"HurriCake" Gustav

The TakePart team is a collection of great people from around the country. Me personally? I’m a proud product of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’ve spent the last few days celebrating the begining of Tiger football and getting increasingly concerned about Hurricane Gustav. Thankfully, the wonders of modern technology are allowing my family in South Louisiana to send me regular text, photo, and video updates from the path of the storm.

Currently, the family is gathered together at my brother’s house to ride out the storm. They’ve bought all their generators in one place figuring they’ll have a better time together and will fare better with more electricity to go around. In the spirit of Louisiana, they’re celebrating accordingly…

The hurricane party is a staple of life in South Louisiana. The state has a strong outdoors culture of fisherman and hunters who keep deep freezers stocked with yummy, natural treats like trout and venison. Unfortunately, when a hurricane rolls through and electricity will be out for a few days, everything in your freezer will spoil. What’s a Cajun to do? Throw a party and eat all that good food you spent so many weekends acquiring (have you ever dragged a deer back to camp? Hard work). Below is a photo from my brother’s hurricane BBQ - they’re grilling as much food as possible before the first rain band hits in about 30 minutes so they can have dinner (and probably lunch tomorrow).

From my brother: "Bring on Gustav!"

Read our coverage of Hurricane Gustav