My prayers go out to you and everyone else on the coast. When I was watching the track of the storm this morning I too thought of Lisa.

It looks like it will be worse for NO, but maybe not as bad for the MS Gulf Coast this time.

The most important thing is you getting out. Stay safe and we will be praying for all of you (and the roses).

Been thinking of you since I heard Gustav has headed your way Mike. You guys deserve a break. Hope Gustav gives you one.... not a break in a levee though. Keeping fingers crossed for you here.

I'll be saying some prayers, too.

Mike, I hate this is happening again. You all have my thoughts and prayers! Anyone needing refuge is welcome here too. Would love to host some rosey friends.

Carla

Good Luck Mike. Thoughts and prayers are with you.

Gilli

I'm just thankful you've got the brains to get the h.... out. We've got one friend uptown who's still waffling about staying and he has a huge oak tree that endangers his house. I am worried sick about him.
I expect a second refugee to appear in a day or two, He'll spend a day or two above the surge line and then decide whether to go back to Metairie or come up here.
From what I've read on nola.com there are bridges that have already been raised and flood walls closed and sandbagged.
Nagin just announced any looters will go directly to Angola.
Just thought you might like a smile.

Watching the Weather Channel and thinking of you all.

Oh Mike, not again!! OMG... I haven't been following the news much lately, but just saw the evacuation of NO in the Yahoo news when I got online. How can this be happening again? I am soo very sorry for all of you who live in the south where these stupid hurricanes keep coming! So many natural disasters! Our fires several weeks ago were scarey, and now this! My thoughts and prayers are with you!! Be safe!!

For DAYS now, we've been watching the reports on Gustav, and fretting about
everyone on the Gulf Coast.
I contacted one friend, who said they were prepared to leave, if it looked bad,
but of course, gardens can't refugee.

The last one was heartbreaking.
I'm praying for Gustav to suddenly just collapse into a tropical storm.

Jeri

You all are in my thoughts and prayers, when I heard this one is going to be a 5 and the other was just a 3, just a 3!! I thought holy cow, how much more can you guys take??? I sure hope it poops out in intensity before it makes it to land. Glad you're getting out and pray you've got a home to come back to along with everyone else.
Leslie

You have my prayers as well. I lived in NO many moons ago and it's a shame what happened last time to that great old city. I'm heartened to hear that they are making an effort this time to evacuate( new state management at least)BEFORE the water possibly hits. And thank God you can take your pets with you too. Roses can be replaced, not loved one. Do take care Mike.

Yes, praying, too, and Gustav is down to 115 mph at 1pm Sunday after all being at 150! Keep praying everybody!

Sherry

My prayers are in for you and everyone along that area.

And now there's one to worry about.
Extended families work.

For days I've thought of all of you who may come into the path of the storm, since it may extend all the way to Texas. It sounds so terrible although the organization seems to be much better this time. I saw on a TV documentary about hurricanes that cutting down trees and draining swampland and putting houses in their place has considerably worsened the problem, but of course real estate developers couldn't care less about that. They make their money and get out. The trees and the wild swamplands that would absorb much of the brunt of the storm of course are gone too.

I hope everyone stays safe, along with their homes and gardens. Thank God this time your pets can go with you

Ingrid

Yes, am praying for you Mike. We have a very dear friend who owns a candy store in the heart of New Orleans. She has barely recovered from the last hit!

I can't imagine the anxiety and fear you all must be feeling. My thoughts will surely be with you, and hopefully, it will not be as severe as forecasted.
Judith

Praying here too, for safety for you all. If anyone hears anything from Lisa at Countryside, please post.

Monitoring the situation here with great concern and sending best wishes that you're safe and sound with those you love.

Sue

Mike, we've been watching all weekend. I sure hope things are better for you & everyone in the area this time around. It looks like there is much better organization and tighter security this time too. Stay safe.
Mary

Oh Mike, Good luck. We will be watching the news and thinking of you. I am so glad you are taking leave of absence and heading to the hills. You and all who this may affect will be in our prayes and thoughts. Take good care.
Hugs, Pauline - Vancouver Island.

Mike, you have our prayers for your safely and for the safely of all on the gulf coast. Be careful and get in touch when you can to let us know that you are okay.

