Double Trouble

Gustav’s timing is especially crazy-making for us here on the Gulf Coast. Just about everyone around here can remember exactly what they were doing three years ago today. We were on the road, headed north, our first and only evacuation so far.

Yes, it’s been three years, and we’re still trying to cut through the haze of mythology that’s enveloped those events.

But back to the present. It’s still too early for us to make the call. If we bug out, it will probably be in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Maybe Monday morning. Xy’s aunt in Shreveport has offered us lodging. I’ve only met her once, but she seems pretty cool. She started an AIDS hospice and some kind of teen drug court up there.

I’ve been planning our route.

The track for Gustav has not continued to trend eastward. The most recent estimates shift back west — not particularly what I wanted to see. I don’t like the latest track, not one bit. Hurricanes have a wet side and a dry side, and if Gustave goes west, we’ll be on the wet side. It’s still too early to call, but it’s also kind of hard to concentrate on anything else.

And then there’s this other system forming out there in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Hanna. Ray pointed out this rather alarming wind probability map: