We made it back to Mobile, safe and sound. We packed up the cats, some valuables, a few paintings by our grandmothers, and some other heirloom items that would be mourned in the event of a disaster. Paul tied down the shutters in the front of the house and had plywood on hand to cover the front door once we secured the inside. All the outside shutters are closed, plants are down, swing and trash cans locked in the outbuilding, etc. The house is as ready as we could make it.
Traffic was relatively light getting out of town. The slowdowns we had were actually related to news crews on the side of the road (!) and police direction of traffic to *increase* the lanes into the medians. Yes, widening lanes apparently slows down traffic! From the lines that were starting, I think we got out just in time to meet the rush. And *I* got to town just in the nick of time — a few hours later and they closed the roads to only go “out”, not “in”.
The strangest thing is that you would never know that anything was happening in New Orleans. A few homes are boarded up, a few people are getting in cars to go, but generally, folks were just out walking and shopping and going about daily lives. Granted, there weren’t as many people out doing those things, but enough to make us feel a bit silly. It’s an odd feeling: you don’t want your efforts to be for a non-event (like last time), yet you don’t want all your efforts to be in vain.
I’ll post pictures of the house secured later tonight! But the bottom line is that we are okay!
Fluorescences | 28-Aug-05 at 7:43 am | Permalink
Hearing today that Katrina will be worse than Andrew and as bad as Hurricane Camille, I’m very glad to hear you are out of New Orleans!! You’ll see some effects in Mobile, but not nearly as bad as New Orleans. This is a quote from CNN.com:
“There will be extensive to potentially catastrophic damage to many structures … and inland,” he said. “We’ll have a lot of trees that are going to come down, perhaps millions of trees. But the first threat is going to be the storm surge. You must get away from the coast now.”
amy lee | 28-Aug-05 at 7:55 am | Permalink
Thinking of you all now and knowing that if anyone can recover from the potential catastrophic outcome, it is the three of you! Kevin and I will be watching the weather and Cold Spaghetti closely, anxious to hear that everyone is safe and sound.
Holly | 28-Aug-05 at 12:25 pm | Permalink
Thanks to you both!!!
We will continue to post as we can. We do not have a generator, so we will be at the mercy of the power companies after the storm hits. You can see the bands coming in now… it is more and more overcast as the day continues.