Buggin’ Out

New Orleans remains within Gustav’s cone of anxiety. The prognosticators seem to think he’ll make landfall late Monday somewhat west of here, but hurricanes have a way of turning unexpectedly for good or ill. This one’s gonna be too close for comfort.

When Ivan threatened back in 2004, only the foolish and the poor remained. We were foolish, but we got lucky. I told myself if we’d had a child we’d have evacuated.

So: We’re outta here. Packing up the girl, some cats, some papers, and heading to Tuscaloosa. Hopefully by leaving before dawn we’ll avoid traffic congestion. Mayor Nagin has declared a mandatory evacuation and tried to strike some fear into people’s hearts last night, but we were thinking to leave anyway.

Yesterday we saw neighbors with suitcases, waiting to be picked up on Canal Street. “Where you headed?” Xy asked. “Wherever the bus takes us.” So finally the city is helping those who can’t evacuate on their own. If that had only been done three years ago.

I’ll continue to post daily, but for more immediate updates follow me on Twitter.

The only other time we evacuated was three years ago, and we all know how that turned out. The resonance with that other pre-dawn flight is eerie. This evacuation may prove, in retrospect, to be unnecessary. I sincerely hope so.