Help Ann Please

Well, I don't really know who to write or whom to tell about the plight/fight that a young woman I know is in but I have the need to write about it. We all meet people who just uplift us. Ann Gregory is one of those people with the contagious type of smile and knowing sparkle in her eye. She has just the right sense of humor to make you want to come back for more.

Ann is in the fight of her life right now and needs a miracle. Follow this link to see what you can do. Ann's Blog

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Inquiring Minds Want to Know

From all across the nation I get asked how we can do business in Baton Rouge with "what has happened here?" Perhaps some photos will prove that WE are fine. Our traffic situation is horrendous as you can see. This is a shot outside of my subdivision in the late afternoon. The other shot is of the new Towne Shopping center in the middle of the afternoon.

Baton Rouge is thriving. We welcome you.

A Progression in Papers

Weathermen were telling us to "HUNKER-DOWN" for the storm and go get supplies. Evacuation traffic from New Orleans, appearing light don't you think? was already in contra flow (going one way on the interstate). The Hurricane was Hours Away and massive warnings were all over the media.Katrina hit slowly and decidedly. She was a Category 5 with massive winds.
After the Hurricane parts of New Orleans were damaged, but dry... but then, the levee broke and flooding began. Where people had thought they were safe, they no longer were. Homes began to flood. People died in nursing homes. The city was cut off from electricity and water with hundreds of thousands of people from all classes there. They were in posh hotels, the Rivercenter, bars as well as the Superdome turned shelter. But it wasn't a safe shelter. The roof was torn off with rain coming in, children were hurt physically and conditions were unsanitary to say the least.

What does this have to do with Baton Rouge? Well, some of these people were bused to Baton Rouge and surrounding areas for refuge from the deplorable conditions there.

Since Hurricane Katrina and the Levee Break in New Orleans we have been indated with media in Baton Rouge and across the United States. Some of them have it accurate, some not. It is surprising what parts of the story are and are not correct to me. Here are a few of the covers of the Advocate which is our local paper in Baton Rouge.

Speaking to citizens of Baton Rouge, it is interesting to hear what they have to say about this new way of life. More on that to come.

Hurricane Katrina

The Hurricane may not have hit us directly but we sure have and are feeling the impact of it due to the increase in our temporary (?) population growth. Gasoline is hard to find, ice is impossible to find, businesses are still closed due to electrical outages but that will surely change locally in the next few days. The local stations (tv and radio) are running only emergency programming.

The future for New Orleans does not look good. It is depressing. They now say it will take at least a month to get the water out the city. Then, FEMA can go in, then the electrical company. For residents of the area, it must be overwhelming.

Many are enrolling their children in Baton Rouge and Lafayette area schools, facing the difficult fact that it will be a very long time before anything in New Orleans will be inhabitable again. SO... where does that leave Baton Rouge?

We will probably grow! That could be a good thing.

Hot and steamy

There is no end in sight to the above average sauna-like weather. My husband uses my hair as a barometer. The frizzier it is, the more humid outside. He, being a weatherman, is happy, I am not. Luckily I am "at least" wearing it curly these days. It was pitiful when I was trying to flat iron it. I could never exactly look sleek with this mound of thick volumnious hair on my head. I'm glad that water is plentiful and we can take baths at will. We are very fortunate indeed. ahhhhh.

Sad, scary and a sign of the Times

It could have been anywhere but no one expected an officer to lose his life in the Capital Heights area. I know I drive that street at least once a week. Many of us who have lived in the Baton Rouge most of our life, travel the Government Street area regularly.

Officer Terry Melancon died over a search warrant for drugs. When I read the Advocate article and the people interviewed said that the 'suspect' (also dead) did not have a big arrest record, all I could think to myself was "He was sneaky." The man was growing marijuana and selling it on the second floor of his home! How could a reporter bring up past records? What is that supposed to mean? These reporters need to rethink their questions because they are kind of poor.

I also heard that WAFB showed the faces of the other two officers who were shot, despite what Chief LeDuff had requested the media not to do that because it could comprise their future safety and jobs. I wonder why the Advocate didn't jump on that? I call that a double tsk-tsk.