electric mist

Katrina, CAT 4

I just saw on the news that the hurricane's been upgraded to a category 4. Still headed straight for us.

Carl will have to go board up his dad's store -- lots of plate glass windows there begging for flying debris. Luckily, his dad kept all of the boards used last time, so there's none of that waiting in line at Home Depot for hours to get plywood (if they still have any).

Luke made it in from Hammond (finding a circuitous route) and Jake's settled in at his own place, so the kids are safe.

I'm not sure about the fishing camp down at Pierre Part. My dad (who is obsessive about these things, having gone through Camille and Betsy) has probably already gone down there and tied everything down. I hope.

It's slightly windy outside, but not loud or crazy. I can't imagine the surprise huge storms like this would have been many years ago before there was the ability to forecast. The nature of the hurricane is that it is often sunny and nice just prior to the storm, and conditions can change radically within a few hours.

It's annoying to watch the weather channel and all of the reporters they have out on the beaches going on and on. On one level, it's as if they pump up the panic for ratings. Then again, lots of people ignore the warnings completely and do really dumb things (like go swimming in the rip tides), so maybe there's a good reason to make it sound like the end of the world. I just wish that once the network knows that the storm isn't going to hit in, oh, say, Alabama, that they'd drop the reporting from those beaches... because how much, really, can that person say? I heard one reporter talk three times about how the beaches had just been refurbished after their last big hurricane. It's frustrating, sure, it's costly (if another one hits them), sure, but since Katrina's not heading that way, it's pretty much a content free reportage. It would have been far more fascinating if they'd shown what was really going on in New Orleans and the frantic pace for them to get out.

My cousin's dad is in the hospital here (very bad heart attack and stroke). (He's not my uncle, but my dad's first cousin.) (It gets confusing.) She had to go back to Mandeville today to get her house prepped for the hurricane (storing outside furniture, etc.), and then she was going to come back here. I'm not sure if she's going to make it in because I heard they were routing everyone on Interstate 12 north to Jackson, MS. If I'm not mistaken, that's how she would have come in, so I hope she makes it. Her dad's having surgery Monday (asuming the hurricane doesn't affect the doctors / nurses, etc.)

Posted by toni at August 28, 2005 02:22 AM