Carol

I really shouldn't ask this - but why do people choose to live in a city that is under sea level? I mean, anyone who chooses to live on the beach here at the Pacific ocean, is always aware of the possibility of a Tsunami. You know that you are choosing to live in a high risk area. Someone on T.V. just now said that it's the governments fault. Huh??? Man can't control Mother Nature.
Flame suit on.

Hoping for everyone's safety and minimal damage, if any, for all the folks out in the Gulf Coast from New Brunswick Canada.

We're watching the news coverage and praying for everyone in the storms path way out here on this coast too.

So far it's looking like winds are not what they might have been, now if the rains will just not cause too much flooding.

Having experienced winds over 100mph here in December, my heart is with you all! Stay safe!

I'm reading all your responses from a nice hotel room in Atlanta. It took us 20 hours to get here, what would normally be a 8-9 hour drive. We tried to pick a good route, too, but didn't do so well. I-59 in Mississippi was practally a parking lot. It took us 16 hour to get through the state of Mississippi. Oh well. You might wonder why we went so far away. But hotel rooms had to be booked quite a few days ago, when the exact path of the storm was much less certain. We tried for rooms in Tuscaloosa and Birminham, AL, but couldn't find any left that weren't scummy. I'm relieved to see so far the storm looks like it is mostly sparing the city of New Orleans itself, but I expect we'll see a lot of bad damage roports between there and the coast. Major oil receiving operations were directly hit by the storm.
I'm a bit concerned about getting back for work, but we also have to have power restored before we go back.
I'm kind of glad some folks actually stayed behind. Not that I want to see them at risk, but it is nice to have contacts we can check with for news. Our nextdoor neighbors stayed behind, and we exchanged cell phone numbers.
Peggy, your concern about why people choose to live here is, I think, valid, but it's also somewhat of a political hot potato. This city should never have been built here, or at least should never have expanded outside the orginal french quarter parameters. That's the highest part of the city, I think. But that was hundreds of years ago, and the ground was much higher then. It had gradually sunk over the years ever since the river levees were built to keep the flood waters out. No more silt deposits, and the ground that's here just slowly compacts further and further. But any time you have a whole city, with unique culture and architecture and complex history, there is just no way any human authorities are going to be able to say "Sorry folks," you all have to move."

Why am I here? Life brought me here; it's where I went to college and met my wife, and we came back several years ago because she found the best opportunity for a PhD program she wanted. We did not think of it as a permanent home. But here we are almost a decade later. My wife is trying to finish her much-interrupted work on her dissertation (would you believe, in environmental sociology, with a critical look at the history of Mississippi river flood control policy.) Emotionally, I'm ready to move away, but aside from her college work, I also just got the best job I've ever had and am hesitant to jump ship after only 1 year.

So, "life happens." Imagine being born here, having countless family ties. Then making the decision to chuck it all to go live elsewhere is a bit more complicated.

Of course, I'm not arguing that New Orleans is as safe as any other place. But still, there are many other places with wildfire risk, earthquake risk, tornado risk, and flood risk--even without being a lowlying coastal town.

Anyway, we're here in Atlanta, now. I've got to take my 5 year old to the Aquarium while we're here. I hear its awsome. He's in that phase where he loves sharks and any other dangerous looking creatures.

Thanks for all your concern, everyone. My family is going to be ok. But I know some in the broader area are going to be really set back by this storm.
Mike

Hey Mike. I don't mean to leave New Orleans all together -- just get out of the areas that flood.
I remember when a city in N. Dakota was destroyed because of a flood, brought on by an unusually warm spring with fast snow melt & ice still in the river. They chose to rebuild the city further out.
Couldn't they do the same in New Orleans?
Anyway, it sounds as if Gustav hasn't caused the dreaded damage that all were so afraid of, & I'm very glad of that. Have a safe trip home!!

mike - welcome to the ATL. Your daughter will love the aquarium, it's great for kids.

I was at a mall today and noticed a lot of Mississippi and Louisiana plates on the cars by the hotels. During Katrina we had relatives of my neighbor stay at our house for a few days. They managed to ride it out this time.

I hope your home is ok. We all have something that may happen to us at some point. My house has been hit by lightening twice LOL! And Hanna is set to visit us, but we need the rain...

Hi Mike,
Glad you're OK. We were headed to our place in the French Quarter on Friday but stayed right here in Birmingham. I wish I'd known and I would've found you a good bed and breakfast. I'd offer to put you up but a two bedroom with ten dogs probably looks worse than the bad hotels in Birmingham. headed back tomorrow?

