Gustav @ MindSay

Been talking to my cousin in Mississippi. They evacuated on Sunday,August 31 2008. They live in Pass Christian, and my Aunt in Long Beach. 
Lynn said 13 feet of water in Pass Christian.They just finished their house after Katrina and losing everything in it. They did build up though! 18 feet in the air! Hope the surge is over. 5 more feet and it will be in their house. Right now just storage room on bottom level in water. House safe right now. Still has the door intact. Whew! They traveled 2 hours northward to escape. Haven't heard any news about Long Beach area where my Aunt bought a house. She still owns the concrete slab where her house was before Katrina. She did not rebuild in same place. Could stand in her driveway and see the Gulf. She lived Very close.
Keeping my prayers flowing for them!
Two pictures of my cousins house as being built........


UPDATE:10:45 pm Mississippi time:
Lynn said pray hard...water rising again!
Check out www.sunherald.com for pictures
 

This is not my work, (the picture i mean) i wish i can say where it came from, but i kind of stumbled upon it.



.....just wanted to post a picture......

But for current updates...Hurricane Gustav..now i know most of Houstonians might be blogging about this, but since this is my first "real" hurricane since my 2yrs in Houston Tx. I figure I'd say something about it.
Now i picked up this article on Yahoo News (I am a Yahoo user and proud!) and reading just the first two paragraphs, and with the help from my hunny, ( callmeroger ) has made me realize i should be more cautious and prepared if there were to be an outcome from nature's force.
Coming from Ca, my family and I are not use to these hurricane seasons and warnings and whether it will hit here or not. We kind of tend to have that mentality or attitude of "oh it won't hit here, it'll be alright."  But, listening to co-workers and friends about the last major hurricanes, I'll rather not take my chances. However, my family and I are not the type of people to evacuate. We stay with/in our home like may others.
But hey, latest news, Gustav and New Orleans.  I am at least glad the government took better action with this hurricane in not taking any chances for the safety of the residents and tourists there. Of course many know that hurricane Katrina took a toll on New Orleans a while back, and now knowing that something is being done at an earlier stage, it's quite a relief for many.
Well thats more than what was expected of me, writing wise...

NEW ORLEANS - With a historic evacuation of 1.9 million people from the Louisiana coast complete, gun-toting police and National Guardsmen stood watch as rain started to fall on this city's empty streets Sunday night — and even presidential politics took a back seat as the nation waited to see if Hurricane Gustav would be another Katrina.

The storm was set to crash ashore midday Monday with frightful force, testing the three years of planning and rebuilding that followed Katrina's devastating blow to the Gulf Coast.

Painfully aware of the failings that led to that horrific suffering and more than 1,600 deaths, this time officials moved beyond merely insisting tourists and residents leave south Louisiana. They threatened arrest, loaded thousands onto buses and warned that anyone who remained behind would not be rescued.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080901/ap_on_re_us/gustav_gulf_coast;_ylt=Ao.N8vG.5YR7UErDaxPXzZMEtbAF

So heres that random picture now..nice huh?

 

I have that song that goes "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine..."...cannot remember the singer nor the title, unless this is the title....help please hehe. But i know, quite ironic to sing this song, while in the beginning of a hurricane, and my random world in a box picture. Hehe ^_^

~Life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change~

During a hurricane alert (of any kind), if you haven't noticed, I change my user pic to a picture of a Hurricane Warning Flag:



According to that image (thanks Arghvee), there's a very high change that this storm might turn West.



I'm not all worried just yet.  But I'm communicating with a couple of hospitals since they are requesting me to stay there.  My primary choice: Katy, TX.

"Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you..."

Ok, I'm on my way to work!  I'm bringing my laptop with me, so I can MindSay when I have time, which I'm sure I do, on my break, at The Woodlands, TX!

Firsty from JustJames!  Thanks dude!

The signs of change, and of lessons learned, are very much present in New Orleans. Busses that will take residents either out of the city or to Union Passenger Terminal (the central point from which residents will either board trains or long distance busses leaving the Crescent City) began arriving, as scheduled, at 8:00 AM Saturday. Even before Saturday some residents, hospital patients and people living in nursing homes, were evacuated. The memory of snipers shooting at hospital personnel and the patients they were evacuating, after Katrina hit, is a scene no one wants repeated.  Another group of residents overlooked in evacuation plans in 2005 were pet owners. This time the city has put in motion a plan. Each pet is ‘tagged’ with a collar that bears a bar code which matches the bar code on a wristband given to the pet owner. All of these are very heartening examples of how the overlooked, leading up to Katrina, are being served by the authorities. I wonder if any of the candidates in the presidential election will take up the theme that sometimes government has to be big enough to get the job done, even at home.

And speaking of government, and more particularly politicians, on Sunday the White House announced that the president probably will not make an appearance on Monday at the RNC as previously scheduled. Indeed, the convention could either be shortened or have some modifications made to its content, besides President Bush's absenting himself. Senator McCain does not want to be seen as indifferent to the plight of the people of New Orleans. All in all, it appears that the various levels of government have got it—there is a concerted and orchestrated effort to help get those out of the city who do not have autos or are not mobile. Thank goodness for that.

(This essay includes details reported in the LA Times online and the NY Times online.)