By the time it got to Mandeville, La., where I had evacuated to from New Orleans, Hurricane Gustav was nothing more than a powerful thunderstorm. The wind was gusty and a couple of trees fell. But it was certainly nothing worthy of hiding out in a hallway or needing to take cover.
Gustav came quickly and left quickly, leaving only minor damage and some flooding. It is now a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 30 knots. There are no reports of looting or lawlessness. Pretty much everyone heeded the warnings and got out.
The evacuation was beautiful to watch from television. It seemed very organized, aside from a few snags on the Mississippi side. From what reports we’re hearing, there is little to no damage or injuries from this storm. As far as I know, as few as 10,000 people stayed in New Orleans. Police were fine and holding up in the Convention Center until the storm passed and are now out patrolling.
I heard three ships got loose in the Industrial Canal. I’m also told that they were against a wharf, which is used to ships banging against it and really aren’t a concern to the levees themselves. The Coast Guard is working to secure them.
Almost all of the levees held. One levee did topover — meaning water was spilling over the top from being too full — in one of the lower parishes. This is because it was one of the first areas hit by Gustav, which was a Category 2 Hurricane when it made landfall.
I’m hearing the mayor will likely not allow anyone back into New Orleans, and the same for surrounding parishes, until maybe Wednesday. This is to ensure that the levees remain intact and do not crumble and flood the city. Also, the level of Lake Ponchatrain needs to be watched for flooding as well. Cleanup needs to be done. Particularly, all of the Mardi Gras beads on St Charles that somehow got out there. Who knew Gustav was a partier?
We have a laptop here with satellite Internet, which we have used to keep an eye out on the storm updates. I also managed to get an old radio working. Lots of mayors and parish presidents and the governor were on throughout the day, giving updates and urging the rest of people to get out while they could.
We’ve seen people driving around now, which is not advised. There are still lots of debris and downed power lines out there. Added traffic can also clog up the streets for the power companies who are out now assessing damage and making repairs.
Gustav certainly was not the “mother of all storms” as Mayor Nagin claimed it was, though no one could have predicted what it would do once ashore. The system of evacuation was vastly improved since Katrina and I don’t know of any major problems.
For now, we’re keeping our eyes open and praying that the levees continue to hold the massive amounts of water they contain.
