Monday, September 1, 2008

Thoughts on Gustav and Hurricane Evacuations

We're now waiting for the all clear so we can return and put our house back in order. Ground truth report says no flooding but they will keep us out in order to let Entergy fix the power and to clean up any downed trees. Traffic on the way back will be a bitch. Bobby Jindal said 2,000,000 people evacuated in the face of Gustav - the largest evac in Louisiana history.

Bobby was impressive. He would reel of facts and figures giving the general impression that he had a plan, they were following the plan and that he had a handle on everything that was going on. Great inter-state cooperation with medical needs people being evacuated by C 130 to neighbor states. Hundreds of buses were standing by along with Amtrack trains to evacuate those with no transportation. Homeland Security and FEMA were there next to him lending pro-active support but following his lead. Mayor Nagin stood by with a look that he was relieved not to have to worry about the details. Bobby will make a great President one day.

The one political glitch is Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard ranting that Mississippi wouldn't allow evacuees to travel east on I-10 because it would have caused an inconvenience to the Biloxi casinos. Of course, his family was in the traffic jam forced to go north so he probably had a personal dog in the fight.

Personally, I left about 24 hours before my mental deadline (when the hurricane crosses an imaginary line between the Yucatan and Cuba) but I had to in order to avoid the rush. Going to the FloraBama area was the next best option to going north since we had no hotel reservations. I was glad to see the thing stay to the west. The bottom line is the homestead seems to have survived and the family is safe. That's the best result. Other aggravations are minor in comparison.

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