We have always evacuated and/or used my parent's generator. We bought one 4 years ago and have never been able to use it..lol

I KNOW...I wish he would just hurry up and move on out!!! Our power went out at 4:30, my husband had the generator on at 4:35. I think he was excited about running it for the first time and wanted to make sure it did what it should

From what I can see, NOLA is fairing well. SOUTH of NOLA had a levee breach and people are having to be rescued, but it was a mandatory evacuation area. Not discounting the fact that people are in real danger, but they give mandatory's for a reason.

We have lost power off and on but overall, pretty happy with how the power has been overall. We have large limbs falling on our house right now and it's too bad to go out and look. PLEASE be thinking/praying for my friend. She's a fellow homeschooler about 30 minutes from me. She has 9 kids and a large tree fell on her home on the children's rooms..she has water pouring in right now. Nobody is hurt. I am concerned because they don't have 2 pennies to rub together. Hope they'll be ok in the long run. I'll keep you up to date on that too. Overall, things are fine. I took a digger on my bike yesterday and messed up the whole right side of my body and am in a lot of pain (fell on my head..my head hit the grass but jarred me. My neck is very sore, ribs, knee's, wrist, etc) and NOT looking forward to cleanup so I'm hoping it's minimal. Thank you dear husband for yearly maintenance on my bike...tightening up my breaks for me..lol

Don't want to resurrect the other thread...please check in if you can. The storm moved closer to my family and we may well end up with the good side AND the bad side. It keeps stalling, looping back around, slowing down, tracking more west (to me). We are expected to have 12 + hours of hurricane force winds. Hope our tree's hold out! Now that it's light outside, I can see that most things around me are fine thankfully.

Yeah, we are all set thinking we had a camp stove to use while the power is out. Negative...I sent it up to Oklahoma in our camper. Sucks to be us! LOL

You are right..and my emotions are high coming off of the anniversary of Andrew and ON the anniversary of Katrina. However, if you look at those articles, you can see that while the NHC and Wiki might say that it hit a little populated area in Louisiana with minor damage, those articles from my hometown paper shows a much different picture. It was bad...for my whole area, not just my home. Just like Katrina was bad for those that flooded (I didn't). The picture for the people that lived through it is much different than those on the outside looking in. I think this one will be a rain maker...and that scares me honestly. We have had nearly 60 inches of rain just this year. This month? 12. Just last week, we had 5 inches in 6 hours. Our ground is already saturated. I'm worried about loosing trees though thankfully, we don't have any super tall ones in our yard or neighbors.

Ok, my mom sent me pictures of our hometown paper from back then. You can see why my memories...and my friends memories (the ones that lived through it) differ from the rest of the nations...even the 'official' sites. This first one talks about the festival that happens on Labor day weekend..they did end up canceling it for obvious reasons, BUT it shows the wind gusts. Thank you to my mom who saves absolutely everything...rofl

Ok. I knew I wasn't crazy..lol Here is an article from my hometown from back then. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-1992-0826louisiana,0,7187374.story The eye wall stayed JUST off the coast...we lived just ON the coast..so those SUSTAINED winds hit my home at 140 (cat 4) with long lasting gusts over 175 for a while before they dropped down to the Cat 3 level. My house never got the eye...just the north and east side of that eye wall...so when that part hit us, it was still a 4 but dropped down as it was on top of us. They gauge a storm by when that eye hits land so if the center of the eye hit land right as it became a '3', it will be listed as a 3...but we got a good bit of weather at the cat 4 level before it dropped. I just remember what the papers read back then and it explains a lot more now to me. Even Morgan City, which was 10 miles to our east, had a much better time than we did in Patterson. It's weird, people's memories are completely different with the 10 miles difference. Now my blood pressure can go back down..lol Added later: Of course, my mom has the original paper from back then...she emailed me pictures. I'll upload them in a few. Our hometown newspaper paints a much different picture than what the national weather centers say it was.

Oh I agree with that. The biggest problem will be rain and if the pumps can keep up in the flood prone area's of NOLA. There is just no evacuation orders for NOLA and likely won't be. I'm not in a flood prone area and there are people who left here and I don't fault them for that. I might add that the worse problem (Since Andrew) we had with water came from Tropical Storm Allison. It was BAD...it sat on us forever and I wasn't sure we would make it out the other end of that one without gills..lol

Honestly? I think some measurements have changed since it actually hit. I have friends on my fbook page that lived through it here too and they are all say Cat 4 with gusts to 175+. Asking my hometown paper now..they are great about answering questions. Here is what I found on NHC. I think some of the measurements have changed and historically, it'll go down as a 3 in Louisiana because of it. And I do know they were talking about the Florida landfall there...but I really think that facts changed due to reanalysis. At that time, they told us in Patterson (10 miles west of Morgan City), they told us a 4..unless they lied. Like I said..moot point really. Facts changing doesn't change our loss..my now hurricane anxiety, my wanting to vomit every time the words "National Guard" is said in relation to disasters. The National Guard saved our lives...and kept us fed and safe for weeks after the storm.

