gustav update

greetings from sunny jackson, mississippi!
yes you read that right, i'm in jackson, not baton rouge as originally planned. i'm doing fine and now just waiting, like the rest of the country, to see what gustav will do when he makes landfall (expected early tuesday, sept 2). (thats the abbreviated version. see below for more details)

all this gustav-talk started early this past week in new orleans. i am usually one to react to such news with hyper anxiety but i took bob breck's advice (bobbreck.blogspot.com) and didnt freak out. although it seemed like the rest of the city was already in freak-out mode, which is understandable since three years ago to the week most people lost everything they owned. EVERYTHING. so better to freak out than be sorry, right? i figured i'd wait and see what the forecasters said, if/when evacuation would be necessary.
early in the week i was still hoping my weekend plans would involve moving (to a new apartment a few blocks away, plans that were made the week before gustav) rather than evacuating. as it got to the middle of the week, the people closest to me were talking about evacuating and thats what made me realize, hm, i dont want to be left behind. originally i was going to go with some friends to north carolina, then to atlanta. then to baton rouge since that would be closer (no need to go all the way to the atlantic coast to avoid the storm) and easier/quicker to return to new orleans if gustav should change his path. i was really not interested in a prolonged adventure. another friend offered for me to join her in jackson, mississippi but for the time being i was set on going to baton rouge. my preference was to not leave new orleans with four empty seats in my car--given the high number of people i know who dont have personal transportation, i figured SOMEONE would need a ride somewhere. my second prefernce was to stay with people i knew.
at the same time that i was trying to maintain calm and listen to bob breck, the city already seemed to be doing a better job of preparing for this storm, than it had with katrina. the governor was being very very pro-active, the mayor was talking about the plan (wow, an actual plan!) to get everyone out of the city with enough buses, etc. that was re-assuring, minus the fact that it would mean i'd have to go. up until thursday evening i really was feeling calm and cool about the whole thing and still hoping i wouldnt have to leave until sunday, saturday evening at the earliest. then i heard the mayor say on the news that he'd probably call a mandatory evacuation on saturday afternoon. from all i had heard my friends talking about their previous evacuation experiences, its best to leave before the mandatory evacuation call. a few years ago, some friends evacuated and it took them 8 hours to get to slidell, which is probably about 50 miles from new orleans. sheesh! i didnt want that to happen.
so then my mind was set on evacuate-friday-mode. and thats when the nerves started. i had to remind myself that it wasnt so much that i would need to evacuate with the storm on my heels (think indiana jones and the ginormous boulder rolling behind him) but more so evacuating before the hordes to avoid the news-making traffic jams. at this point, i was going to go with some people from st roch community church, including the pastor and his wife and some other friends. my empty passenger seats would be filled and we'd head to baton rouge. as the day progressed, i waited on word that it was time to go. plans were falling into place but then we realized that heading to baton rouge wasnt going to be the best decision. and the family i was supposed to take with me decided they'd rather wait for the mandatory call and take the city-sponsored buses. so. i had to decide what now to do. i called up my friend who had offered me a place in jackson and asked if it was too late (this was friday afternoon). she generously said no, the offer was still good! so i went home, got my bags, and made my way up to mississippi. some other friends of mine are staying in jackson too and we met up for dinner along the way last night.
and that brings me to now. i'm hoping to be here until next wednesday or thursday at the latest. this is looking like it will be an extended labor day vacation in mississippi. yahoo!!!! i'm glad to be out of new orleans and now i just play the wait-and-see game like everyone else.

packing my bags was interesting....how do you decide what to take when you realize that whatever you leave might be lost for good? and i think of my neighbors, many of whom will be part of the new city-wide plan to evacuate everyone with buses to various locations outside of the city. they are making very clear now that if you stay and resist the mandatory evacuation, you are on your own. there are no city shelters. what about those people who are barely scraping by? now they will be dropped off in a new city to wait-and-see. evacuation is expensive, not to mention the lost time of missing work. so many factors, so many things to consider, on top of the fact that you might be watching your city get destroyed for the second time in three years. yes, hurricanes are a fact of life living in coastal louisiana. but that doesnt make it any easier to deal with. i'm just hoping and praying that God will spare not only new orleans but all the cities and people along the gulf coast. may He turn gustav back to the sea, away from civilization. i'm also praying for those people in jamaica, haiti & the d.r., cuba, and the cayman islands who have already felt the brunt of gustav.

i will keep you posted if there is anything to report. the websites i'm watching are: bobbreck.blogspot.com and nhc.noaa.gov

with love, emily