O/T: Gustav

[Lew Hodgett]

Looks like this puppy is going to be a big one.

Looks like any body from New Orleans to Houston is a possible candidate for a front row seat at the upcoming event.

You people take care of you and yours.

Lew

[Scott Zrubek]

Yeah. The waiting's the hardest part.

I feel it's still too early to make a call to get out of Houston. N.O., I'd be boarded up and heading to higher ground.

I wanted, because of my Rita experience, to be gone 72 ahead of landfall. It looks like we won't know where it's going until it clears Cuba.

[Leon]

Fortunately when we exited for Rita we were about 15 minutes in front of the crowd and had a place to go to. We were at our getaway location 80 miles away 2 hours after we left. I seriously doubt that we will ever see an evacuation like that again,

2,000,000 + people trying to get out of town. The biggest flaw with that many people leaving is that San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Austin, Dallas/FortWorth and all the small towns in between cannot handle a sudden population increase of the magnitude. One of the reasons for the long bumper to bumper lines was that the people had no destination that could accommodate them. I personally blame Neil Frank being way over excited and feeding off the chance that he would be in the middle of a major hurricane. Call it hurricane envy if you will. His predictions and sensationalism of "what was absolutely going to happen" was reckless. For years and years reasonable forecasters have always indicated that hurricanes are unpredictable and hard to forecast days in advance as to where they would be. Neil Frank had his viewers believing that he absolutely knew the exact location that the hurricane would hit and that Houston's damages would be "devastating" from the moment that the storm became a tropical storm in the Atlantic.

A fact that the Houston weather guys don't mention is that for every 10 miles inland that you are the winds diminish 5-7% from what they are at the coast line IIRC. If Galveston is getting 150 mph winds, Houston will get about 105-120 mph winds.

[Scott Zrubek]

I made it to 290 and Hwy 6 after 15 hours of driving. I was at 1/8 of a tank and no gas in sight. I turned around and went back into town. I was in a relatively safe spot in 10 minutes.

Looks like I'll board up windows in the morning.

[Lew Hodgett]

SFWIW:

Both Los Angeles and Orange Counties have sent "Search & Rescue" teams toward New Orleans today.

These teams have both "Search" & "Cadivor" dogs.

Hope the later will not be needed.

Lew

[ron]

I live in Montgomery, a little north west of Conroe. During Rita we didn't see even a drop of rain, thank God. We did, however, take in some friends from the Baytown area. They came with three teenage kids, two dogs, one cat and of all things a pot-bellied pig. My Baytown buddy, requested the pig stay in it's kennel, in our house, due to a sentimental attachment between swine and thirteen-year-old daughter. Truth is, the pig was less annoying than the teenagers. I did think it was a little tacky, when my unamused wife served up a large pan of sausage with breakfast the next mourning.

[Leon]

Then they went to the wrong city. They should have gone to Houston to search out the low life's we got stuck with after Katrina. We would like for those folks to be found and taken back home.

[Robatoy]

Looking pretty good right now, at least according to Gen. Russell Honor=E9... and somehow, I believe him. I have NO idea how CNN ever landed him as a commentator as he should have been running for the Top Job on Nov 4.

[Robatoy]

Is it me, or are those newshound mofo's disappointed that things weren't worse?

[Stuart]

That would be their normal behaviour.

[jo4hn]

Oh man! You should see these clowns reporting a 3.9 quake centered in the desert somewhere looking for damage. And the happiness when they get footage of some cans on the floor in the East Dickwad grocery. And STORM WATCH, TEAM COVERAGE of any chance of severe weather and the whiny sounds of sunshine. ABC has the cute blonde reporterbimbo in New Orleans as we speak. Whiny sounds are starting. curmudgeonly yours, jo4hn

[Lew Hodgett]

You noticed.

Just got a post on another list from a guy living on his boat in SW Louisiana (New Iberia).

Worst appears over, surge moved enough water from under the boat to put the keel in the mud and allow the boat to tip to a 20 degree list for awhile, but all appears to be back to normal as the surge has passed.

Now, just have to wait out the rains.

Lew

[Mark & Juanita]

Absolutely. In addition to the usual ghoulishness exhibited by the main stream media when it comes to potential disasters, they were beside themselves with glee that this storm was going to hit during the Republican convention.

[Robatoy]

That's payback for Dobson shooting off his mouth. God's justice comes quickly.