A bit of real talk here.
As many of you know, I live in New Orleans proper. That being said, the state of the city isn’t what you’d call the best right now. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a great deal of normalcy as long as you don’t look too closely.
As you’ve seen from the posts and the news, the numbers here are going up daily. The city has more infected than a lot of states. As of writing this we have 1298 in the city proper and 2042 in the metro area. Our death rate is around 5%. There’s a lot of medical reasons behind that you can find online.
The reason I’m writing this is not to be gloom and doom but to explain what’s about to happen here. In the next 24 to 48 hours, if it hasn’t happened already, the local ICU’s will be maxed out. A day or so after that the beds in the hospitals will be full. At most we’re looking at the end of the week before the state follows that same path. That means, we’ll be topped out medically speaking.
It’ll take a week to ten days, then the death toll will tick up at an ever-quickening rate. That’s when the fear will fully kick in. The ones still throwing parties will be upset and angry why they weren’t warned of the dangers. Panic will grip a majority of the residents and things will start to go wrong.
On an average week…meaning no pandemic or hurricane or any other disaster…my internet goes out maybe a dozen times. At least once a month I lose it for more than three hours. During a thirty-day period we’re looking at least an hour or more without power due to downed lines. And once or twice every three months we have a water boil advisory due to the sewage and water board having some sort of issue.
All pretty typical for life here. If live here…you have to get used to this.
This is not what you’d call average or normal times. Last week, I looked down the street to see the mail man lean forward, place his head against the steering wheel and stay there for a bit. When he lifted his head, he wiped his face…I’m guessing he was crying, no judgement on that, this shit is scary as fuck, and the man still got out and did his fucking job, so good for him.
Thing is, not everyone is going to have that resolve here. This is just a guess, but given the numbers, things will begin to break down here as this gets worse. My connection may become unreliable and things could get a little tougher than I’d like. That’s okay, we’re all going through it and this is just part of life at the moment.
I’m telling you this so you understand why I’m not around as much as normal. I’ll do my best to keep in touch either here, or via the email I send once a month. If it gets too whacky, I’ll try to message someone directly to have them post here for me.
Don’t worry about us as we’re incredibly fortunate. The better half is working from home and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. We have food, supplies, a comfortable spot to sleep, and best of all our cats. For the moment we’re safe and healthy…hopefully, that’ll continue.
I ask that each of you take care of yourselves, family, and loved ones. If there has ever been a time for us to be kind to one another it’s now. Please, stay safe.