Hey, Guys!
It’s about noon Monday and things don’t really look too bad along the Mississippi gulf coast or in New Orleans, either, considering. Considering that Saturday Gustav looked to be a Category 5 hurricane much larger and more powerful than Katrina and more of a direct hit on New Orleans.
My trip to Jackson yesterday took me five and a half hours coming up from Picayune. It’s normally a 2 1/2 hour journey, but the worst part was the first 70 miles up away from the coast. After that, it was a smooth trip. I was able to drive 65 most of the way.
I’m telling ya, I have no idea where everyone went, but they sure didn’t come this way! Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal said yesterday evening that 1.9 million people evacuated from Louisiana outward, which is by far the largest number of who’ve ever left the state at one time. But, while traffic was heavy and steady, it wasn’t bumper to bumper the way I went. We’ve gone through evacuations a couple of times before that were much worse than this one!
I arrived here at our friend’s house about 4 p.m. The weather here was sunny and bright (and very hot and humid) yesterday, but is very overcast today. I talked with Tom about an hour ago and he said it is raining in Picayune and the wind is blowing about 50 mph, with strong gusts up to 65 mph. He ended up spending last night at the newspaper and is still holed up there today. But, they still have power so far, which is good. He said that it had gone off and back on a few times, but so far so good.
Apparently, we still have power out at the house from reports Tom had gotten in, so that’s great.
I’ve got to run eat lunch, so I’ll check in here with you later. Thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s post! Y’all’s prayers are working!!
Cheers & Blessings to you all today!
Dee
We’re still on here as well and things are looking MUCH better!
Dee, so glad you made the trip ok. Guess you expected it to take even longer, didn’t you? Praying that your houuse is spared damage from the hurricane. Take care of yourself.
Hurrah! So thankful your trip was completed safely and with minimal traffic. Thanks for checking in.
Praise the Lord Dee.. rejoicing with you for answered prayers.
Good to hear from you. I know it’s still not a cake-walk but thankful for the “so far-so goods!”
Glad you are safe! Hope you find everything in order upon your return home.
Blessings in Christ,
-bill
This is good news. I was concerned about your house earlier in the morning when the weather channel was showing active warnings in Picayune. Any time your home town is being featured on the national weather channel, it’s not good news for the hometown! So glad to hear from you … thanks for taking the time to post this blog.
Glad to hear that ya are safe ,
and thanks for letting us know !
blessings
huggs
We dodged a bullet as well. Thank you, Lord! We actually ended up staying home. We did not evacuate, even though they called for a mandatory evacuation of Jefferson County. We continued to watch though and at one time, thought we might go but then it turned out to be a newby weather man on one of the stations, strutting hurricane feathers! We waited to watch the veteran weather man and he had a totally different story.
Glad we ended up staying home. We have had some wind today, probably not more than a few gusts of 30 to 40 mph and hardly any rain! We had a few sprinkles earlier.
We will not stay for any hurricane past a Category 1. We plan to always evacuate. This one was different in that we were out of town and came back early. We were too tired to leave again so soon and decided to rest up before leaving. After resting up, we then decided to watch hour by hour and eventually decided to stay.
I am so thankful, though they called for an evacuation even though we didn’t need it. I would rather not need it than for them not to call for it at all.
Glad to know you are doing well. It is always good to be back home!
I’m so glad it’s not as bad as it could have been. I’m also glad you’re safe!
So, so glad that you, Tom, and the home are safe.