I am so glad to be here! I am so glad to have electricity again! Last night they turned our power on after days and days....a roof blew off up our street and took out a few power poles.
Our neighbor had evacuated, thankfully.
After what we went through with Katrina and Rita, I had a plan in mind for the pond for when we got by another storm. But...this was rough.
The koi were definitely showing signs of distress by about two days after the storm hit (no electricity, no pump.) The goldfish were behaving normally. I think
every leaf from
every tree blew off and I think they all went into the pond. I scooped out as much as I could, but I really didn't want to churn up the bottom of the pond and put even more organics and nutrients into the water.
I had stopped feeding the fish a couple of days before the storm as well.
Though we have a generator, we discovered that our extension cords were in short supply and some of them were damaged. Still, we managed to get a couple of small pumps running in both ponds...just to keep them aerated. By three days out, the pond water turned the color of tea...just like the bayou water. By day four, we had huge fish kills in the bayou. The pond fish? doing ok, thank God!
The water is absolutely gross. So my plan is to do something I have never done. I am going to catch all the fish, drain the pond, clean the bottom and replace the water with fresh (tannin free!) water. I've never done a complete water change before, but I really don't think I have any other options at this point. Maybe I'll be able to find the leak while I am at it.
What I would do different in the event of another storm:
Have more dechlor on hand before the storm so I could do more water changes.
Get solar powered aerators!
Better extension cords!!!
Improve my pump and filter set up for better pump effenciency!!!
And the hardest one to admit? Decrease the fish load.
Anybody else have words of wisdom to add?
I know this was stressful on the fish. They still have not been fed, poor guys. :'( Not until I get their filters running again.
Speaking of stress, the rest of us fared ok. We have roof damage. The eye made landfall directly south of us, leaving us in the eyewall for hours. We had tornadoes...for instance....my kids cedar play house was picked up, ripped in half and deposited into the swimming pool.
Our house is built into the loft of a barn. The lower part of the barn is still a barn, with steel framed doors. Before the storm we chained the doors to the center steel beams, so they wouldn't blow out. Not long after we heard the metal roof blowing off in the wind, I went downstairs and saw the barn doors being ripped off their frames and hinges. The wind was howling. I had to hold the doors in place, while my husband backed the car up against what was left of them. If the winds got into the integrity of the structure, the whole house would have been compromised. I am not sure if what we did qualifies as smart and brave or incredibly stupid. Those winds were about 100 mph.
When the top part of the peak of the roof came off, rain just poured in. In the bathroom during the height of the storm, water was pouring from the light fixtures and down the walls. Now that the lights are back on, we can see that we have water damage to most of the ceiling.
The destruction in our parish and neighboring parishes was pretty severe. The straightline winds were bad enough, but the tornado damage is intense. Back of our place it's all woods and marshlands....and you can see the trails left by tornadoes. It's like somebody went with a bushhog or a plow. Just lines and swaths of mangled trees.
We'be been without power for 8 days? 9 days? When did the storm hit? It's all a big blur.
But the good news is that we are all ok. The house will be repaired. The fish survived. Even my aquarium of tropicals! No pump, no filter! but a very light fish load on a very large aquarium. I stopped feeding them, did some partial water changes and my little tetras managed ok.
