Come Anticipate Hurricane Gustav

AP news says New Orleans residents will be urged to flee.

A friend and I were supposed to move to New Orleans next week. He has a job waiting for him in the Quarter...

Poppy Z is going to try and ride it out.

Today we made our final preparations to stay through whatever Gustav brings: mailing out eBay packages, picking up an axe, a big cooler, a solar shower thing for camping (how we loathed those painfully cold showers in 2005, after the water came back on but before the power did), more canned goods/nonperishables, and prescription refills. I would have grabbed a few more boxes of ammo (just for comfort's sake) at the sporting goods store where we got the axe, cooler, and solar shower, but as you might expect, the line at the gun section was extremely long.

Poppy Z, Ned, really?
I pegged you for more of an Anne Rice fan.

where in the quarter?

i'm not making an evacuation decision until tomorrow. the weathermen really have no clue where it's headed. everyone on the gulf coast knows that you can't even start to predict these things until it gets into the actual gulf. i am pretty worried though. the city's less prepared for a major storm than it was pre-katrina. a couple days ago when gustav started forming they started doing emergency repairs on one of the pumping stations. three fucking years later and we're still not back up to speed. anyway, might flee to birmingham, might stick it out for a good hurricane party.

He's going to tend bar, I'm not even sure what street or the name of the place.

i work at le petit theatre, which is catacorner to jackson square. as long as the city doesnt get completely destroyed his job should still be there. some bars in the quarter didn't close at all throughout katrina, including johnny white's, where me and my boss take our motivation breaks.
what part of town were you moving to?

I pegged you for more of an Anne Rice fan.

I'm actually a big fan of neither these days, though I have a couple of books by both around. However, I remembered Poppy's LJ made for some good (if understandably emotionally extreme) reading during and for a long while after Katrina, so I was interested to see how she was taking things this time around. And from the looks of the recent posts, she's doing so well aware of the risks and prepared for the worst, which is about all one can hope for if you've made that choice.

And hi there Fetchboy! I'm not surprised to see you here!

two of my friends just moved last weekend, whoops

moved to no i mean

hey ned! thanks again for the LA welcome a couple years ago! my dad's living in glendale these days.

Ah, get out here for a visit again sometime, then.

Good news, everyone! Apparently Blackwater's on their way down to provide "security"

mmmmmm. just had what I hope is not my last catfish poboy.

sorry for the inconvenience
atm emptied by company till after the storm passes

^^^oh, fuck off

"It's scary, man," said Robert Russell, a 63-year-old plumber whose house in Gentilly Woods is close to floodwalls on the Industrial Canal that are so suspect the Army Corps of Engineers is buffering them with large baskets filled with sand.

"They say it's not up to code," he said. "We'll have to wait and see."

Levee experts and the Army Corps insist New Orleans is safer than before Katrina flooded more than 80 percent of the city on Aug. 29, 2005.

Yet the system still has severe shortcomings: Flood barriers meant only to withstand medium-strength storms, hidden layers of weak soil and navigation channels that inadvertently funnel storm surge into the city, to name a few.

"The positive thing about having any storm hit you, it will reveal any kind of frailty in the system," said J. David Rogers, an engineer at Missouri University of Science and Technology, who's tracked the construction closely. "And we shouldn't be surprised if there is frailty."

cat 4 already...I left at midnight and arrived at Daytona Beach midday. My wife insists this is the last time she'll ever evacuate.

Good luck everyone. Keep us informed.

glad to know you're safe pj. hope hanna stays clear of you.
nagin said he might be issuing a mandatory evac as early as 7pm to go into effect tomorrow morning at 8. we're gonna have a bday party for my roommate here tonight and possibly bug out early in the morning if orleans and jefferson both have mandatory evacuations. as G's path continues to shift more and more to the west my desire to stick around grows, but i really don't feel like getting hassles by the national guard or cops. My grandmaw's house in river ridge is a really great place to weather a storm but JPs and levee police are real dicks.

and i doubt fema or anyone else will cover the gas costs it would take to get me to and from birmingham (i know not that big a deal but when you work in theater 150 or so bucks is a lot of fucking money)

as a Miami resident, I wish all Gustav fans the best. Stay safe. Please come on here.

RIP decadence.

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2008/08/29/i-slip-into-the-water/

Security for Hurricane Gustav

Blackwater is compiling a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav.

Applicants must meet all items listed under the respective Officer posting and be US citizens. Contract length is TBD.

Law Enforcement Officers (all criteria must apply)

1. Current sworn [may be full time, part time or reserve]

2. With arrest powers

3. Armed status (must indicate Armed and/or Semi Auto. Revolver only not accepted)
expiration must be greater than 60 days out

4. Departmental credentials (not just a badge)

Armed Security Officers (all criteria must apply)
Only from the following states: OR, WA, CA, NV, NM, AZ, TX, FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, MD, IL, OK

1. Current/active/licensed/registered armed security officer

2. All training verification [unarmed and armed certificates of completion]

3. Current state issued face card indicting armed status [expiration must be greater than 60 days out]

Applicants will be required to provide an electronic copy of the above required credentials/documents, recent photo within
the last six months with response to this AD prior to consideration for deployment.

Personnel who meet the above qualifications and are interested, please send resumes and files to: 25✧✧✧@blackwateru✧✧✧.hrmdir✧✧✧.c✧✧

in good hands

Best wishes everybody.

i stayed for katrina and was just fine. im scared shitless and driving to birmingham tonight. i hope to god the city survives.

just watched the mayor's speech. shit sounds scary. Am surprised he didn't draw any comparisons to Katrina, even if just to say "this is x times stronger" or w/e.

good luck everyone there.

my buddy josh put it best when comparing what everyone's going through right now to this.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT07/refresh/AL0708W5_sm2+gif/025240W_sm.gif

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/US/weather/08/31/gustav/t1home.gustav.26.ap.jpg

Remember that Interdictor guy, the urban survivalist IT dude who stuck out Katrina at his ISP and blogged it in real-time? He & his coworkers are doing it again:

http://gustavbloggers.com/