In the Eye of the Storm: Hurricane Lily

(October 3, 2002) Sitting here looking out the window with 90 plus mph winds going by and the rain coming down in torrents. You can see big swatches of water moving in horizontal gusts across the road. Lafayette is in the center of Hurricane Lili right now. The windows are boarded up on my and my neighbors' homes, the bathtubs are filled with water (in case we need it to flush the toilet), we've stocked extra batteries for flashlights and radios, bottled water is in the fridge. The lights are flickering and the radio station goes on and off. Every so often, something around the house goes boom & the place rattles. Sirens and sounds of emergency vehicles periodically. The news says this is the first hurricane to hit landfall since 1988, power has been turned off in several cities south of here to prevent fires and other bad stuff. There's a tornado watch as well. Other provisions include a case of beer and a bottle of vodka, plus friends still on email say they've got the gumbo on. My housemate is playing the guitar, watching the news and keeping watch to see if the huge oak out back is hanging on to all its limbs. We are in the hurricane's eye wall right now, & the eye of the storm is just south of Lafayette, so the news says before it goes to static. The radio keeps going on and off the air. The highway patrol tells everyone on I-10 to pull off the road because it is unsafe to drive & in fact there are reported of vehicles sliding off the road and turning over, including a big-rig . The power just went off at home as well as the phones (and with it the lights, the DSL line and the air-conditioning). (I write this powered by my laptop's battery.) A huge tree limb just crashed down, bounced off the car port and barely missed my car. Another huge tree limb is lying in the road one house down and there are some kind of power or phone lines lying in the neighbor's yard. There are tornado touchdowns reported on Johnston St. & College Ave., just a mile or so from my house, plus one by the airport & the Checkers hamburger sign is down off Ambassador Caffrey. A fire truck just drove by our house, lights flashing. Welcome to Louisiana, indeed.
Meantime, to distract myself, this is a good time to tell you about last week's Festivals Acadiens, which was held the weekend of September 20-22. The weekend includes several different events including Festival de Musique Acadienne et Creole on the Main Stage, Downtown Alive (a Friday night street dance held in downtown Lafayette with BeauSoleil and Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas), a Heritage Stage - where some of the most interesting music is often found, a, Cajun Food Festival - with all the best local restaurants providing the eats, the Louisiana Folk Roots Tent with Cajun Jam, and the Louisiana Crafts Festival.
This year's festival was dedicated to the memory of Felix Richard. The Main Stage acts included  Zydeco Joe, Jason Frey & Travis Matte, Feu Follet, Jesse Legé & the Southern Ramblers, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Veillée, Belton Richard & the Musical Aces, Richard LeBouef & Two-Step,  Walter Mouton & the Scott Playboys, Charivari, Balfa Toujours + Bois Sec Ardoin, Bayou des Mystères, with Zachary Richard, Michael Doucet, Kenneth Richard and Horace Trahan, honoring the memory of Felix Richard, Wayne Toups & ZydeCajun and Jo-El Sonnier.

The Heritage Stage included File, BeauSoleil, David Doucet solo, a trio featuring Karen England, Al Berard & Sam Broussard, the Red Stick Ramblers, The Magnolia Sisters, a fiddle workshop with Mitchell Reed and Kevin Wimmer, Lil Band of Gold and last but certainly not least, an appearance by The Traiteurs including Sonny Landreth, Al Berard, Errol Verret plus special guest appearances by Jimmy Breaux, Roddie Romero and D. L. Menard.

In the evenings, among the bands playing various clubs in the area were Keith Frank, Steve Riley, Horace Trahan, Chris Ardoin, Paul Daigle, File, & Nathan & the Zydeco Cha- Chas. Everyone missed not being able to go to the zydeco breakfast at Cafe des Amis, which is still closed.

The first day was hot as Hades and twice as humid. We hadn't even started to dance in the morning and sweat was dripping down my back and off my nose! The day was mostly like that... great music, drink lots of water, pace yourself & socialize instead of dancing entire sets. Sunday started with some rain, but then it cooled off considerably and felt relatively delightful towards the end of the day.

There was a LOT of great music, but for me, the musical highlights for me were:
The Traiteurs - Sonny Landreth uses his lead guitar to play traditional Cajun melodies in this inspired group, that gets together occasionally to raise money for the Tommy Commeaux memorial chair at ULL. I spoke to Sonny before the show and he said when the group was formed the rules were : no rehearsals and no set lists. The band rocks and yet remains very traditional. There were moments during the set where I just felt transported... you know - those out of body experiences when time stands still and there is nothing but music? And when DL Menard showed up to sing The Backdoor, the crowd went wild.
Al Berard, Karen England & Sam Broussard. Twin fiddles, a guitar and some heartfelt vocals. It sounds simple but in these accomplished musicians, there is real magic on stage. Al Berard sang one waltz with such feeling and sweetness, it brought me to the brink of tears. Sam Broussard sang an original song, "Vini Jillie" based on a Creole slave poem which then segued into a twin fiddle tune showcasing Al and Karen, "Depuis l'age de quinze ans", which brought the house down.
Veillée. Four vocalists, including Marce Lacouture, David Greely, Jean-Jacques Aucoin and Kristi Guillory singing old Cajun and Creole songs a capella using ancient harmonies. Highlights of this set were "Drinking Song" with its catch melody and sing-along chorus, and a version of "Zydeco sons pas sale", with harmonies that reminded me of the African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Charivari. A step dancer from Nova Scotia joined the band on stage to everyone's delight, including the bands.


Hurricane Lili Aftermath: Our power went out shortly after I wrote the above (around 10AM and stayed out until 7AM the next day. There was a mandatory curfew in effect Thursday night. Our phone lines were taken down by a fallen tree limb and stayed out until around 6pm. A house across the street had a huge oak tree fall down on it and smash in the front room. Everywhere you go, there are huge tree limbs & store signs down. Most stores are still closed and boarded up, and there is a gasoline shortage. A white kitten with gray markings on her head and tail showed up at our doorstep meowing pitifully yesterday after the storm passed by. We fed her sardines. Today she is still here, and we fed her cat food. We haven't let her inside yet, but she followed us around cleaning up the yard, scampered in the leaves, used tree limbs as scratching posts (good kitty!) and has been sleeping on our front step. So if no one claims her after we post some signs in the neighborhood, I guess we now have a cat. Of course, we decided to name the kitty, Lili.