So long, New Orleans, I loved you well

I've had such good times in New Orleans, and enjoyed many a weekend jaunt down there, that I can't help but obsess over the beeline which Hurricane Katrina's apparently making straight for the city. In a category 4 storm, it really doesn't matter if the eyewall doesn't pass over you. For one thing, the winds are so damaging even in the outer rings that a lot of the historic architecture won't be spared; for another, the floods will keep people out of the entire city indefinitely. I ran into a friend at Ike's yesterday (buying school supplies, such fun) who's in medical school in N.O. Was, rather, since school is cancelled indefinitely. She said she wasn't thinking and just brought a weekend's worth of clothes and her dog. So she'll be here for weeks, maybe months, cause even though she lives on the 3rd floor, she still lives in the warehouse district (which is right by the mighty Mississippi River). What's strange for me, rather than scary, is thinking that our power may be out for a few days. So I'll be refilling my propane tank and stocking up on batteries today---just in case. In the meantime I'll just be glued to the Weather Channel, watching Jim Cantore be blown about once again.