Campus Refugees

I am still hot for Anderson Cooper. You betcha I'll be watching his show tonight at 7:00 on CNN. Wouldn't miss it for the world. I just like to watch his lips move.

Tom thinks it's funny when I get crushes on TV personalities, movie stars, and musicians, thank goodness.

My most distressing news is from my dad. Friends of his who work at Charity hospital in New Orleans (and are stuck in there right now) have called his hospital and said that many of the doctors and nurses have administered IVs to themselves, and are taking in their nutrients by vein. In other words, the doctors and nurses are dying, too. The good news is that dad told me that last night, and today (FINALLY, FOR FUCK'S SAKE) the calvary arrived and began evacuating Charity. At least, according to TV they did. I'll see what my dad tells me later.

Tomorrow I'm helping to run a dorm for refugees. We have a dorm on campus that is slated for demo next semester. It's functional, though, and the demo is now postponed. We're fixing it up and the busses will be here bright and early tomorrow. The dorm is made for 200 people, and we expect it to fill to capacity really quickly.

I don't know what other Georgia campuses are doing, but I'm sure it's similar to what we're doing. I do know that Georgia Tech is temporary home to about 300 Tulane students.

I also know from the ticker on some channel that the feds have "ordered Georgians to stop hoarding fuel". It's a little embarrassing to be the state singled out for hoarding. But we were hoarding, I guess. Prices went up to $6 a gallon two days ago. Tom and I tanked up before the surge, at about $3 a gallon. Metro Atlantans commute, buddy. Car commutes the likes of which I've only ever heard about in California, although there are probably a few other spots where nearly EVERYONE drives really far for work. Many of the people I work with commute an hour and a half each way. We don't have subways or rail, so if you run out of gas, you don't get to work.

(and if someone chimes in and says, "you have Marta!" then I will know that you don't know what you're talking about. Marta is, like, pretend. You can't get anywhere on Marta.)

Word is that LSU and Southern are basically giant MASH units. Every building that can be used for triage is being used as such. Classes are cancelled until after Labor Day at both schools, but in reality it is obvious to those who are there that classes are cancelled indefinitely.

Baton Rouge has doubled in size. It's a city of about 500,000, with metro of another 500,000. So now, doubled, it's a city of 2 million. Over the course of a week. Students have been notified to STAY INSIDE for their safety, until more Nat'l Guard arrive to supplement the police force. I guess the Guard probably arrived today. But being an LSU alum, I can tell you, those kids are not staying inside. They're wandering about buzzed, getting in the middle of things. A Louisianan miss the opportunity to get all up in the middle of something like this? Never.

My uncle in Gonzales (outside the perimeter of Baton Rouge metro, toward New Orleans) says there are thousands of raggedy people wandering around his town. Gonzales got power back yesterday, and never lost water. So, now instead of driving the refugees all the way to the Astrodome (which is CLOSED! for business) they are dropping them off in Gonzales. There, the refugees can get access to water to hose off. And there they loiter around waiting, for busses to come and get them and drive them to places like here, 9 hours away.

I hope that the people who come to my town (which I cannot name lest I destroy this semblance of anonymity) like it here. This community, on the far outskirt of the Atlanta metro, is far from wealthy, but it's clean and friendly and likely to give all it can to refugees who behave nicely. The nice behavior is key. This is Georgia, after all.