Gustav Update #5

So far, it looks like Gustav's bark was much worse than its bite, at least as far as New Orleans was concerned. I heard from Coop about 5PM CDT. The power is back on in the quarter and they are opening up for the evening to serve anyone who want to eat. In addition to Coop, Barry Franklin, Laura Roe, Jason Palmer, and a couple of other employees road out the storm in New Orleans and are there to keep the place open.

The Weather Channel and CNN are reporting that winds are down to a sustained 16 mph. It looks like there is one more major band of storms that will be going through later tonight. The biggest concern with this set of storms will be the possibility of tornados.

We continue to keep a wary eye on things, however. Mayor Nagin reports that the sewer system is not functioning. The thought of 300,000 people who can't flush coming back into the city doesn't excite me in the least. We also are mindful of the fact that it looked like New Orleans escaped the worst of Katrina until well after the storm had left the area. In fact, by 10:23 AM on 8/29/05 I was already writing about how New Orleans had dodged another bullet. It wasn't until the morning of the 30th that we started seeing the extent of the damage. So we are very much in a wait and see mode here.

Everyone is getting along great. It is a little like The Big Chill, with 15 people staying in a pretty big house, except no one died (well, except for Nigel the cat). Everyone is anxious to get home, but understands this is part and parcel of life in New Orleans, and everyone is happy to chip in to make this as fun as possible under the circumstances.

Assuming everything checks out tomorrow, we hope to be on the road home as soon as Wednesday or perhaps Thursday. We'll see what happens tomorrow.