KATRINA ...

Well, this blog just may go down for a few days due to the approach of Hurricane KATRINA.

I'm doing my hurricane preps now. Just came inside to get away from the Louisiana heat for a few minutes.

Here in Louisiana, if you have any body of water within three miles of your house - that water will certainly have snakes - nasty poisonous snakes. It's likely it'll also have gators. When a hurricane visits - it usually floods - and the residents of the local marsh or lake head for higher ground - and that usually means YOUR backyard. Since hurricane rains can double the size of your grass in the backyard (overnight) - it's a good idea to MOW before the hurricane - and before the creatures start looking for an alternate home. I just finished mowing mine.

Next item will be to board up the house. I have about 40 windows unfortunately - so that'll take some time. On the positive side though, I already keep plywood pre-cut and drilled for my windows. It's smart to do that down here - even Home Depot will scalp you on plywood when a hurricane approaches - so it's best to have it beforehand.

The amazing thing to me is the last time we went through this drill - myself and a few others in the neighborhood were the only one's to board up our houses. Amazing. Most of my neighbors figure insurance will cover their damages and so why bother? My next-door neighbor told me I was crazy for boarding up because the house would blow away anyway in a big storm. I think his exact words were "Well, when your house blows away - at least those windows will still be intact." Thanks alot there, Smart Alec.

Anyway - I'm boarding up. What the hell?

Tomorrow I will be bugging out with the family and heading to my Mom's house about an hour and 15 minutes away in Pascagoula, MS. That's a solid house, well above sea level, over there and has withstood many hurricanes. If this one hits NOLA - then they won't get much wind over there anyway.

Gas station lines are chock full and running out of gas. I'm all gassed up though already.

New Orleans is NOT ready. This storm could hit early Monday morning and the city is not ready - they really weren't looking at Katrina seriously until yesterday afternoon. But now they are - maybe too late. John Gumm, the meteorologist at WWL TV said this morning ...

"What I am trying to do here is convince you to prepare for the worst storm you have ever went through or to heed the advice of emergency management should they call for an evacuation in your area. "

Now, John Gumm is a great weather-guesser. John Gumm has never uttered anything like this in the past when there was a hurricane in the Gulf. If John Gumm says this now - then that means the whole city is in some deep kim-chee if they don't get ready.

You can see the stress on Mayor Nagen's face on TV this morning. He knows that unless a miracle happens to divert this storm away from NOLA - he is about to be overseeing the greatest disaster in the history of the city of New Orleans. There is not much he can do - MANY of the urban poor have no transportation to get out of the city. If the levy's are breached - New Orleans will be a swimming pool.

My advice to anyone reading this blog - if you happen to live well out of the path of this storm - you should probably go and buy gas for yourself now too. New Orleans has so many oil rigs, so many refineries, and so much imported oil comes into the nation down here that you have no reason to smile at our worries down here right now. If New Orleans suffers a calamity - you'll feel it in your wallet - even if you live in Washington State.