PLEASE... ANY NEWS FROM NEW ORLEANS?

[TSmith274]

Yeah, we dodged another one tonight. I can't emagine what would have happened if we had gotten hit. 40mph winds and Lake Ponchartrain still fills with water. Emagine adding another 100mph to that. Anyway, we're ok. I can't help but think about those in Mobile.

[BigO]

THanks for the update, GS...you're standing about 1/4 mile from my house.

Please, update us more as the storm comes through...you may well help me figure out how bad my damage is going to be.

[MannyG]

Just hope NOLA residents dont write the next one off too

I don't think NOLA residents blew this off for the most part. In fact, most everybody I knew (friends and co-workers left) including myself who is currently in Lafayette.

What does concern me about the next one is people deciding it is not worth it to leave if you have to deal with Louisiana interstates that places commerce over life. I left at 4:45 this morning and did not make it to Baton Rouge until about 12:00 while looking at Baton Rouge traffic headed east almost non-existant. Many people I talked to decided to head back to New Orleans (after the 10 AM advisory I wanted to do that also but was out-voted).

The next time I feel like if I must evacuate west through Louisiana I will be staying or more likely I will in the future just head into Atlanta (shorter trip than Lafayette) and if I'm stuck there because of weather so be it.

[LaPlaceFF]

I heard of people saying that they made I-10 one way out too late. IMO they did what they had to do

[BigO]

I went to Tuscaloosa (halfway to Atlanta) and it took me 8 hours. Atlanta would have been another 4-4 1/2 on top of that.

I'd like to get my hands on the nimrod Jefferson Parish official that told folks to go I-10 east and catch I-12 west to get to I-55. Not only did he manage to totally clog traffic leading up to the twin spans and the I-12/I-10/I-59 junction (which was backed up so badly with people trying to merge into the far left I-12 lane that it took me an hour to go 4 miles), but he made those poor people drive 60 miles out of their way to hit the same freakin' congestion between Mandeville and I-55.

Thanks for nothing, buddy.

[garlooland]

Big0--We live just off Bayou St. John and have had breeze/wind most of the day with just a small amount of rain. We have not lost power in this area. I heard on the news that about 21k people have lost power in N.O. east.

MannyG--We left yesterday headed for Athens where we have relatives. We got on I-10 at I-510 and it took 3 hrs 45 mins to get to the first Slidell exit. Anticipating traffic not getting any better and hearing that landfall was likely Ala/MS we turned back. We couldn't understand why there was no contra flow heading east. Then heard on one of the local stations that MS officials did not want the contra flow from LA because so many MS residents were evacuating. Of course, who knows what to believe from the media.