Llueve.

Spanish for "it's raining," and boy is it ever.  It feels like it's been raining forever, although it's only been a few days here in Monroe.  Hurricane Gustav made landfall yesterday near Cocodrie, south of Houma, dealing New Orleans a glancing blow while slowing down a lot and dumping water all over Louisiana and parts of Mississippi and Alabama.  Yesterday morning was met with interest as the storm came in, but the day was gray and breezy with a light drizzle.  At 5:30 pm, with no rain or wind, the power went out.  Entergy, the regional utility, indicated power would be on by 7; no biggie.  I grabbed my friend Anna and headed to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  As we ate, to quote The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore, conditions deteriorated rapidly.  By the time we left at 7:30 winds were steady at about 25 mph and the rain was coming down.  We ran to CVS and grabbed some toiletries and crayons and such for the evacuees at the coliseum and dropped them off, then returned home to darkness.  A call to Entergy indicated they would not be sending crews out in the weather which, although irritating at the time, made sense since power was going to keep going out all night and why risk people in a tropical storm.  I locked up and headed to my friends Mark and Valerie's for the night.  We watched the weather and were startled by a limb crashing into their backyard that we promptly removed.  Winds were gusting over 40 mph and it was raining like mad.  I conked out on their guest bed at 10 pm hoping the house would be ok.

Valerie woke me up at 7 am to move my car; their power had gone off in the middle of the night and they needed ice for the fridge.  I ran home and found my power on and everything in good shape.  My gardenia bush in the backyard was uprooted and cracked, so I'll have to get another one.  Shane came over at about 8 to take a shower and get ready for work since his power was still out, and Mark came over around 9 to get cool and hang out until their power returned.  Shane came back around 11:30 then both left, Shane to work and Mark home as the lights came back on.  Meanwhile, it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  Rain like I have never seen rain.  Monroe can be a rainy place; in Summer 2004 we had measurable rainfall for 32 straight days, but nothing like this.  The rain bands of Gustav swirled right over us, dumping inches of rain on already saturated ground.  At about 5 pm I got worried.  The back patio was under water, and 4th Street in front of the house was a river.  Trucks driving through left a wake that came up and over the curbline grass and flowed up my driveway.  And it kept raining, finally slacking off a little about 7:30.

It's 10:30 pm right now, and it's coming down pretty hard.  The radar shows that we should be in a light rain area shortly.  The backyard is draining well, and the front looks a lot better than it has.  The house is in no danger of flooding currently; the water would have to come up the front lawn, then three or so inches up to the front door.  The patio seems okay, though I worry that a really heavy burst may cause water to seep into the sunroom.  There's nothing much back there, it's tile, and slopes away from the rest of the house so a little bit likely won't hurt.

More to come in the morning.  They say it will rain through Friday.