Raised beds in Covington

This is Johanna writing from my mom's in New Iberia. I am fine, as are my family and neighbors. We had no electricity, water, phones, or outside help in our area--but the men got on 4 wheelers with chainsaws and figured out how to ride through fields and take down neighbors fences and cut through the downed trees until we had a rough road to major highway. Once we reached highways, there were tree cutters from all over the country clearing the huge number of fallen trees.
I live on a parcell of land of about 80 acres owned by 10 people. Much of it is (was) mature woods with huge oaks, pine, maple, sycamore, native azaela, star anise, jug plants, etc. There is only 1 road in. It is covered with huge old trees --about 3 trees deep. The land here is high. Flooding is no problem.
Our area is better off than the area around Lake Pontchatrain which were so flooded. Many have lost everything.
I stayed from Mon. to Thurs. and the extreme heat was just too much. I do have the means to travel so we drove 175 miles away to New Iberia which was totally spared. Thank goodness we filled the car before the storm. Now I have all the comforts. It will be a while before comforts return to St Tammany Parish.
Thank you all so much for your concern and prayers. We are all grateful.
Johanna
Covington, LA

Johanna,
thank you so much for posting this note. It took me awhile to see it, but I have been praying for your family, along with many others in this group. I'm sure this is not easy time for you, but it is great to know you all have your health! And it sounds like a memorable adventure finding higher ground! We're all glad you made it.
Andrea

thank goodness you are doing alright...I will prepare for the new storm and will ride it out at Pams in Needville. The evac plans are not good if you have to go through Houston so I had rather be here and not stranded on the highway.

Talk to you later

dee

Well, it's always something.
Because of the continued absence of electricity and phones at my home in Covington, I am still at my mom's. She lives in New Iberia, about 15 miles from the Gulf in south central Louisiana.
And, like Dee, we are waiting for Hurricane Rita to come in tonight.
Also, we decided to avoid the evacuation north because of traffic jams. I hope we were smart.
I truly can't wait to get home and return to a normal life. 2 huge hurricanes in one month is unbelieveable.
Johanna of the Swiriling Winds.

I wish you the best as well and have read your other post and have prayed for you. ***hugs***

The prayers must have worked. Our area lost a few old trees and electricity for several hours but we had minimal property loss in New Iberia except for the cane farmers. The fields of sugar cane were about to be harvested but the stalks are now laying on the wet ground . I don't know if they can be used for grinding now. We've had about 8'' of rain in 12 hours.
Of course, there were other places that were devastated. We were very lucky. I hope Dee was safe, too.
Johanna