Pre Gustav Jitters: Live Blogging from the Upper 9

You can tell the powers that be don’t want to be caught looking as stunned and inept as they did during Katrina.  Senator Obama is talking on the phone to my favorite local TV station now.  President Bush and Vice President Cheney have said they will not be attending the Republican Convention.  Mayor Ray Nagin (in serious need of meds and obviously pissed that Governor Jindal upstaged him) panicked every friend and family member I had with his “Mother of All Storms” comment. I’ve been answering the phone about every two hours since about 10 pm last night once his usual histrionics got on CNN. 

Okay, so facts from the ground. Every one who is going, is going east into Mississippi and Alabama. (Read it’s a parking lot on every road eastbound)  Every one that evacuated earlier to Baton Rouge is no longer feeling smug.  It appears the brunt of the winds and rain may be worse there then here.  I’ve ordered the youngest to stay in her dorm and follow the orders of the campus.  I’ve come to respect the strength of buildings built pre-world war 2.  These things were built to last and be passed on.  Like i said, my little barge board house is built of side by side boards that are about 20 inches wide and 8 inches thick.   Trees are no longer available to produce that kind of wood.

City of New Orleans is moving all of its busses to high ground … the Poland Avenue wharf which is two blocks down the street for me … exactly where the mighty mustang is going.  I’m hoping that every one on the westbank and the other side of the canal from me are going elsewhere.  The story from this hurricane will be the surge which is expected to swamp the same areas Katrina did, plus the north shore and the west bank.  These were two areas spared during Katrina.

There is a very large national guard presence here in town.   They are REALLY serious about looters this time.  There are still some businesses that refuse to come back because their property was left to looters while the majority of the police force and national guard were watching folks in the super dome.  They have even sealed off the super dome completely.  Folks with out rides are being bussed out or put on trains to Memphis and are taking pets with them.  I’m sure this is making the elderly more willing to go.

Most of my neighbors are planning to stay at this point.  Again, we’re the highest ground in the area and if you’re hit by a tornado, you might as well be in a ditch.  The only wild card here, again, is the levees.  I know my house is on the lid of the bowl and won’t flood, but I also know that every one on the high ground becomes an island that the rats swim too.  (Ask me about the use of my office and classrooms for toilets during Katrina.)  Leather chairs went outside.  Everything inside our building became a public toilet. 

Anyway, still trying to get the plywood on the north side of the house.  Got the front storm shutters up yesterday.  I’ll make a final go or stay decision after the 4 pm update.  It looks like it’s going farther west and experiencing shear.  If that trend continues, I’m safer here than just about any place else in Louisiana.

I’m powering up the cameras and such.  As long as the electricity and batteries hold, I’ll try to post some direct information.  I’ll only get really worried if Jim Cantrelle of the Weather Channel AND Anderson Cooper show up here at the same time AND Johnny White’s closes….  Most of Bourbon street is closed but of course, NEVER NEVER NEVER Johnny White’s.

Here’s a side pick of the kathouse a few days after Katrina.

kat house post katrina