Preparations

Update - Sun. p.m.: It's the calm before the storm I guess. Local weather dudes are predicting 35 mph sustained winds from mid-day tomorrow through Tuesday. Also predicting 10 to 20 inches of rain, the problem being that they expect the thing to stall out or slow down over East Texas. With Shreveport being on the NE quadrant that means lots of rain. All my preparations are done and I've prepped my mom as best I can. Steve is super busy as one might imagine. It's just a waiting game for now.

They are paying attention in NOLA it seems. Most are following the warnings and getting out. There are, as always, a few die hards who are refusing to leave.

As for our local situation, KTBS is predicting heavy rains and winds of 30 to 50 mph on Tuesday and heavy rain at least through Wednesday of up to one foot. So I've been making my little humble preparations. I went to the grocery store today to stock up on the necessary junk food (honestly, I am within walking distance to TWO grocery stores should anything drastic happen...) and bottled water. I'm not sure why I bought water - we've never lost water here. We almost always lose power though, so I stocked up on batteries. I got lucky really because I'd been hearing stories of how scarce batteries are already getting around town. At Super 1 I went straight to the battery section and it was wiped out. But when I got to the checkout line, there were a few remaining packages of D and C batteries hanging by the candy and chapstick displays. Score!

I also went to BestBuy and got a car charger for my cell phone, which I needed anyway. So if I lose power and can't blog, I will still be able to tweet on Twitter which posts to my blog (see it, on the right!). I am off now to secure my yard furniture; plastic lawn chairs and deck umbrellas don't hold up too well in 35 mph winds. I also need to move my mother's car to my house as I am on much higher ground and her driveway always floods. This is all so minor compared to those poor folks down south all along the coast. I'm am doing some serious praying for them. Imagine the nightmares this all brings back.

The panic in the media as this storm approaches is clear; I remember so clearly Janice Dean on FOX as Katrina approached. I knew it was serious when I listened to her. I'm getting that same feeling from her again although she is still hoping for a blessing for NO and a shift from Gustav to the west. Since Gov. Jindal cancelled school for the next 3 days, I hope to get some much needed work done and some MUCH needed housecleaning done. (Actually, I will probably do nothing but sit in front of the weather forecasts for the next 4 days, but I'll seriously try to make an effort.)

(Photo credit: NOLA.com Damien Weaver)