Hi - this is Lisa P. from Pass Christian, writing from my Camille-Katrina-Gustav-tested home complete with electricity, restored by our fantastic power company last night. (MS Power rocks!)

Mike - so sorry to hear about the 20 hour trip. What a nightmare. But I hope your home is okay. Let me know when you get back home.

We had only 60 mph gusts here, but they went on for about 6-8 hours. Small trees and large limbs are down and some minor issues, but overall we are fine. I have family that lives in Slidell and St. Bernard - all evacuated so are safe, and I'm hoping that none flooded, but we don't know yet for sure. We may have a house full of people later today as they drive here and wait to get back home.

General update from the local news:
Some of the worst storm surge hit Hancock County in Miss, which unfortunately was also the worse surge area in Katrina, so there are a lot of folks who got hit again. The emotional toll is going to be heavy. The just rebuilt harbor area here is a wreck. I don't know about the city services (which are still in trailers) yet but we are going to drive to town in a little while to check on a friend's place. Pass Christian, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pearlington all got hit pretty bad. Pearlington had a report of a 19 ft. storm surge, but I think that may be exagerated. It was more likely 14-16 ft. but that is bad enough to wipe them out. A friend from the Bay reported a nearly 11 ft. surge at his place about 1/2 mile from the Bay. He is a scientist and probably has that pretty accurate. Power is coming back pretty quickly to places that didn't flood. I don't know what is going to happen here when so many people who have barely recovered have now flooded again.

We are lucky - I joked with my husband that after only about a day of yard clean-up, we could get back to our normal Katrina repairs. But the truth is it isn't really a joke. We still aren't back to normal yet, but that isn't unusual if you flooded in Katrina.

Slidell, New Orleans, and St. Bernard - reports are that there is still flooding in low lying areas of Slidell (Palm Harbor), but it is isolated. Several friends on the east side of Slidell - Cross Gates, Quail Ridge, have power and did not flood. The surge may have been as high as 9-10 ft. on the most southwestern part of Slidell, where one friend has a ft. of water in her yard. The storm moved fast enough that water didn't pile up in Lake Pontchartrain as it could have. They are saying the sewerage system in Slidell is out.

Reports are the the levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard held although water was at the top of the Industrial Canal levee at the 9th ward. A couple of levee leaks in St. Bernard (one right near my sister's house) were plugged and prevented flooding. One report said that near Paris Road and St. Bernard highway did not have water.

Terrebone Parish (Houma area, Brian lives there I think he might have flooded) flooded pretty bad, but I am hearing very little details about the damage. They had 10-12 ft. storm surge.

Gustav was a high cat 4 storm with a bad surge predicted for LA and MS we were expecting a lot of damage. It went down to a 3 and even a 2 at landfall, but still had a solid 3 storm surge. It could have been much much worse that it is, but it is still bad enough, especially for the folks who got whacked by Katrina. This was nothing like Katrina, but it's harder than it would be if Katrina hadn't happened.

Regarding the question of 'Why don't ya'll just move if you live in a flood-prone area?' I can say that personally, my husband and I moved from LA to MS where there is some high ground, and we did choose someplace that was never expected to flood at 23-25 ft. elevation. Well, it flooded in Katrina anyway, and nobody ever thought that could happen. Now if we want to move, we can't afford to. Insurance is so expensive here that nobody will buy your house. Some places can't get insurance. Also, our town isn't the most attractive place to live right now and probably won't be for decades. So unless we want to take a huge financial loss and sell our house for practically nothing, we are stuck. That is true for many people in the towns that got wiped out by Katrina. Who wants to move to a town with no grocery or pharmacy, trailers for city buildings, beat-up trees, perpetual road construction, and unaffordable insurance? Actually the people here are great and we have some beautiful areas so it has its good points, but outsiders won't necessarily know that and want to come here. I think more people who flooded are going to move away now, and that is going to make things even worse.

