Watching, waiting

Gustav is a tropical storm right now, swirling in the Caribbean, but it looks as though it’s turning into a hurricane and headed for the Louisiana coast. It’s already caused plenty of trouble in Haiti and the Dominican Republic; more than twenty people have died. Now it’s about to career around Jamaica then surge into the Gulf of Mexico. It has to hit the Gulf Coast somewhere. Everyone here is jittery.

Bobby Jindal, the new governor, is on TV listing plans and strategies; Mayor Nagin has flown back early from the Democratic Party Convention in Denver. Buses and streetcars will stop running on Friday night. Tulane circulated information on the new rules: there’s no longer the infamous “shelter of last resort” in the Superdome, conference center, or elsewhere. Emergency shelters outside the city and transport to them will be ready, apparently, though not everyone will opt to evacuate, of course. Vertical evacuation – ie moving to a high floor of a hotel – is no longer permitted. If the city is evacuated, nobody will be allowed on campus apart from security and approved personnel. The airport will only admit people who’ve already bought tickets.

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of Katrina. At Wholefoods yesterday, everyone was talking about what they’re going to do. A woman at the check-out complained she’d had to cancel her baby’s birthday party on Saturday, just in case; two workers were talking about whether they’d head for “The H” again. Our landlord is coming by to board up the windows before he and his family drive up to Alexandria. I’m scheduled to fly back to New Zealand, leaving NOLA late afternoon to connect with the last flight of the evening from LAX. I’ll get to the airport early, to make sure I get on the plane.

This leaves T. Middy to face the prospect of evacuating alone, unfortunately. We’re doing some preparation around the house today and tomorrow. Now we know what it’s like to lose things, we’re more cautious, more pessimistic, and possibly more sentimental. We have to hope the hurricane will steer clear of us, the way Ivan did at the last minute in 04, though it has to hit somewhere, of course – Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida. Perhaps it’ll fizzle a little back into a tropical storm. But as we saw with Tropical Storm Fay in Florida earlier this month, that can mean major flooding too.

Just in: an e-mail from the Tulane president, Scott Cowen. The university is closing at noon on Friday. Campus residence halls will close Saturday at noon; any students still there on Saturday morning will be taken up to Jackson, Mississippi. Shuttle buses to the airport will run today and tomorrow until 1 AM. The university will re-open next Wednesday, though classes won’t resume until next Thursday.

Time to get out of town.