1.2 million warned to leave New Orleans as Ivan bears down
Direct hit by Ivan could sink New Orleans
Risk to Houston negligible, but still we watch
When the story of this hurricane season along the Gulf and Atlantic coast is written, it should be titled “Exodus”. A million people evacuated from Tampa-St.Pete, the Florida Keys evacuated twice, and now 1.2 million people evacuated from New Orleans. Where will the Diaspora settle? And when will it all stop? Sadly, there’s no telling, since Tropical Storm Jeanne is waiting in the wings to make her grand entrance and hurricane season runs through the end of October. (Will someone remind me again why I moved to the Gulf Coast??)
At least as things look now, it appears that the Houston-Galveston area will avoid the worst of Ivan, but we may see some of the storm surge later today. Rumor has it the we could see surf in the neighborhood of eight feet. That would be enough to flood Todville Road, which runs along the Galveston Bay waterfront less than a half-mile from the plush, state-of-the-art TPRS headquarters. That’s always a good time…as I can attest, having had my F-150 get stuck in axle-deep mud from a storm surge along Todville Road a couple summers ago.
The problem with a hurricane heading north into anywhere along the Gulf Coast is that, unless you head to Denver, it’s difficult to get out of the way of the storm. Sure, if you head inland, a storm will weaken, but how far north can, or should, one reasonably go to be safe? I hear Winnipeg is beautiful this time of year….
We’ve been lucky so far, and I’m hoping that our luck will hold. I have no ambition to join the hurricane Diaspora. Enough is enough.
