Baton Rouge was hit very hard, which you would not know from watching the national news coverage. Friends there whom I've spoken to by phone say that it may be weeks before they get electricity back. Roads are still blocked by downed trees and power lines, there are long lines for ice, what few businesses are open are accepting cash only. One friend, with a brick ranch house and normal-sized suburban yard with a few trees, said she and her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend put a total of 9 person-hours of work into clearing limbs and debris from her yard and got the job only half done. Three houses just in her immediate neighborhood had trees crash through their roofs. It's a mess down there, despite the jaunty tone of many post-storm news reports.
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