Evening After

 It's about 8:00 pm and about 85° in the house right now. The band down the street has been playing music on their front porch for a couple of hours. There's still a fair amount of traffic up and down S. Claiborne, where of course the street lights and traffic signals are out. Entergy isn't even venturing a guess as to when power might be restored, and the word is that it could be at least two weeks. I have enough gas on hand to run the generator for a couple more days, maybe three, and at this point would probably have to drive to Mississippi to refill my two 5-gallon gas cans. I'm hoping for some better information from Entergy before deciding what to do. Tulane is shipping out the remaining students tomorrow morning and not planning on resuming in-person classes until after Spring break in October, and of course my office will be back to working from home for however long it takes to get power back. Here's a bit from the announcement that went out:

Due to the current lack of power and critical services in the city, we have decided to restructure the semester to allow for maximum in-person instructional time while also protecting the safety of our community. We are closing campus and cancelling classes through Sunday, September 12. The two weeks of canceled classes will be rescheduled at the end of the semester, allowing us nearly two and a half months of on-campus education following our return. Classes will resume online only beginning Monday, September 13 through Wednesday, October 6 to give the city time to repair and reinstate power and other critical services.

On Monday, October 11, following fall break, we will return to in-person classes on campus. Fall break, October 7 - October 10, will allow our students, faculty, and staff time to return to the city and campus prior to class resuming. 

The city is asking people who evacuated to delay returning since without electricity everything is compromised - sewer, water, drainage, hospitals, gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. Shades of Katrina.

I spent most of the day cleaning up. First, there was the huge oak tree branch on top of the garage, and some quick repairs to the garage roof. Then about five hours of picking up branches and leaves that resulted in a couple of huge piles of large branches and 16 trash bags full of the smaller stuff. Tonight I'll set up a fan in the bedroom and let the generator run to keep the refrigerator going. Maybe I'll try and go for a ride tomorrow, but probably not until it's light because trying to avoid all of the stuff in the streets right now in the dark would be too risky, even with a good headlight. 

Today is Danielle's birthday, just as it was the day after Katrina 16 years ago. Happy birthday, Danielle.