consequences

Hurricane Gustav really shook up Baton Rouge. In the days after things were pretty dang rough. There were trees and power lines down everywhere, all of the stores were out of everything, and a curfew was instated. I heard this is the hardest Baton Rouge has been hit in over 50 years. Yeah, things were pretty rough, but I think our boy wonder Governor Bobby Jindal did a great job. It really ticked me off when after the worst of the storm was gone, the news media (except the local of course) just about completely stopped covering it. Just because we did things right this time and nobody in New Orleans died, they don't care about it. As you know Hurricane Ike hit Texas pretty hard and they got coverage for a couple of weeks afterwards. Our governor told everyone, "If you are in an area that has a mandatory evacuation and you don't leave, we're not coming to rescue you afterwards." Galveston had a mandatory evacuation but about 100,000 people stayed and they are still being rescued, therefore they get all of the media attention. I'm not trying to hate on Texas or be insensitive to those who have to be rescued, but that just really irks me. It reminds me of repentance - you can repent up until that last minute before the end but once it comes you're out of luck, buddy. But I don't want to be one of those people who keeps on harping about the storm way after it's over. I don't regret one bit staying and I learned a lot and definitely became more appreciative of what I have.

Anyways of course the Church aided greatly in the clean-up efforts. The first Sunday after the storm we had Priesthood from other parts of Louisiana as well as Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. We asked (Erica and Brittany and me) if girls were allowed to help they said, "Sure!". So we went home and changed and then helped chop up a HUGE pecan tree across the street from the stake center. I got to work the chainsaw for a little bit because all of the other guys with us were missionaries and they weren't allowed to use it. That was fun. When we were about halfway done these four guys in a truck pulled up and asked if they could help - they had four chainsaws - and we had that sucker chopped up in no time. They were good Southern boys and had been driving around cutting up trees for pay. Apparently they weren't having much luck today since all the Mormons were out working for free so they stopped by and helped us out. And they were cute! Brittany and I 'rested' on the grass and enjoyed the show :). Afterwards we helped with filing and organizing stuff at the command center in the stake building. It felt weird to work on the Sabbath but it was such a testimony builder to me that first of all the church is so organized and then that so many people just want to help for nothing in return (like those frat guys....I should have given them a pass-along card with my number on it....). I love this picture that JJ took:

LSU started back up Monday the 8th, and we were informed that since we missed a week of classes our fall break would be cancelled and we would have classes on a few Saturdays. I don't care so much about missing fall break because I have to work that weekend anyways but I am not going to class on a Saturday. Fortunately all of my teachers feel the same way. :) The curfew of 10 pm stayed in place until Thursday the 11th. I usually don't get off of work until around midnight so I was a little worried about being pulled over. Sure enough, Wednesday night the cops stopped me. Three of them came up to the car and I showed them my work ID and said timidly, "I work for the state, I just got off." The one at the window was kind of taken aback and said, "You work for the Department of Adminstration?" in a surprised tone, because the DOA is kind of high up. I told him I was a student worker and he made me explain my job and then they let me go. Whew! I knew they couldn't give me a ticket or citation but I'd never been pulled over before so it was a little scary. Another result of the storm is that I have 'been on poverty' for the past few weeks. Because I missed work my paycheck was a lot smaller and because the power was out for five days I had to throw all my food in the fridge away. So, I don't if I should tell y'all this but oh well, I think it's kind of funny - Erica and I went and applied for food stamps last week. She was denied because she has too much money in her bank accounts, but I got a 'Diaster Assistance' card worth 162 bucks! I've never been one to support welfare but it was either this or asking Mom and Dad, which I've certainly done enough of. I can't wait to go shopping tomorrow, as I've been eating crackers and pop-tarts for the past few weeks. Well, I guess that about wraps up my hurricane story. Now I can move on with my life! Hope you enjoyed it.