Mr Gustav

It looks like soon we will be having a visit from Mr Gustav. Tommorrow is the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina so I would say the timing is just about perfect. For those that don't know, I live in south Louisiana about 60 miles (give or take) north of New Orleans. Occassionally, we have hurricanes.

What is a hurricane? A rain and wind event with wind speeds reaching 60+ MPH. I live far enough inland that most of the time when it gets to us, the land has buffered the storm so it is not as bad as it could be. If all goes as predicted, this hurricane is coming full blast at us. Once a storm pushes past Cuba, into the gulf, the water warms it and gives it energy. From there it is a straight shot to the gulf coast.

What happens during a hurricane? Mostly the hurricanes produce driving rain storms with lots of wind. You can sit in your house and hear tree limbs falling all around you (one thing about LA, we do have trees). If the power goes out, it is eerily quiet. Remember, hurricanes rotate so sometimes the wind is stronger and sometimes the rain is stronger, and sometimes there is nothing but quiet. At least it is still warm enough outside that we can grill the food in our freezers if there is no power.

Mom and I went to Walmart tonight and it was so weird. There was NO bread. Not just picked over bread, there was NO bread. There was also NO tuna, oh wait, there was one pack of lemon-blackpepper tuna steak (no thanks, I will eat peanut butter on a spoon because I have no bread), and there was very little water, very few bags of chips. When we went to check out, the check out lines were 12-15 people deep at every register. When a hurricane comes people buy lots and lots of junk food (because it doesn't have to be cooked or refrigerated), lots of water (in case the water gets contaminated) and batteries (for flashlights I guess). I don't buy any of that. I bought a magazine LOL. I guess I will have reading material and read by candlelight, eating my peanut butter. I don't have a real fear of my power going down. I live right across the street from the power station. During Katrina, my power was out for an hour. Unlike an earthquake or most other natural disaster, we know when a hurricane is coming so we can prepare ahead of time.

I just listened to the news and it looks like they are predicting it to not be quite as strong as they thought. All the national guard and police have been activated, in fact, there was a police class getting commissioned Tuesday and they are moving it up to Friday so they can go straight to work.

I am going to try to go to walmart and take pictures of the insanity. It is quite interesting if you have never experienced anything like it before. Until then, happy stitching.