Going Away, Hopefully Not Blown Away

[Rowan]

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I won't be around for the next few days. I live just outside New Orleans and we're going to be hit by Hurricane Gustav, though not directly, we will still experience flooding. Our evacuation plans are to head just 45 minutes north to where my cousin lives. We won't escape things fully being there, but we'll be safe. I am toting plenty of books with me in case the power goes out and I have nothing to do but read. ;)

I will be back on here as soon as I'm able to let you all know what's going on.

Prayers and all manner of such is welcome.

Rowan

[boswellbaxter]

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I won't be around for the next few days. I live just outside New Orleans and we're going to be hit by Hurricane Gustav, though not directly, we will still experience flooding. Our evacuation plans are to head just 45 minutes north to where my cousin lives. We won't escape things fully being there, but we'll be safe. I am toting plenty of books with me in case the power goes out and I have nothing to do but read. ;)

I will be back on here as soon as I'm able to let you all know what's going on.

Prayers and all manner of such is welcome.

Rowan

Good luck, and please keep us updated!

[diamondlil]

I hope that everyone remains safe, and that there is a minimal amount of damage!

Take care, and keep us updated.

[MLE]

Hey Everyone,

Prayers and all manner of such is welcome.

Rowan
My prayers will certainly be with you! Better take along a booklight and batteries, it's hard to read without power. Those new LED headlamps have converted my backpacking reading from a hassle into long nights up late in the tent.

[Ash]

Oh Rowan! I'll be thinking of you. I hope you and your family are safe, and hopefully when you return, all will be intact. I esp hope tho that Gustav suddenly looses steam and becomes nothing more than a puff of warm wind before it hits land (unlikely, but I can dream)

I hear they are pulling the stops on evacuation procedures. Glad they learned their lesson.

[Leyland]

I'm so glad you and family will be safer away from the landfall and will certainly keep you thoughts and prayers. It's still looking like Gustav will landfall in LA to the west of NOLA - which of course means NOLA is on the bad side of the wind and surge. Take care!

[princess garnet]

Stay safe!

[Divia]

Stay Safe. Hopefully it will downgrade...that would be nice.

[Perdita]

How scary.. Good luck and stay safe. Thoughts and prayers for all the people of New Orleans

[Telynor]

Many prayers for you and everyone in that area. Please take care, and I hope to hear from you soon.

[michellemoran]

Keep safe!

[EC2]

Wishing you well Rowan and hope that everything passes without damage.
Speaking of lights for reading by in emergencies. I've invested in one that you wind manually that's supposed to last about an hour and half between winds. I've not tried it out yet beyond going to put out the rubbish and doing small jobs in the dark, but it's worked well so far.

[tsjmom]

Hope everyone down in the Gulf area keeps safe.

[SonjaMarie]

Be safe! Good luck! My thoughts and prayers are will you and everyone else in the path of Gustav, may this NOT be another Katrina!

SM

[pat]

Thoughts are with you. Take care.

x

[Leyland]

Be safe! Good luck! My thoughts and prayers are will you and everyone else in the path of Gustav, may this NOT be another Katrina!

SM

I saw a close comparison to 1965's Hurricane Betsy (Billion Dollar Betsy) on the Weather Channel should the storm make landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi, so I believe considerable flooding and wreckage is expected with Gustav, worse than Katrina. I'm listening to the parish officials being explicit that anyone not complying with the mandatory evacuation order will not receive any services, emergency or otherwise, until it's safe for first responders and other rescue personnel to return in the storm's aftermath.

I hope no life is lost since everyone there seems to have the opportunity to leave in time. This time, he is rightly telling people to leave as there will be no shelter provided in the city.

All southern LA and other Gulf Coast residents are in my prayers. Saved lives can rebuild homes and I hope everyone stays safe to do so.

[Misfit]

Take care, and I'm also glad to see that everyone seems to be leaving in time.

[Rowan]

Hi Everyone... Just a quick update. My family and I have evacuated to Prairieville, LA, which, while not all that far from New Orleans (roughly 45 minutes), is higher ground and out of the brunt of the storm. We're staying with my cousin who has a huge house. The actual evacuation was not as bad as the last time I had to do this. I was not living in New Orleans at the time of Katrina, but returned with my family, so I had no part in the evacuation. My previous evacuation experience is from the late 90s.

The weather forecast is for the rain to start tracking in about 3PM today and continue on until the storm makes landfall. I will return as I am able to update everyone again.

[Judith]

Stay safe and will keep all of you in our thoughts and prayers.

[diamondlil]

Hi Everyone... Just a quick update. My family and I have evacuated to Prairieville, LA, which, while not all that far from New Orleans (roughly 45 minutes), is higher ground and out of the brunt of the storm. We're staying with my cousin who has a huge house. The actual evacuation was not as bad as the last time I had to do this. I was not living in New Orleans at the time of Katrina, but returned with my family, so I had no part in the evacuation. My previous evacuation experience is from the late 90s.

The weather forecast is for the rain to start tracking in about 3PM today and continue on until the storm makes landfall. I will return as I am able to update everyone again.


The evacuation certainly seems to have been much more organised this time. There was something on the news here last night saying that for the first time in hundreds of years both sides of the freeways out of NO were both travelling in the same direction to aid the evacuation. Seems like common sense, and it is great to see that it is prevailing this time around.

Keep safe!

[donroc]

Another wish for you to be safe

[Rowan]

It's just after 4AM and I'm awake again. I haven't had much sleep because I'm scared. My stomach is in knots and has been all night. We've had a bit of rain, but right now it's only gusts of wind. There's some sort of big-leafed plant right outside my bedroom here at my cousin's which is noisy as the wind moves through it.

This will likely be my last message as power loss is inevitable. I forsee a day of reading and sleeping. For some reason I can deal with things better during the daylight hours and will be okay catching up on sleep then.

[diamondlil]

Fingers crossed for you all there Rowan.

[Mara]

Stay safe, Rowan! Hope all goes fairly well and any damage to your home isn't too serious.

[LCW]

I hope you continue to stay safe!! I just saw on the news that it's now downgraded to a 2. Keep us updated on how you are!

[SonjaMarie]

Since you're on, does this mean you're back?!

SM

[Rowan]

Hello Everyone... I'm back and well. We've returned home today as power was finally restored. Unfortunately where we'd evacuated (Prairieville, Louisiana) is still without power as is much of Baton Rouge and they expect to be out for much of this month.

If anyone would PM me with a vague idea of what's been going on, I'd appreciate it. I noted the thread regarding the old forum, which I'm going to delete my membership from now.

I managed to finish one of the Boudica series I've been working on and will add a review if no one has. Right now I'm reading The Subtle Knife, part of the His Dark Materials trilogy. I should be finished that by tomorrow or Sunday.

I missed this place loads.

[princess garnet]

Thanks for the update! :)

We're to get a lot of rainfall from Hannah over the weekend.

[diamondlil]

Glad you are back on and okay!

Feel free to add a review even if someone else has already done one. We like variety of opinion here!

[donroc]

Now, let us hope Ike veers away from both our states out into the Atlantic