Remember the words printed in big, friendly letters on the cover of the ‘Hitchhikers Guide of the Galaxy’? DON’T PANIC. Good advice here.

And remember the source quoted. What do they know? (See Rather, Dan, forged memos used by…). This is the beauty of the Internet - here is information from someone who is THERE (well, almost). New Orleans is not going to sink into the sea. Millions will not die. And, yes, they have (finally) opened local shelters.

I speak from experience. My wife and I are both from New Orleans. My parents and in-laws live there. (Yes, they both have evacuated to relatives outside of the city.) My family now lives in Baton Rouge, 80 miles up the Mississippi River from the city. We are feeling the effects of the New Orleans evacuation, and we will get some of the storm’s wrath.

The big story, at least for those of us who frequent ETS, are the problems that have been experienced in getting out of the city, and where to go. More on those below.

OK, a couple of facts and bone fides:

My brother and I (he is known round ETS and “Peanut”) survived both Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and Hurricane Camille in 1969, the last two big storms to hit New Orleans. Fun? No. Scary as hell for a child. Weeks without power, tainted water, streets blocked, and all that goes along with the devastation of a storm.

Only about half a million live in the city proper today. And we do have a rather extensive system of floodgates and levees protecting the city. We didn’t have anything like that during Betsy, and yes, parts of the city flooded.

The city has evacuated. The problem is that they were not prepared for the traffic out (it took people about 9 hours to get to Baton Rouge this morning – usually a 90-minute trip IF you stay within the speed limit. (Less if you don’t) The follow-on problem is where to put these refugees. There isn’t a hotel room available east of Dallas or south of Shreveport right now, and not enough shelters have opened. There seems to have been no plan to direct evacuees in certain directions out of harm’s way and have shelters waiting. Not smart.

Most people I know usually keep the basics on hand for times like these. Our family keeps enough food, water, and essentials on hand for 72 hours of self-sufficiency out of the back of the car. We assume if we had to leave, we would have to fend for ourselves for food and water initially, until relief supplies could get flowing.

Hope this helps.

My $.02. Peanut, over to you…….

…..CLIFF