Gustav Update #8

Although New Orleans is still under a mandatory evacuation order until 12:01 AM Thursday (at which time it becomes a voluntary evacuation), the checkpoints have been removed, and people are being allowed back. We are going to leave tomorrow, however, simply because the thought of spending another 10-12 hours in a constant stream of traffic that rivals the worst Los Angeles traffic jam you have ever been in just doesn't appeal to us.

There is an interesting article that appeared for awhile on www.nola.com (which is the New Orleans' Time-Picayune newspaper's e-news site) entitled "Next time, we're not leaving." The article was taken down shortly after it was posted, but someone put it up anyway.

In the article, the author pretty much accuses Nagin and other government officials of lying about the potential severity of the storm. In particular, it calls Nagin to task for calling Gustav "the mother of all storms" when it was still 900 miles away. I can't agree with everything he says. For one thing, I'd much rather the government err on the side of caution, rather than even implicitly encourage people to stay, and then have really bad things happen.

The one thing I do agree with, however, is that something has to be done about the speed at which people can evacuate, as well as the availability of gas, food, water, and restroom facilities along the evacuation route. I may err on the side of caution again just to see if they learned any lessons from this evacuation, but if we have a similar experience, it might be hard to convince me to leave for anything less than a Cat 4 in the future.

We are all more than ready to return to our homes, but we also all agree that waiting another day may make both the travel experience and the available resources in New Orleans better. In the mean time, all eyes are on Tropical Storm Ike. The various forecast models are all over the place, but this also has the potential to enter the Gulf, and it is on a similar track to that taken by Gustav.

I won't post tonight unless there is new significant information to write about, but I will post again tomorrow before we hit the road.