few things keeping me relatively calm right now. Having music helps. Having cake helps. Not being alone is a big help. But even then, there's a lot of time to speculate on what's going on. Is it really escaped prisoners? A gas leak? A freaking terrorist attack? Hell, maybe it's the damn apocalypse! There's no way of knowing.
The local news sites still have generic "Stay in your home" notices and the national news has nothing. They seem to be going about their day as usual talking about the elections in Iran and Six Flags filing for Bankruptcy. I wonder if it's because of the Jazzland/Six Flags New Orleans disaster left by Hurricane Katrina. They were just asking for trouble when they built that up out of the swamps. Into the swamps it will return since no one's touched it since. Ironically, they have a 20 year lease on the place or something. I've seen some pictures from people who have managed to get in and look around. I love those abandoned places pictures. I sort of feel like I'm getting an up close and personal taste with that now. Sure, the neighborhood isn't abandoned by any means, but it has that sort of atmosphere of
something not quite right.