Posted by:
wftright
at Sun Mar 26 23:29:17 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by wftright ]
Hurricane Katrina hit our area, but we weren't hit all that hard. I lost power around eight or nine o'clock that Monday morning and didn't have power again until about five-thirty Tuesday afternoon. There were shingles lying around my property, but I couldn't find any that had come off my roof. At Thanksgiving, my folks found a stain along the ceiling of my guest bedroom. I suspect that the wind from Hurricane Rita blew water through the roof peak vent. Katrina was a dry storm here because we were on the west side. That last little jog to the east saved our area. Constant winds were around 30 to 40 here with gusts to 70 or 80. Some trees came down on our street, and all of the mailboxes along one stretch were dented on the north side.
I've been here four years and a couple of months and have been in my house for four years in May. The wet hurricanes fill my yard about two-thirds full of water. Hurricane Rita did that a few weeks after Katrina came through. We had a couple of them in 2002 that did the same.
Maybe my biggest damage from Hurricane Katrina is coming now. They've put 50 FEMA trailers within half a mile of my house. So far, the people living there haven't started roaming the neighborhoods causing trouble, but while property values are still very high in the rest of the area, I've lost about forty percent of the value of my house. Losing that value wouldn't be a big problem if I didn't want to sell, but if these people cause trouble, I'll want to move.
I didn't buy my first snake until October, so I haven't had the experience of trying to keep snakes through a hurricane. I still haven't decided how I'm going to approach that issue. With Katrina and Rita, I turned on the air conditioning before the storm and dropped my house into the high 50's. I bundled against the cold and avoiding opening any doors. My house didn't start to become uncomfortably warm for a long time. I suspect that my snake cages would stay warm for quite a while even when I temporarily drop the temperature so low. Of course, when I'm without power for a day or two in August or September, my later problem will be providing a cool side to my snakes. I haven't fully decided how I'm going to deal with all of this. The funny thing is that when I bought my first ball python in October, the female names stuck in my mind were Katrina and Rita. I named my little girl Katrina.
I think I met the K&N people at a show here in Baton Rouge in December. The show was very small, but there were enough people that I don't remember which ones they were specifically. I don't remember talking to anyone about the effects of the storms. My boss's brother has multiple snakes and fish, and I think they survived in a house down there.
Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
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Hurricane Katrina and me - wftright, Sun Mar 26 23:29:17 2006