Well, guy's and gal's, I'm back home. Had to come home a day early because I forgot about a train show that we are having in Longview, TX. this weekend. I don't know what the deal was but the dispatcher has been keeping us in close range of hurricane Ophelia.
They shot us a load that routed us from Houston, TX to W. Melbourne, FL. on the East coast directly in the path of the eye. it was moving back out to sea while we were getting unloaded so we only got a little mist from it. We made a few run's around AL. and then they shot us up north of Richmond, VA. to make 3 deliveries on one load.
Once again we crossed paths with the hurricane again going threw NC. & SC. on the way up. Picked up a load in Richmond to go back to Troy, AL. which put us back in the path of it. We stayed the night at a truckstop in VA. before delivering our last drop of that load and the truckstop we stayed at had a good 200+ trucks for FEMA. Drivers stated they were sent down south to pick up loads of ice, water, and other supplies for Katrina but the trucks were sent up north just past the striking point of Ophelia. The trucks were sent up there to wait in till Ophelia hit so FEMA wouldn't get caught with their "pants down" again like they did with Katrina because they weren't ready.
While on the trip to FL. I took one of the accident cameras out of the our trucks accident box and took some pictures of the damage between Biloxi, MS. and Mobil, AL. on I-10. I got a few pictures of the bridge on I-10 that was out. A section of the bridge that I figured has to weigh at least 300+ tons of concrete and steel had been moved by the storm. The steel feet between the bridge I beams and the piers had collapsed and fallen into the water about 40 feet below. The bridge beams along with the deck had slid about 4 feet toward the northern side of the bridge and down about a foot from the I beam feet being gone.
The concrete guard wall was opened up far enough that 3 people could walk side by side and walk right off the bridge and into the water so they had the East bound side shut down and opened up the West bound side to two way traffic to get across. Along the base of the East bound side of the bridge on the southern most side were numerous boats, barges, a large tugboat and other things lodged up against the piers dry docked in swampy grass and a couple extremely large cranes that were brought in to pick up the bridge deck and set in back in place. On down the road were huge signs made from steel that stand about 150 feet high from the ground that looked to be nothing more than a train wreck from the ones that weren't snapped in half like tooth picks. Continuing down I-10 on the eastern side of Mobil, AL. on the East side of the Mobil bay tunnel where the U.S.S Alabama was sitting on the bottom of the bay bed in it dock slightly banked to the right towards the East from the wind and the tide that went out.
If I didn't know any better from what I could see you could walk a mile out in the middle of the Mobil bay and never go any deeper than knee high because the storm surge pulled all that water out. The Weather channel showed that one guy standing in the water near the I-65 get on ramp north of I-10. Come to realize where we were you could look up and see where the water line stopped up on top of the light poles on top of the bridge on I-10. Water so high in that bay that you wouldn't imagine. You figure a semi truck stands 13' 6" from the ground to the top and it was somewhere between 30-35 feet from the mud on the bay bed to the underside of the bridge deck. Now if you include the thickness of the bridge from the underside of beams to the top of the concrete guard rail plus the 13' 6" tall semi.
That's pretty deep if you ask me. But the water was higher than that. As high as the water line showed on the light poles on the top of the bridge you could have parked a truck on the bridge stand on top of it and still be standing neck deep in water. One of the get-on ramps on I-10 looked like a turn table bridge after the water went down. It had turned two sections of the bridge ramp about 6 feet clock wise also knocking out the steel feet and leaving 450+ tons of concrete deck and beams in direct contact with the piers. We seen full sized yachts sitting in tree tops and van that was blown over the side of an over pass onto the interstate and what have ya.
We stopped in Hammond, LA. at a Petro just off I-55 South on I-12 for the night and there were people every where. It was a truly sad sight to see. We went in got some dinner and stuff for the truck came back out and got ready for bed. We flipped on the TV to watch the local news and they showed one black guy with his dog just sitting on the side of a road in N. O. stuck with nothing. Just him and his dog. He wouldn't get on a bus to leave because they wouldn't allow animals on the bus's so he stayed behind.
They showed him just sitting there in a chair face to face to his dog petting him. A guy with the camera crew came up and was asking him questions about the situation and then surprised him with a piece of paper stating that they had someone to take his dog to a shelter and get him on a bus. The black guy grabbed the other guy and hugged him and they both started crying together with happiness. The man was reunited with his dog two days later. Another shot was of an orange kitten on a piece of drift wood that seen a rescue boat coming and jumped off in highly toxic water and swam over to that rescue boat where they pulled it out of the water.
I don't care what anyone thinks about a grown man crying but that brought tears to my eyes. I was really feeling the love from the people who were there doing what they could for who they could. Animals are people to in their own way.
So far it seems that trains made it threw all right. Still didn't see any movement but all were up right and on the tracks. I just got in at 5am this morning so I'm gone to take me a nap before I have to get ready to get outta here to head for Longview early in the morning. I forgot the camera in the truck but I'll swing by and get it tonight and try to get them developed as soon as I can.