Gustav news here (New Orleans, Shreveport, Slidell: homes, transfer, pharmacists)

[lovesMountains]

It is now a CAT 5 folks!


2theadvocate.com | Powered by The Advocate and WBRZ News 2 Louisiana — Baton Rouge, LA

[_redbird_]

"Today and Sunday, about 150 hospital patients from southwestern Louisiana are expected to arrive at the Oklahoma Air National Guard base at Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City" per NewsOK Mobile

Stay safe people! Our prayers are with those of you who are evacuating.

[Kurt]

There are posts on the lack of places to stay. The important thing is to pack your bags and head out of the evacuation area! There are some great campgrounds with outdoor pavilions and bathrooms at state parks. South and North Toledo Bend are ones I am familiar with. I would just get in my vehicle with some supplies and head for one of those. You may have to sleep in the car, but you would have some help in the parks. Just get out if you are told to. I am sitting here in Pensacola--we appear to be just out of the "cone of uncertainty" for the hit--but you can't predict these babies too far out. Don't be surprised if Gustav stalls off the Louisiana/Mississippi coast and then drifts either east or west--the forecast is for it to go west and resemble Rita. My prayers are with you all. God Bless.

[darylwi]

Eagle 98.1 had a caller say that traffic was moving well along I-10 west of Lafayette towards Texas.
Here in Baton Rouge, it looks like traffic is still reasonably heavy, but moving well as can be expected.
From my experience, I think a lot of people in south Louisiana have family and/or friends in Houston. That's why Houston always appears to be the obvious choice for many. But I agree, with this storm's path, I would consider heading north and northeast.
This sucker's getting big quick. Hopefully it pulls a Lili (2002) and falls apart right before it comes ashore.

[JetMech72]

Originally Posted by darylwi

Eagle 98.1 had a caller say that traffic was moving well along I-10 west of Lafayette towards Texas.
Here in Baton Rouge, it looks like traffic is still reasonably heavy, but moving well as can be expected.
From my experience, I think a lot of people in south Louisiana have family and/or friends in Houston. That's why Houston always appears to be the obvious choice for many. But I agree, with this storm's path, I would consider heading north and northeast.
This sucker's getting big quick. Hopefully it pulls a Lili (2002) and falls apart right before it comes ashore.

The water temps are pretty high along the projected path of Gustav, but I hope you're right and it does fall apart before making land-fall. Good luck to you all.

[roundabout]

Just Released:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city beginning 8 a.m. Sunday but urged residents to consider escaping "the mother of all storms" before then.

"You need to be scared," Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba's western coast. "You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century."

"This storm is so powerful and growing more powerful every day," Nagin said. "I'm not sure we've seen anything like this."
At 8 p.m. ET, Gustav's eye was over western Cuba near Los Palacios, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) west-southwest of Havana, with sustained winds near 150 mph.

"This storm could be as bad as it gets," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Saturday afternoon. "We could see flooding even worse than we saw in Hurricane Katrina."

Jindal said the state planned to begin "contraflow" procedures, opening both sides of interstates to outgoing traffic only, at 4 a.m. Sunday.

Jindal did not order mandatory evacuations at a state level, but he urged residents to take the evacuations seriously.
"I wouldn't worry about whether the evacuation in your parish begins at 4 p.m. today or 8 a.m. tomorrow," he said. "When it comes to evacuation, do it sooner rather than later."

----

I'll be leaving Baton Rouge now for up north. Be safe everyone...

[censusdata]

Even here in Kentucky I've noticed a lot of LA tags the past couple of days, I counted 10 just today

[darylwi]

There's pretty much a mandatory evacuation for the entire Louisiana coastline tonight including everything below I-10. If this storm shifts any further east I may have to reassess my situation here in Baton Rouge, especially if Gustav is still CAT 4+. At that point, we're talking the potential for 100 mph winds here even. I hope a lot of people in the lower parishes took advantage of the light traffic today to get out before contraflow begins. If Gustav is still CAT 5 tomorrow, the whole of south Louisiana that remained will be evacuating at the same time. If you are in or can get to BTR and would like to evacuate northwards, my suggestion is to take US 61 north into Mississippi. I have never had traffic issues when traveling that route during a mass evacuation. In three hours you can make it all the way past Vicksburg on I-20.
In any terms, this looks to be a storm for the ages. God help us all.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by darylwi

There's pretty much a mandatory evacuation for the entire Louisiana coastline tonight including everything below I-10. If this storm shifts any further east I may have to reassess my situation here in Baton Rouge, especially if Gustav is still CAT 4+. At that point, we're talking the potential for 100 mph winds here even. I hope a lot of people in the lower parishes took advantage of the light traffic today to get out before contraflow begins. If Gustav is still CAT 5 tomorrow, the whole of south Louisiana that remained will be evacuating at the same time. If you are in or can get to BTR and would like to evacuate northwards, my suggestion is to take US 61 north into Mississippi. I have never had traffic issues when traveling that route during a mass evacuation. In three hours you can make it all the way past Vicksburg on I-20.
In any terms, this looks to be a storm for the ages. God help us all.

You're right, even north of I-10 will still be rough. I live almost 60 miles inland and Ivan was very scary, I thought my roof would come off at any moment. I won't stay again through a storm that strong.

[MetroBTR]

My brother from Lockport got in this afternoon and my sister from Morgan City will be coming in tomorrow morning. From the sounds of it, people in the Houma/Morgan City area are pretty much freaking out. They think they will be the next Chalmette or Bay St. Louis. I hope they are wrong. Everybody pray that this thing weakens.
I have a few cousins from New Orleans area that are gonna try to ride it out in my aunt's house in uptown. Pray for them and for everybody in the way of this storm.