view from our patio door

I just wanted to share a funny picture from our back yard.

Everything grows really well in Louisiana...those grasshoppers are at least 2 inches long.

Early Morning Freight Drag

There's not much that goes on downtown in the hours before the sun comes up, but don't tell that to the KCS.  

Just a few minutes before sunrise, an eastbound freight drags a heavy train up the shallow grade to Ruston's downtown.  In the background, the university's Wiley Tower catches the first rays of the coming day.

In a couple of hours, the local will be through, swapping boxcars on the siding just east of downtown, followed by strings of double-stacks and the occasional freight drag.  Good morning, Ruston.

The Next Storm

It's Saturday, 10am, and Ike has made landfall over Galveston and rolled into the Houston area. Hurricanes seem to set a tone unlike other storms. It's a tone of foreboding, waiting, wondering, and slowly being able to see it develop across the skies to the south. Unlike fast moving thunderstorms and squall lines, these hurricanes are tracked for days as they cross the Gulf, growing in size across the warm waters. In Northern Louisiana, Ike is expected to bring another shot of rain and wind over the next 36 hours, however, the real damage lies in the wake of its various landfalls. Damage and destruction along the Texas coast should be well covered and is expected to be quite bad due to a twenty-foot high swell that came ashore last night.

The ferocity of these storms, however, has not only been spent on the shores of the United States. Ike, Gustav, Hanna, and Fay have left a lasting impact on neighbors to the south that aren't as well covered.

Meager Living of Haitians Is Wiped Out by Storms

Hurricane season continues.

Between Squalls

Between the hurricanes, a beautiful blue.

Shelter in the Storm

Gustav was upon the state of Louisiana this Labor Day weekend and through the week. It came ashore west of New Orleans, leaving about 1 million without power and many, many small towns decimated in its wake. In the days leading up to its landfall, Ruston and other towns in N. LA, MS and Arkansas fill with people getting out ahead of the hurricane. Batteries were tough to come by and bottled water was in high demand.

While the news channels obsessed about New Orleans, most of the heavy damage was done to the towns and cities to its west and northwest. The forecast for quick return to the damaged southern part of the state is not good. Small towns like Houma, near Gustav's point of entry, are expected to be powerless for several weeks at best. Today, Wednesday, the state is still dealing with powerful lingering thunderstorms that remain in one of the rotating "fingers" of the tropical storm.

The following images were taken from relatively safe Ruston, LA, far enough north to deal only with "Tropical Depression/Storm" Gustav, instead of "Hurricane" Gustav. The morning arrives with Gustav making its way onshore. The eye is unmistakable as is the treacherous "east side" of the storm.

Clouds over Ruston are swirling with the counter-clockwise rotation that comes with a low pressure monster, but early in the morning, are still fairly light.

At about mid-day on Labor day, the rotating clouds of the storm have turned darker and the first bands of showers are upon us as the south part of the state continues to be punished with strong wind gusts to 115+ mph.


The local radar image shows the location of Ruston and the approaching rain bands at about 12 in the afternoon.

Rain begins in earnest in the early afternoon, forming the expected "lake" at the base of our driveway.

Night falls as does heavy, heavy rain. By 10 in the evening, the eye of Gustav is located south of Alexandria, poised to make its way along I49 towards Shreveport over night.



Even in the safer north reaches of Louisiana, power comes and goes as trees fall on power lines and circuit breakers trip throughout the night.


The next day finds periods of driving rain mixed with gentle tropical rains that are warm and can soak you in about 5 seconds. Even as the weakened Gustav makes its way north towards Arkansas, a new storm has been named in the Atlantic. This brings the current total to 4 named Atlantic storms, operating at the same time. The hurricane season looks far from over.

Perhaps direct hits on populated centers can be spared as these storms make their way slowly west. As bad as the damage to Louisiana has been, the damage to poorer nations to the south is greater and they are ill-equipped to handle the devastation and loss.