Gustav news here (Slidell, Lockport: power lines, big house, trees)

[gv0928]

All my friends at Tulane evacuated between Thursday and Saturday afternoon, when Tulane officially closed its doors.

Pretty crazy.

[Drouzin]

My broadband is struggling; I think it's the cloud cover. We've got some mild winds, (25 mph with 45mph gusts), here in Slidell. Can't get my itty bitty video uploaded, but will try again later.

I just know I'm going to jinx myself by saying this, but we've still got power!

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by Drouzin

I just know I'm going to jinx myself by saying this, but we've still got power!

Really? (well, obviously you do...duh...!) The Weather Channel was saying they thought the power grid had been shut down...wherever they were at in NOLA and somewhere in Houma apparently went dark at the same time and the thought was that the powers that be must have decided to kill all the power grids on the coast (which sorta kinda made sense to me). Maybe just W of NOLA.

Drouzin, what does it look like? It's impressive on t.v. Please be safe...we're worried for you.

[darylwi]

Reading the online paper and listening to WWL, it sounds that power is off in NOLA. The pumps are running on diesel power though and there hasn't been any report of any flooding.
It appeared about an hour ago that this thing was going to make landfall at Port Fourchon, but it has since drifted along the coast, which is not what we wanted. I'm guessing now that the center is going to float up southwest of Houma and then probably ride along Hwy 90 to near Lafayette before continuing further north. Hopefully it will go ahead and come ashore.
We have not gotten it bad in BTR at all yet. There was an unconfirmed report of a tornado near Blue Bayou, but I'm guessing it was too small to actually confirm. These things usually are F0s anyway. Local NBC is reporting several areas of mesocyclones around Slidell and in southern Lafourche right now. The main band of rains from the storm are beginning to come into BTR now. We're expecting rain and at least tropical storm winds for the entire day into the night here. We were expecting some hurricane winds here, but as this thing slows, weakens and drifts west, we probably won't get it now.
I was amused late last night, I found a few guys in Terrebonne hosting a drunken webcam hurricane party outside their apartment. They were on for a few hours, but have since gone off the air. Or maybe they lost power.
I am slightly tired of watching Geraldo getting on FOX and acting like he knows what he's doing. That man overdramatizes everything. I think someone on national media said Grand Isle has had 14 inches of rain, but our local media says that we've all gotten less rain than expected. So I wonder which is right. Maybe they meant a 14 foot storm surge, because i have heard that around Grand Isle.
I've also heard that water was over US 90 in some parts of Hancock and Harrison Counties in coastal Mississippi.
Something large just hit my roof. Guess I better get used to that. It's only beginning here.

[Drouzin]

Lol, I'm always jinxing myself! I think the power outages are mostly on the south shore of the lake, although the TV clicks off and on every so often here. It's grey, rainy and breezy here with a tornado watch. Nothing dramatic like ya'll are seeing on TV.

What ya'll are watching on TV is probably near or around the landing point where it looks rough. We've got the local news on where they are showing videos of the entire area and not just the landing point. Honestly it looks so much better than I expected. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for those down around Cocadrie(sp).

Yup, the power just went out. Lets see how long the batt lasts on the laptop...

[darylwi]

Yeah, I actually just had a slight power flash here. But we're still on. There is a lot of dry air moving in around the eye. It almost looks like it isn't raining at all between Fourchon and NOLA.
Uh, oh, something about levees in western part of NOLA maybe breaking? It just came on local NBC here. Not sure what's going on with that yet. It might be the storm surge going through Pontchartrain. It may just be premature too.

[Drouzin]

Local NBC is reporting several areas of mesocyclones around Slidell and in southern Lafourche right now.

Aw shoot Daryl I just lied to Sis on the phone telling her we were under a watch and posted that on the board so she wouldn't worry. Ya got me busted! Serves me right for telling a tale; like Mom always says, "you'll always get caught in the end."

Ok Sis if you're reading this, yes we're under a tornado warning, but really, we're fine, (no need to call me, I'll call you from under the debris if anything happens)

[darylwi]

Originally Posted by Drouzin

Aw shoot Daryl I just lied to Sis on the phone telling her we were under a watch and posted that on the board so she wouldn't worry. Ya got me busted! Serves me right for telling a tale; like Mom always says, "you'll always get caught in the end."

Ok Sis if you're reading this, yes we're under a tornado warning, but really, we're fine, (no need to call me, I'll call you from under the debris if anything happens)

Ooops. Sorry. I meant, that was a lie too.

[darylwi]

Nothing more on that levee situation, I'm guessing in western Kenner and St. Charles Parish. The intial report came from the FEMA office here in town. So I guess they could either be really concerned, or they're just jumping the gun because they don't want to be caught napping again.
Am seeing something about a fire in Houma though.
And barges floating around loose in the Industrial Canal. I hope they just got loose and they weren't left untied. That would just be stupid. Looking at some pictures, water is at the top of the walls on the canal.

Watter lapping over the Industrial and the Harvey canals. It's not a breach, but if there's too much water it could undermind the levees. USCG is supposed to be looking for and securing the loose barges, and now 'small vessels' loose in the Industrial Canal. Also report of a small craft sinking in the MS River around Harahan.
Where did all these vessels come from all of a sudden?
And supposedly L&N railroad bridge is down in its normal position and that is causing water to back up behind it by as much as 3 feet in the Industrial Canal. Water is coming over, but nothing about any breaks or catastrophic failure anywhere.
If they can last a few more hours...

[$DFW8$]

HURRICANE GUSTAV UPDATE

Right now Hurricane Gustav has weakened some and is now a Category 2 hurricane with winds up to 110 mph. At 10:00 A>M> CDT, the center of the hurricane was over the Louisiana coast just west-southwest of Cocodrie, Louisiana and about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans. It is moving northwest at 15 mph. The center of Gustav will go along the south central
Louisiana coast this afternoon and then move into western Louisiana
tonight and eastern Texas on Tuesday. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 200 miles. A very dangerous storm surge of 10 to 14 feet above normal tidal levels is expected near and to the east of where the center of Gustav crosses the coast. Gustav is expected to produce total rainfall amounts of 6 to 12 inches over portions of Louisiana, southern and western Mississippi, Arkansas, and northeastern Texas. Isolated maximum amounts of rainfall of up to 20 inches possible through Thursday. Tornadoes are possible in this whole area where the hurricane is hitting.

In New Orleans, the levees are still holding right now and they are experiencing a lot of rain and very high winds. I pray that those levees hold because if they don't, then it is going to get really bad in New Orleans and put the city in standing water. I did hear that 95% of the people in New Orleans evacuated, which is good compared to the rate during Katrina.

You can watch The Weather Channel for live weather conditions or any news station. Also, Weather Underground Tropical Weather : Weather Underground has live radar and updates on everything.

Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody on the coast and everybody effected by the hurricane. I am sitting here watching a live broadcast from New Orleans on TWC and I am just in shock at how bad it is, especially the winds. I can't even imagine what it must be like to watch this happening to the city you live in.

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