10 more days to go . . .

The weekend went by way to fast! We went to the ASU game Saturday, but other than that we didn't do much. I still wasn't feeling great, so we just took it easy for the most part.

 

The game was fun, until it started pouring down rain! Luckily we had stashed some emergency ponchos in my purse, just in case. And boy were we glad we had them!  When we got there it was sunny and breezy, and maybe a little cloudy, but then it started getting dark! And before we knew it and faster than we could get our ponchos on it started pouring down rain. But thankfully it only lasted a few minutes and then it stopped for the rest of the game.  ASU didn't win, they lost 24-27. Bummer.

  

Saturday night was interesting, as what was left of hurricane Ike was passing by us. It was hard to sleep due to all the wind and hearing things crashing outside. I was sure our windows were going to blow out several times, but finally about 6-ish the winds settled down. We also lost our electricity from around 5am -8am. So, we didn't make it to  early service church. Which would have been interesting, since the church was out of power, too. Jarrod had to drive around after he got up at 7:00 to see who all was out of power.  . . Men?! We we got to church at 10:00 we found out that there were several around town that were still out of power, so we were lucky ours came back on when it did! We didn't have any damage, Just our grill and some things on the back porch were blown into the neighbors yard. The rest of the day was nice, we had lunch at O'Charley's and then I took a nap while Jarrod read the paper, and after church Sunday night my Mom & Dad and Dillon and Brandye came to J'town and we went out to eat at Colton's.  I didn't have to cook at all this weekend! Ha!

Jarrod left this morning around 7:30. They are supposed to be staying in the same hotel and the same room as they were last week. Hopefully,they will only be gone 10 days this time. I hope it is sooner, but I am not holding my breath!

Here is a map of where he is staying [Metairie] and where they will be working [Carlisle] and [Leeville].

Maybe this round will go by as fast as the last one and they will come home for good!

Pictures from Louisiana

So, these are some picture of one of the places Jarrod has been working this past couple of weeks.  This particular substation in Leeville sees a little water rise on a daily basis when the tide comes in, but it got major damage from the Hurricane waters. They are working in inches of mud, yuky!

Major source of transportation. . . air boats!

Seriously people live like this??

  

Hmmm. . . UPscale living one might say?!?

Jarrod is supposed to be taking more pictures this week while he is there and is going to try to email them to me, so keep checking back.

Good news and bad news

I have mia for two reasons. . . .1.) I had a big meeting at work that I have been working on that was Tuesday and Wednesday and I have been busy with that and 2.) I have had the stomach virus.

I have working really hard in preparation for our annual "Kickoff Meeting" and I even worked Saturday trying to get everything in order. Monday was pretty crazy trying to get all the last minute things done for the meeting and I worked until 7 or so and then mom and dad came to Jonesboro and I went to eat with them. Tuesday I was up early and the meeting went great.  Kelly came to the meeting that morning saying he had been up with Christy all night because she had the stomach virus. But he looked to be feeling fine so I didn't think any more about it . . . . until I started feeling queasy Tuesday night after I got home from the dinner we had after the meeting that night. I just thought it was just indigestion or something since we ate at the Whole Hog and that can be a bit much for me sometimes. But about 11:30 I started getting sick. Ugh. I threw up every half hour from 11:30 till about 5am, when I finally called my mom. . . I hated to call her, but I was desperate!  I was running out of toilet paper at an alarming rate, I didn't have Gatorade, chicken soup or any of the essentials. And I was really sick, I seriously thought I might die! And I really thought I was probably going to have to go to the Dr. to get a shot to make it stop, but luckily it stopped on it's own. Whew. Mom came in the door outfitted for germ fighting, with latex gloves and a mask! She also wasn't ever very far away from her can of Lysol. But I didn't care.  She stayed all day and made me soup, did my dishes, changed my bed sheets, helped me fold some clothes and more! I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't come!

Last night I went to bed and fell asleep around 9:30 and didn't wake up until I heard my phone ringing. I picked up the phone and it was Jarrod calling to check on me. I asked him what time it was, a little perturbed that he was calling me after I specifically asked that he not call me in the morning because I was going to try to sleep as much as possible.  .  . and that's when he informed me it was 11!! Oops. So I guess I needed some sleep?!? Well I am feeling much better today!

So my good news is from Jarrod! He will be home sometime tomorrow evening!

And here's the bad news. . . . they have to go back on Monday for 10 more days. So, I am so happy they are getting to come home, but it's going to be hard for him to leave again. I guess it's better than nothing! The rain from Hurricane Ike is preventing them from being able to work, so they are getting to come for the weekend in instead of staying there with nothing to do.

I will post again when I know more, but don't be surprised if I don't update until Monday. . . I might be a little busy this weekend!!  ; )

Disappointment & frustration

I talked to Jarrod last night and they are telling them that they might be there for another 20 days.

