We were hunkered down during Ida 2021 in our house in Slidell, Louisiana!
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I listed my hurricane names when we first moved back to Louisiana when I was home alone every other month during 2017-2018 due to my husband’s job.
(FYI: The 9 Crazy Things of My First Year in Louisiana, 2017 : https://www.somethingjam.com/the-9crazy-things-of-my-first-year-in-louisiana-2017)
Now… IDA 2021, once we heard the hurricane warnings, we tried to move all our stuff inside or put them away as much as we could…we also have to put our boat up high.
Our house is on the water and connected to Lake Pontchartrain.
Hurricane Ida(2021) is arriving on the16 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina(2005) which occurred on the same date, 29 August!
Hurricane Ida was the second-most damaging hurricane to strike the U.S. state of Louisiana on record. Ida originated from a tropical wave in the Caribbean that developed into a tropical depression, then became Tropical Storm Ida later, Ida intensified into a hurricane on August 27 just before moving over western Cuba, IDA went into the Gulf of Mexico and reached its peak intensity as a strong Category 4 hurricane!
Ida knocked down palm trees and destroyed many homes in Cuba during its brief passage over the country. Throughout its path of destruction in Louisiana, more than a million people lost power.
We can tell the strong category of the hurricane but we couldn’t tell, how much we were scared!
We can tell the strong category of the hurricane but we couldn’t tell, how much we were scared!
*Our chocolate cake with vanilla icing was made to get ready for our IDA2021 as we hunkered down
Our house was flooded and sustained major damage during Katrina (2005), we hope this hurricane won’t destroy our house again!
When I asked Tim “are you scared of IDA?”, he said yes but he wanted it over soon!
Why don’t we evacuate???…
If I was here by myself, I would run away right away!
But Tim was very confident to stay at the house because he could tell the storm was West of us and we were just on the Eastern edge.
We saw many people tried to evacuate on the news… My friend said she evacuated to Houston, it was a long drive due to heavy traffic!
*New Orleans Airport, before and after the flights were canceled (WDSU)
In the latest Weather report that we got the days or hours before Ida approaching our area, it seemed like we will get only flash flood and it might be 7 feet of water. If so, our house is still alright!
*The Weather report on 8/28/21 (left) and 8/29/21 in the morning (right), before IDA made landfall.
We planned to get ready for Ida at about 11.45 am on 8/29/21, we lost power and I don’t think Ida made landfall on Louisiana yet!!!
So we started staying with no power ever since (Total of 5days of no power for IDA 2021)
The scariest time when Ida pass our area (Slidell), was about 7-9 pm. It was very strong wind and rain as Ida shifted more to the East …
(Map: Wunderground.com)
We fell asleep with no power, no generator for the first night, it was hot!
About 6:30 in the morning on 8/30, the day after IDA. All is well in our house.
There’s 4’ of water over the dock and maybe 18 inches in the street.
All of Slidell is without power… I checked the Cleco app for updates and it says “power outage for your area”, I didn’t think was was a real helpful update.
Luckily, our neighbors Ronnie & Pat are back at their house in the morning of 8/30. They let us have one power cord run off of their generator that we moved around to power a fan at night, coffee in the morning and we started a crockpot in the afternoon for dinner. So it’s not really camping, but close.
*Day 1 after Ida, Our street wasn’t too bad…
We were checking on all Social medias about when we will get the power back, but all is full of people asking “Did you get the power in your house yet?”
*Before and After IDA 2021, Our dock (left), our street (right)
We drove around our subdivision, there only a very few big trees that fall – no major damage.
Day 4:
The lake is down to normal levels and all roads are passable. Grocery stores are opening, and a few gas stations opened but they seem to run out of gas fast.
No Traffic lights but everybody seems to know very well to follow a Four Way Stop.
Our water is from a water tower and it’s never really cold, so we can shower and it’s not too bad.
The Garbage truck started working on September 1st but come to our house on September 4th (6days after Ida).
USPS came and picked the mail from our mailbox on September 3rd (5days after Ida) but we haven’t get any package or mail until 9/8 or (10days after Ida).
*Winn Dixie opened with Generator on Day2 after Ida.
During Ida, we were scared but we both remained calm, and didn’t panic.
As of September 4, a total of 71 deaths have been confirmed in relation to Ida: 27 in New Jersey, 18 in New York, 13 in Louisiana, 5 in Pennsylvania, 2 in Mississippi, 2 in Alabama, 1 in Maryland, 1 in Virginia, and 1 in Connecticut.
We are so sorry for all loss during Ida2021…
And I would special thanks to Ronnie and Pat for letting us rigged their generator for 5 days!!!
