Had some tropical storm conditions fun myself...

[Steve]

2 friends of mine threw a party on their sailboat at Southshore Harbor in Eastern New Orleans this afternoon. It's hard to believe the difference of 8 miles and across 1 levee. Here in Metairie, we've got sustained winds at maybe 15 gusting to about 20 with NO rain whatsoever while over there, we got some sideways rain along with sustained windspeeds in the 30's gusting into the mid 40's (gales). Wind here has rotated over to NW which should then move around to W. Dennis was nothing compared to Cindy here (obviously), but there were a few streetlights out and some of the storm debris left over from Cindy had been blown around nearer to the lake. One thing that sucked that I noticed on my drive was that one of the 2 fir type trees (hey, I studied Dendrology in school and even I don't know what kind of trees they are) at the NW tip of City Park at Marconi and Robert E. Lee had been blown over by Cindy. A lot of the crepe myrtles along Wisner Blvd. were also broken or snapped. Those things are beautiful in June when they're blooming (pink, red, purple, white, etc.).

Hope everyone else made out okay. Dennis wasn't the bear he could have been so we should probably all count our blessings.

L8R,

Steve

[duris]

Unfortunately, same story on Canal Blvd. Most crepe myrtles down, many fir trees down or leaning. I'm guessing the saturation and probably bad root structure on the neutral ground doomed them.

[Sean in New Orleans]

I just got back for a spin to Lakeshore Drive. Lakeshore Drive is closed. So, I went out around the point at West End and it was great..huge waves...the spray on Lakeshore Drive was over 30 feet on some waves against the breakers, so, I decided I would drive over to the Lakefront by Canal Blvd. Parked the car and walked over the levee and bamm!!..there it was in all it's glory. Lakeshore Drive was flooded and there was water all the way to the levee that was between 2 and 3 feet deep around the bottom of the levee around the trees. The waves were awesome and the wind was blowing off of the lake at a sustained 35mph to 40 mph with gusts easily close to 50mph at times. It was a site and it was fun. Lots of people down there. It's great to be on the West side when you can get out and enjoy the winds without the rain. Channel 6 was there filming, so, I'm sure they will show it on the evening news.

[duris]

Was there water in the street by Coconut Beach as you went to the point? My wife lived in a boat house, and I had a condo overlooking Coconut Beach, and we used to marvel at the people who would drive through that water no matter how deep to get to the point and sightsee. Wasn't a problem except when they decided to go fast through it and send more water into the boat houses.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Was there water in the street by Coconut Beach as you went to the point? My wife lived in a boat house, and I had a condo overlooking Coconut Beach, and we used to marvel at the people who would drive through that water no matter how deep to get to the point and sightsee. Wasn't a problem except when they decided to go fast through it and send more water into the boat houses.

At one point there was water, but, everyone was able to drive through it in their vehicles slowly...

[duris]

Was there water in the street by Coconut Beach as you went to the point? My wife lived in a boat house, and I had a condo overlooking Coconut Beach, and we used to marvel at the people who would drive through that water no matter how deep to get to the point and sightsee. Wasn't a problem except when they decided to go fast through it and send more water into the boat houses.

At one point there was water, but, everyone was able to drive through it in their vehicles slowly...

Two years ago with the back to back storms close by it was deep for a while. Living in the boat house was nice until they closed the storm gates. Even worse, if you had anything downstairs, which my wife didn't fortunately since she has over a foot of water.