Following up on this post from yesterday: Two years ago tomorrow (28 August) we waited for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. All our hurricane prep was done; house battened down, supplies in place, our parents were safe, as were other family from New Orleans. The late reports had the storm was going more easterly toward Mississippi, and that it was not nearly as strong as before. Not a Hurricane Andrew, thank goodness. (Andrew hit Louisiana in 1992, after devastating Florida a few days before.) I sat in the den with the TV on and the curtains partially open so I could watch the wind and the trees (Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! - ed.) As evening fell on the 28th the wind began to pick up, but being 100 miles inland and west of the storm it wasn't that heavy or sustained. Just lots of gusts and rain. We lost power about 8:00pm, which was not surprising since we often loose power in ordinary thunderstorms. (What was surprising was it being off for six days. More on that, later.) The hurricane reports on the radio said about what everyone predicted, but reports of Hurricane Betsy-like flooding in the 9th Ward of New Orleans did start to come in the early morning hours. (Betsy hit New Orleans in 1965. Both my wife and I lived through that one.) Knowing that rumors often fly as fast as the debris during a hurricane, I didn't give the reports much thought. My wife and kids went to bed around midnight; and I finally fell asleep around 4:30am, thinking it was not going to be too bad after all.
(more tomorrow)
