Hello fellow Whyvillians. I came up with the idea to write a journal of what happened to me during Hurricane Gustav. I wrote a daily entry of what was going on. I did this so maybe you will realize the dangers of hurricanes, and what we people in the South have to go through during hurricane season.
Sunday, August 31st at 11:00 pm
We just got out first big gust of wind. I heard something cracking, and suspected that a tree has already fallen, but it is too dark to go out and investigate. News reports say that it will actually hit sometime tomorrow, around noon. We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Monday, September 1st at 12:33 pm
So far, we have only had a lot of wind. The trees look like they are always on the verge of breaking. We have several pine trees hanging over our house, threatening to crush us at times. But this is still just the beginning. The lights went out, but came back on. If they decide to go out again, we have a generator. So far it hasn't been that bad, and Guvstav has dropped down to a category 2 . . . nothing else to report, and we're just holding our breaths.
Monday, September 1st at 3:00 pm
The wind has picked up a lot. But nothing interesting really is going on. We're bored half to death, and waiting for power to come back on. But it might be a while, possibly days, before it comes back. We have learned that instead of hitting New Orleans, the eye is going to come close to where we live. So that means that we might be getting winds up to 110 mph and tornadoes. A lot of the tree branches have broken off. I see one right now outside my window. If it had hit the house, it could have made part of the roof fall in. I better go now to see if I can help with the generator.
Monday, September 1st at 10:00 pm
The wind has finally died down a little. Tomorrow morning we will be able to get out to town and see what damage has been done, and how long we will be without power. So far, we estimate about six trees have fallen on our two acre property. An uncle of mine has had a pine tree fall on his chicken pen . . . we aren't sure if it killed them, but it doesn't look good. Also we got a scare when a tree almost fell on a relative of ours. This is much worse than Katrina . . . we never thought this many trees were going to fall. A flash flood warning and a tornado warning have been issued. But we're all happy the storm is finally lifting a little. Like I said, we aren't sure when we can get power back until tomorrow, but it will probably be days. But for now, it's time to sleep.
Tuesday, September 2nd at 11:30 am
I woke up, and the storm seems to have passed. I walked outside, and gasped. During the storm, I wasn't able to properly guess how many trees had fallen. From where I stood, I could see hundreds of branches and at least twenty trees. All of them were pointing in one direction, pointing the way Gustav went. We managed to get the TV working, and watched the news. Louisiana was hit extremely hard. Mississippi's Gulf Coast had almost been pulverized. They're saying that this is the worst storm, other than Katrina. I am really worried now, and we haven't even gone into town. But according to some of our neighbors, several trees block the road, and that's our only way into town. My dad and I decided to go help clear them.
A picture of Hurricane Gustav
Author's Note: In my town alone, six people were killed by trees falling on their house. Gas prices went sky-high. About seven trailers blew away. Luckily no one was in those. Gustav took its toll, and Hurricane Hanna looks like it is going to hit us as well, since the warm water is pulling it into the Gulf. This time we will evacuate, but we can't entirely protect our houses. I hope now you understand. And our town wasn't even THAT close, turns out, to the eye.
