Overnight Louisiana seems to have come back into the cone of probability. Yesterday we were pretty safe, today we're expecting to get some tropical storm winds and rain. Which, as you can imagine, is not a good prospect for our area.

If it holds to this track, we could be okay, but if it moves more easterly we may have problems. They do have some models that would take it into Lafayette, where thousands of New Orleanians fled to when evacuating for Katrina, or Lake Charles, where there's more of the same. That would put New Orleans and the Westbank, where I'm at now, on the eastside of the storm. The canal in Gretna, the bigger city closer to Orleans Parish, is already high and can only take another couple feet of water, and we're supposed to expect at least three feet of storm surge, more if Rita keeps heading North faster than it heads West.



And the satellite:


Our tentative plan is to leave tomorrow afternoon / evening. My preference is always to leave as late at night as possible to avoid traffic, but my parents don't like driving at night and I'm pretty much stuck leaving when they do, so....

Well, I was looking forward to writing a bit about rebuilding N.O. and how I feel about some evacuees already deciding not to come back to the area, but somehow it doesn't seem appropriate at the moment, especially knowing that if Rita comes close to us we may not be able to come back here, even.

I'll have more sooner than later, hopefully.