I am going to look like an idiot in this because there is not much information about louisiana..still...but I have papers from that time period, i have pictures, I have a whole lot that says otherwise...in storage because we are in the process of moving. I'll just have to back out of this one. I KNOW our city wind mane broke at 175. It's neither here nor there really...it sucked for my town.

There is NO need to pack anybody up. It's not even a hurricane yet!!!!

There is a lot of misinformation about what size Andrew was when it hit louisiana. It was a 4 when it hit but had gusts up to 175ish. Our airport wind meter broke at 175. They came back and said it was a 5 well after it hit. My home was ground zero for that one. It still grates my nerves when ppl say "only a cat 3"..nope...it was much much stronger. Ironically enough, I can only really find information about when it hit florida...because just like back then, that's all you heard about. I'll find some concrete info for you though. You don't loose a well built brick home in a cat 3. I'm sorry...you hit a nerve...I have severe PTSD problems from that storm.

They will activate them if it looks like there is a rapid strengthen..also if people in low lying area's need to get out...the sick, elderly, inmates, and handicapped have already been moved out of affected area's by those buses and ambulances. We still have 24 hours until landfall.

Thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!! Everybody is doing everything they can. The government IS helping those that can't help themselves, but they need to pick up the phone and ask for help, or ask a neighbor to call. They can't wait until after the fact and expect immediate help. As far as gas, they have been telling us for 2 days to fill up. It's pretty well known down here that if there is a storm pointed anywhere near you, the first thing you do is fill up. There are numbers to call so that the gas stations can get emergency deliveries too. I haven't heard of shortages yet..just lines.

We actually *have* lost windows from random things flying through the air...not the wind itself. The only reason we did it this time is that we are selling our home and have old window panes. If one breaks, we will have to replace them all and don't want that expense. LOL If it weren't for that, we wouldn't have boarded up. We have helped all of our neighbors clean up around the homes (their *stuff* could hit my home just as easily as theirs) and get ready. My husband went to buy extra wine for us...we are good to go! LOL I still look for it to go more west...giving my hometown a direct hit (I'll pm you where we are way2blessed).

I'm worried about it stalling out too. We are boarding up and going to be "15 minute ready" tonight. I have seen them stall out and build up to a STRONG storm right on top of us.

Listening to the press conference now. The Jindal (governor) says "No mandatory evacuations in New Orleans at this time. If you feel unsafe and need help, call x number, we ARE prepared to help you and get you and your family evacuated to shelters. Please do it now and not wait until tomorrow."

You have to remember that hurricane Katrina had a different governor and mayor...a VERY incompetent one at that. Her and the Mayor of NOLA didn't allow preemptive help...flat out turned down help from the president until they were forced to. There were THOUSANDS of buses ready but they didn't use them. The governor now is very very competent and is on the ball. He has been on this from day one. go to http://www.katc.com to see the press conference for LA that he's doing right now.

Thank you...and I had better get off and get prepared. Long few days ahead of us...ugh.

I lost everything in Andrew. :( Like I said..it was rough and this stuff right here throws me into panic attacks. I was 13 and had to stand in line for food, water and soap. No power for 6 weeks, no water for 4. It was bad bad. We were in a mandatory evac area...but could not evacuate..long story that was absolutely nobody's fault, we just couldn't get out. I want to vomit when I think about that night and the next 6 month's after. I hope my daughter never has to experience anything like that in her life.

They are going to help the people that need to be helped...read the press conference....more will be done today. I, for one, will not sit around and wait...and yes, funds are tight for me too.

We lived IN the direct hit area of Andrew..Patterson, LA (ended up being a Cat 5) and we were ok. It was ROUGH ROUGH don't get me wrong and I have PTSD from it, but we made it through it. I waited 30 minutes for gas yesterday...ugh. NO spam, water, twinkies or beer left to be bought... priorities...lol :001_rolleyes:

I'm sorry, I guess I'm just sick of the "What's the government doing for me?" attitude. Sometimes, you just have to be responsible for you and yours and not wait for the government to do for you.