Link Gumbo 8/15/16 - Link Gumbo Is Soggy

There was going to be a scrimmage report here, but obviously there have been some more serious issues in East Baton Rouge over the past weekend. I’m happy to report that intrepid ATVS scribes Billy Gomila, Adam, and ZRau are all safe, though Adam and Billy’s homes were flooded. I’ve included some of their reporting of the events of the weekend below, which at one point included Billy being stranded on one of the many I-12 overpass islands that formed as the Amite River and every other body of water east of the Mississippi overflowed in a historic weekend of rainfall, many of which will stay above flood stage for most of the coming week.

The best things to do in these situations is to give to the Red Cross. Thousands of Louisiana residents have and will spend the next few days in shelters as the waters slowly recede. LSU is closed Monday at least, and many Baton Rouge streets are still flooded. If you’re a student on campus looking for a way to help, the Carl Maddox Field House has been turned into a medical needs shelter and the River Center downtown and the Celtic Studios soundstages on Bluebonnet Blvd are both open as large general shelters, and all of these locations can certainly use volunteers.

I want to stress that you should still only travel if necessary in South Louisiana as hundreds of roads and large sections of I-10 and I-12 from Iowa to Mandeville still remain closed due to flooding. Make sure you check with the LA DOTD website 511LA.org for up to date info.

There was a scary couple of hours yesterday where no one knew the status of recently retired longtime Voice of the Tigers Jim Hawthorne. He and his wife were rescued from their flooded home in the Park Forest neighborhood after he shouted to a rescue boat that had passed. Also from that story, S&C coach Tommy Moffitt and LSU SID Michael Bonnette spent some of Sunday rescuing neighbors and Christian LaCouture’s family in Denham Springs had to be evacuated.

That’s about it for news. Fan Day and the preseason Media Day was canceled, though the team did continue to practice. Rescheduled dates will be announced later.

EDIT: It tells you the kind of weekend we’ve had that I forgot this. Over the weekend, legendary Louisiana sports journalist Pete Finney passed away at the age of 88. A man with a masters in Journalism from LSU, Finney had covered nearly every sporting event to take place in Louisiana since he started in 1945.