Wednesday, September 3, 2008

what the crap is going on?

So, I just found a way into Coates Hall on the LSU campus. Sarah needed to use the internet to work and we heard that the campus had power. Coates didn't, but there was an open door, so we used it to get in nonetheless. I checked the NOLA.com website and found a link to the power outages by number/percentage. Looks like roughly 90% of East Baton Rouge Parish is out of power. Cell phones seem to be all on the fritz. I haven't received any calls but apparently I have voice mail that I can't get to. Otherwise we're fine. Now time for a funny hurricane story:

Andy and Star drove up here from New Orleans in their friends van. They parked this van, legally, in front of my house. This morning as we went out to scrounge for food, Baton Rouge police towed their van. They did not inform us to move it, by sign or anything. There were police on our street as we left the house, but they said nothing as we passed. When we got back, the car was gone. Asking around, we come to find that the car was towed in order to make way for Bush's motorcade who was passing through the area to asess the damage. I guess he can add "cars unnecessarilly towed" to the list of things that residents here are pissed off about.

So, once we figure this all out, we call the local police. They don't know who towed the car. We call the capitol polise and then the state police and no one knows. Finally, we get one of our neighbors to tell us the name of the towing company. We call them to find out that it'll be $180 to get the car back. Hold on a sec, I'll just head to the ATM. The one with electricity. Let me know if you know where that is. In addition, they say that they can't release the car to us because none of us own the car. It can only be released to the owner. He evacuated NO to Dallas. He's not here. They want to go back home, but they can't. The situation sucks. We're thinking about filing a claim with the city to say that our car was stolen. We'll see if that works.

5 comments:

Marsha said...

Damn, Ari. glad to hear you and the house are ok, but sorry to hear about the woes. what can those of us who are slightly farther away and out of hurricanes' reach do to help?

Unknown said...

Hey,

I'm texting you and emailing you the name and number and office address for a lawyer friend of my fathers in BR who may or may not be able to help you/point you in the right direction. He's a death Penalty specialist, but he's a nice smart guy, my dad says, so maybe he'll be able to help. Let us know how things are. and if there's anything else we can do. Our thoughts are with you.

ReUdoR said...

Tell Andy that a towed van is a small price to pay to make room for the prez. After all, he's there to save a drawning city! However, there may be a story in this to interest some of the serious news outfits, like MSNBC or maybe even The Onion.

Marsha said...

The Onion! I should stop by their HQ in Boulder and drop off Ari's letter :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's some BS. I hope this starts to unfold better. The letter telling the story that's "not the kind people need to hear" is smart; have you gotten in touch with your friend in Dallas? Maybe if multiple people from different locations are calling the police about this, it'll help, at least this situation.