It frustrates me that the story they are being told changes on a daily basis. One day they are coming home tomorrow then the next day they are told it will be a week and then the next day they are told it will be a month??  The idea about them bringing another crew in next week got scratched. It seems they think since the group is down there already, what's another 20 days?? It's like Entergy thinks these guys are robots or something! They can't work 12-16 hour days for a month straight? 

Jarrod said after this trip he didn't care to ever go back to Louisiana. He said that they are in the SWAMPS! Ewww. . . and you know how it's not uncommon to see a dead deer on the side of the road that was hit by a car. . . well down there instead of deer, they see alligators on the side of the road! Scary!

Please keep them in your prayers that they will all come home safe and soon!

Your Thursday "Jarrod" Update

Well, it looks like Jarrod's crew is going to be there for at least another week. Starting tomorrow they will be working on a substation on the ocean (kinda cool!) that was damaged by flooding. There is a lot of damage and Jarrod's crew is going to fix part of it and then they are sending another crew to repair the rest. Hopefully, the damage isn't as extensive as they think and they will be able to come home sooner.

Here is a map of where they will be staying (Metairie) and where they will be working everyday (Leeville). . . .yeah it's a good ways away!

They are still going to stay in Metairie because there is no where in between there and Leeville to stay besides tents, and they'd rather drive 2-3 hours to get there, and 2-3 hours to get back to the hotel at night to stay in a place with hot water and AC and no mosquitos. Which means they will be on the road A LOT. Nothing new for them I know, but still!!  They only have the hotel rooms booked until the 10th, so hopefully they will be done by then, if not they may be in tents anyway!

Here are some pics Jarrod sent me of a substation in the area that was flooded, this is not one they will be working on. But you can see how it is hard for them to repair the damage when they can't even get to it because of flooding.

That's all I know for now! Hopefully they will have a better idea of how long it will take to repair things and how long that will take tomorrow when they get to actually get to Leeville and see what's going on there.

Wednesday Morning update

I did get to talk to Jarrod for a while last night around 8:30-9:00pm. He called from the Entergy office in Metairie which is right outside of New Orleans. He sounded really tired and said he was just ready for food and sleep! He took lots of snacks with him, but he said he couldn't eat while driving between the bad weather and traffic. Oh, and did I mention that his van doesn't have cruise control?!?! I can't even imagine!! I talked to him for about 15 mins and he said he'd try to call back if and when they got a place to stay. At that time he said it would be fine with him to sleep at the office in a sleeping bag, so he must have been tired!

We have been texting a lot because he isn't getting good cell reception so he had sent me a text message last night around 11pm that said they were going a hotel with at least running water, but probably no electricity.

He just called me at work a few mins ago and they did get to sleep in a hotel last night with hot water and electricity. They are staying in a hotel in Metairie (a Four Seasons! Nice! Esp. for a utility worker on the job, huh?!).  They will be staying there for at least one more night. He wasn't exactly sure about what they were going to be doing or where they were going today. If they do have to go to Baton Rouge, they will still stay the nights in Metarie because Baton Rouge doesn't have electricity.

That is all I know right now! I want them to come home soon, but I know how frustrating it will be for them if they have to turn around and come home tomorrow without getting to do their job.  Maybe they will be able to so some good while they are there and get to come home in a few days.

By the way, I made it just fine last night, even though we were under a tornado watch and a few warnings in other areas. I was of course sick to my stomach, but that's nothing new! Around 10 pm I took a benedryl so I would sleep and it seemed to do the trick, I don't know if it stormed any last night after I went to sleep or not! But I did not want to get out of bed this morning!! The rain was hitting my bedroom window and it sounded so gooood. . . . so, yeah I was a little late for work this morning!

Update. . .

Jarrod called about an hour ago and said they were right outside of New Orleans. They are pretty much stuck in traffic from all the other utility companies and people who evacuated trying to get back in. Even though we have been hearing officials on the news telling evacuees to stay where they are because there is no electricity and utilities, people are still trying to get back in! Jarrod said there are no active road blocks so even though they are telling people to stay out, they don't have a way to enforce that right now. He said one of their guys in their convoy was run off the road by another utility company truck and they had to call a truck to come pull him out. He said it's pretty much chaos. At one point during their drive today they all had to pull over because of a tornado in the area. And at lunch they stopped for a quick bite at a Wendy's outside of Jackson, only to go in and find the electricity off! So, they drove on to Vicksburg before getting to stop for lunch. After all that and they have been told that they may be coming home tomorrow?? They will either be coming home or going to Baton Rouge, I guess they have enough people working in the New Orleans area already. . . information they could have used yesterday?!?! Anyway he said he'd call when they got there, and that was over an hour ago. I know they are tired of driving in the stormy weather all day and frustrated, so please send a prayer up that at least they'll get a decent place to sleep tonight!! More later. . . .