Hurricane Ike appears headed to Texas. Given that half of Louisiana doesn't have power yet from Gustav and without power, you can't pump gas into your cars to evacuate and you can't hear the evacuation notices on televisions that can't run without power anyhow, this is a Good Thing for Louisiana. Not so good for Texas though.
-- Badtux the Louisiana Penguin
Water pushed up the MRGO (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet) and sloshed over the flood walls of the Industrial Canal, even though Gustav missed well to the west and was a Category 2 storm. It's clear that the residents of New Orleans made the right choice to leave. If Gustav had come up the Mississippi River rather than miss to the west, or if it had stayed a Cat 3 rather than weaken as it approached the coast, New Orleans would have been right back underwater again...
Note that these particular weaknesses in the New Orleans storm defense were caused by the federal government and its MRGO project, and should be fixed by them as well. But thus far the Corpse of Engineers is arguing over how to close off the MRGO canal so it no longer funnels storm water into New Orleans, rather than simply doing it. So it goes...
-- Badtux the Dry Penguin
Just hoping everybody got out of New Orleans okay. Especially from the southern suburbs, because Gustav is going to push water up into Terrebonne Parish and is likely to slosh over the back levees of the part of New Orleans that did *not* flood last time (the West Bank).
My brother is doing fine. He's on high ground fifty miles inland in a 130 year old house that has survived pretty much everything that has ever happened to Louisiana. But it's going to be interesting to see whether he has an office left to go back to -- he works in Intracoastal City.
-- Badtux the Louisiana Penguin
