Good news and not-so-good news re Hurricane Gustav

[thatcrazycajun]

The good news, courtesy of (and thank God under all Her many names for) CNN: Gustav has now been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, with highest sustained winds gauged at 135 MPH, as of when it made landfall early this morning at the Louisiana coastal town of Cocodrie. And I checked in with my family in and near Lafayette, and they are all safe, provisioned and boarded up for the heavy wind and rain they will likely get today or early tomorrow, if not already. (The Leger family has been riding out hurricanes since before I was born, through Camille and Betsy; they most definitely know the drill.) My younger brother, Doug the firefighter, is being called back to duty early to help answer the emergency calls that will inevitably be coming in from all over Lafayette Parish today.

The not-so-good: Even with the storm itself still 65 miles out from the city as of 12 noon, New Orleans' port facilities are already floodwater-covered, and the Industrial Canal is already beginning to "overtop" its recently-rebuilt levees. This is mainly small quantities of water slopping over the wall here and there with wind and current, but as the rain continues this may worsen.

And despite my earlier prediction, Hanna is not, in fact, following Gustav's trail at all, but hung a rico at Cuba and is now headed north toward our Atlantic coastline here in Georgia (the USA state, not the Eurasian former Soviet republic). Already skies here in Atlanta are overcast and rain has begun, though this may or may not be associated with either of these massive storm systems.

Thanks to mshollie , ici1011 , crystalgee (three of my old Nawlins cronies) for letting me know their status, and to the others on my f-list who have been posting information.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I assume you're thanking Herself for the good news, and not CNN, which continues to show its ineptitude in reporting...

I too am thankful that the winds are down and not up; I'm worried that your hometown is gonna take the brunt of it, but at least Nawlins is only going to get wet and not totally wasted, or at least that's the look of it so far.

Hannah is way too far out to be affecting you; it looks like there's a little trough causing some instability.

*looks again* do WHAT?! If the models are right, that'll be the first time in.... *shakes head* over 100 years that a storm has hit Georgia's Golden Isles.

Herself is PISSED at somebody.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I for one welcome the rain it will generate. We need it desperately.

[tovahs.livejournal.com]

Is your family OK? I heard that Gustav was heading twords Lafette.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

As of last night, they were boarding up and battening down; have not had further word from them today.