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I’ve posted my (few) pictures of our house and the surrounding houses. Mainly, the two worst-damaged homes that I saw on our street. A picture of one of those is below. (NOTE: THE DISPLAYED PICTURE IS NOT OUR HOUSE) These are from Mandeville, LA. See the “Posted from here” link associated with the post on the main page of my blog for a map of the location |
Monthly Archives: August 2005
NEW PHONE NUMBER
As far as I can tell, you still can’t call my cell phone because it’s based in New Orleans, even though I’m not there. I set up a new SkypeIn number where you can reach me whenever I have internet access, and leave a message for me when I don’t. It’s 586-486-3220, which is a Detroit, MI based number.
In Dallas
We’re now in Dallas, and trying to decide where to go next. There’s some question as to how long it will take to get power back up in Mandeville, and furthermore whether any stores (especially grocery stores) will be open. I for one am inclined to wait it out at the house in Mandeville — we have plenty of food and water, and I don’t need electricity to live (yes, it’s true).
It would be somewhat risky, given that there’s currently no way to contact anyone, should something go wrong. It doesn’t matter much, because there’s no way I’ll get my mom and sister to go back there.
I shot half a roll of film of the damage to our house and the surrounding houses. The other half of the roll is from Africa. I’m going to go find a drug store and get it developed to a photo CD, and hopefully I’ll be able to post the photos later today.
Thanks go out to Valerie for trsnscribing my last LiveJournal phone post.
Keep me posted on your whereabouts if you live in New Orleans — I’m looking for news of Wendy and Tao Li. They’re the only people I haven’t heard from in my lab, and Wendy’s pregnant.
‘Til later, this is Brock in Arlington.
Backups are good
Several months ago, I started making distributed (i.e. on more than one machine), automated, daily backups of my home directries, project and reference directories, and assorted important files.
I have at least one copy of all of these with me on a 500 GB external hard drive. They’re updated until Saturday, when I unhooked my desktop and hauled it up to Mandeville. I left my desktop in my parents’ house in Mandeville, and just brought the 15″ and 17″ PowerBooks. Even if the desktop in Mandeville sustains damage, I have everything I need to keep writing my paper while New Orleans is salvaged.
Make regular, automated backups, people. It just paid off for me.