Hurricane Gustav - your thoughts?

[GuitarGuy503]

My dad is in the National Guard and may be sent there if this hurricane is anywhere near as bad as Hurricane Katrina was. I just found out 30 minutes ago.... Let the stress begin (As if I don't have enough right now).

[LesStrat]

This is why I prefer to worry about the snow up here in the north.
I hope as many people get to safety as possible.
I think I can honestly say that I speak for everyone when I say that I hope there are far less fatalities than Katrina.

~2M people evacuated the La coast. The planning for this storm was far better than the atrocity that was the Katrina response. State leadership has led to earlier evac orders and provisions for those without transport. Even "Chocolate City" Nagin apparently learned a few things since his last storm.

My ex-girl-with-whom-I'm-close has friends in Orleans. So I'm concerned. I think the whole country is. We ALL remember Katrina. And especially here where music matters, we hate to see Orleans hurting.

I appreciate your concern, but I have to say as a native that I am disgusted with the H. Katrina coverage. Mississippi was devasted by Katrina, but all you ever hear about is NOLA. Furthermore, H. Rita was on her heels and did a tremendous amount of damage to SW La., yet even in our state government all you heard about was Katrina. There is far more to La. than the Big Sleezy.

My dad is in the National Guard and may be sent there if this hurricane is anywhere near as bad as Hurricane Katrina was. I just found out 30 minutes ago.... Let the stress begin (As if I don't have enough right now).

I saw earlier that Gov. Jindal requested 16k more NG troops from other states.

[Redmist]

I left Cuba last thursday just before it hit the Western Havana region.
It was sitting at a catagory 4 at that point, but new reports are that it may have lost some of its fury on the way to the U.S. coast.

[texasguitarslinger]

Hurricanes blow...

[sufferinrewind]

Yo, dudes. I'm sittin' right in the middle of it. It's not nearly as bad as was expected. Still, I can only hope for the best for those getting the worst of it right now. I hope New Orleans and those areas don't end up enduring the kind of damage that they did with Katrina. This thing is going to bring a lot of rain, so we just have to hope for the best. I hope everyone is alright. It's great to see that so many finally listened to reason and evacuated this time around.

[DLT]

I left Cuba last thursday just before it hit the Western Havana region.
It was sitting at a catagory 4 at that point, but new reports are that it may have lost some of its fury on the way to the U.S. coast.

I understand it is suppose to pick up more impact as it gets to a certain point in the gulf. Let us pray they are wrong.

Yo, dudes. I'm sittin' right in the middle of it. It's not nearly as bad as was expected. Still, I can only hope for the best for those getting the worst of it right now. I hope New Orleans and those areas don't end up enduring the kind of damage that they did with Katrina. This thing is going to bring a lot of rain, so we just have to hope for the best. I hope everyone is alright. It's great to see that so many finally listened to reason and evacuated this time around.

They expect about 10 - 20 inches of rain.

[LesStrat]

I'm watching closely. The eye will probably pass over New Iberia soon. My son has a friend who is riding around town as I type this. He reported very little action thus far. Pray that report holds.

The storm is not that much of a concern to me. I'll likely have a couple of section of fence to repair. The RAIN is worrisome. If we get too much too fast or too long our drainage system won't be able to keep up. If there is too much rain, there will be nowhere for it to run off as Bayou Teche fills.

[exnihilo]

Ouch, wild ride ahead!

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_atl.shtml

Somebody pissed something off.

cg

[exnihilo]

Fund, nah they'll just get free room and board in other states and decide to stay, at which point the crime rate will sky rocket, again; re: Nevada.

cg

[BillG3]

Hilarious! I evacuated to Texarkana. Gustav is currently south of me and going to pass around to the west and then the north. Not much in the way of wind but getting a bunch of rain.

My house is safe but 90% of the parish is out of power.

Thanks for the prayers and concern.

[LesStrat]

I'm in Vidalia, Bill.

The weather was worse here, methinks. I spoke to the lead singer in my band yesterday. My wife spoke to our other singer as well. They said that it wasn't that bad, and we had a direct hit.

My son returned last night. He works for an electrical contractor and has a "First Responder: electrical restoration" ID.

[Hoss]

i'm glad this storm wasn't as bad as everyone thought it could have become!!!

hope everyone stays safe!!!

[LesStrat]

I'm annoyed at the media coverage (once again). All we hear about is "NOLA."

I'm trying to get info about those of us DIRECTLY IN THE STORM PATH, and there is no reporting. Okay, that's not entirely true: they give a 2 second blurb, and no follow-up. Or a 10 second vid-clip with no information.

[BillG3]

I understand the frustration on the reporting, Les. Problem is New Orleans is big news due to its importance as a port city. Its other "features" such as levis doesn't hurt.

When Katrina hit, there was a lot of coverage on Slidell (where I used to live). But, the coverage was only the super damaged areas south of Interstate 10 with the implication that all of Slidell was devastated. To me, this is irresponsible reporting.

For Gustav, there was some reporting from Houma and Lafayette.

[Ken]

Hurricane Gustav?


I'm against it.


All the best to those riding it out or coming home to it once it passes. Hopefully it's minor compared to what it could be.

[LesStrat]

Much of Baton Rouge remains without power. Is that not news?

[sufferinrewind]

Yo, just got power back about an hour ago. Been without power for a whole week. This was the worst hurricane I've ever been in. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't taken a turn north and then northeast. Fortunately, we don't live in a low lying area, so we didn't get any flooding.

[Jake]

Yo, just got power back about an hour ago. Been without power for a whole week. This was the worst hurricane I've ever been in. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't taken a turn north and then northeast. Fortunately, we don't live in a low lying area, so we didn't get any flooding.

Yikes - sounds rough. It can only get better from here though, right?

[sufferinrewind]

Yikes - sounds rough. It can only get better from here though, right?

Let's hope so. I've been through Andrew, Katrina, and Rita, and this one was worse than all 3 of those combined, and it was only a Category 2 storm. Of course, I guess I should also mention that my area didn't take the brunt of those storms like we did with this one.

[GuitarStv]

I have a question for all you guys in hurricane areas . . . what happens to you work-wise? Like if you get hit by a hurricane every year or so, is it like a terrifying couple of days (probably unpaid) vacation every year? Or do employers make you work through the storms?