The other reason, and perhaps the main reason people don't up and move away is that nearly all of New Orleans, St. Bernard, and Slidell are in flood-prone areas, at least for a bad hurricane, so unless you leave town, you can't get away. And people don't want to leave their hometowns where they work and have family and friends. I live within a hour of my 2 sisters, and I won't move away from them, so unless we all decide to move together, and we all get new jobs somewhere else, we can't leave without breaking up the family. It's unfortunate that cities got built in flood-prone areas, but way back when, people didn't have the knowledge they have now about oceanography and weather to help choose places to settle. Also, the terrible destruction of our wetlands and barrier islands due to decades of oil canals being dug, and the levees built along the Miss River stopping sediment flow have contributed to the flooding problem. As Mike said, New Orleans is sinking due to the Miss levees, but it is still an important city.

Sorry to ramble, but I want to try to explain that it isn't as simple as it seems from the outside.

New Orleans, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany are telling people not to come back home - that you will be prevented from going home even if you have electric and your home is fine. That is creating a lot of problems. Also, schools in all those areas are going to be closed until Monday, or at least that is the latest I've heard.

Hope this is useful to somebody.

Thank you all my friends for your concern for me and everyone down here. It means a great deal to me. I'm fine, my family is safe, and more importantly, my roses are mostly okay. Let's hope to hear from Brian, and Mike again soon.

Lisa

Thank you Lisa. That's what my house guest needed to hear. As usual, one of our friends didn't evacuate uptown, and we haven't heard from him. His huge oak tree in his backyard has dropped two limbs this year so we are worried about him being crushed.
From my guest's checking up, there are large parts of Metairie that are still without power.
Perhaps the worst thing, long term is that in the Industrial Canal there's a major gas pipeline (for the eastern US) that has a ship and some barges aground on it.

I still miss New Orleans, but I get out my cookbooks and make a roux.

Lisa, thank you for the update. I've been worried about you. I'm so sorry that your area was damaged again when you haven't fully recovered from Katrina! Hopefully, we will hear from Brian soon.

Carol

I live in the northeastern corner of LA. We were not touched by Katrina but Gustav seems to have moved in here! 5 in. of rain in 2 hrs. yesterday- over 9 in 24 hrs. and gusting, howling winds for 2 days have wreaked havoc on our part ot LA. I want to chime in about people not moving away from southern La. and Miss. It is difficult for people outside the south to understand our culture of family and home. We are just not as willing to move far away from parents and grandparents as people from the east and west coasts. Our town would be considered a "dump" by many, yet our young people continue to move back home after college or first jobs in the big city because it is home, familiar and loved. I live 5 minutes from my job, church, and the schools my grown children attended. My husband enjoys the fact that we live 2 minutes from the golf club we belong to. We still buy season tickets to our high school football games. His parents live less than 1/2 mile from us. Our children and grandchildren live only 1-2 miles away. It would be difficult for any of us to leave. Most of our friends have been with us for 30+ years as well. There are pros and cons to everything. Our winters make up for the extreme summers we have. Everything is relative. Everything good comes at some cost. I love Louisiana and am proud of our people and especially our brilliant and caring new governor! Buff

We're finally back home. (Boy are our kitties happy! They didn't much care for life on the road.) Our power came on last night, and we got a call to let us know. We were gone exactly 6 and a half days. I'm sure glad we emptied the fridge and unplugged it before we left; ---one lesson learned from Katrina! Now that I'm out of vacation time, we're eying Hurricane Ike, expected to enter the Gulf on Monday or Tuesday! Oy! The high pressure systems are making it hard for forecasters to say just where it will go; could be the west coast of Florida, central Gulf Coast, or even Mexico. I think we're going to try to rush mail-order a generator to have ready so if we have to leave we can return sooner.

Lisa, glad to hear you're fine. Fingers crossed for this Ike business!

My roses are a bit windblown but otherwise fine. I'll try to get out there tomorrow and tidy them up and apply some Bayer fungal preventative.

Great to hear you are home (and it is still there). Loved hearing from Lisa too! Glad I checked this thread :)

It is hard for those of us who do not really live in flood prone, hurricane hit areas, to really understand the dynamics of life there. What I most enjoyed reading in the above posts is the strength of the family ties and love of a place that is home.

Not to minimize the loss from hurricanes and flooding in the least, but it seems to me that you all are very rich in some very important areas.

Praying about Ike here, Gean

Thinking about all you folks on the Gulf Coast tonight.
Renee

Another week, another frightening storm approaching.

I'm glad to hear that Lisa and others made it through Gustav without terrible
problems. Our prayers are that all will make unscathed through Ike.

Jeri