Not-So-Free-For-All Friday

Rita
As I write this, Rita is making landfall. I am praying for the folks in East Texas/southwest Louisiana. With the hurricane being so large, I’m sure we all have family/friends in the threatened area. I do, and I join you in prayers for everyone in harm’s way.

Thanks to our merciful God, Rita is down to a 3. So as bad as it is, at least she’s not the 5 she once was. I never thought I would be happy to announce a hurricane is a 3.

If this wasn’t enough to scare people into evacuating, I don’t know what will:
Blanco warns: If you don’t leave, write your SSN on your arm so your body can easily be identified after it’s over.

Rita Headlines
Bus Fire in Dallas Claims 24 Evacuees

Levee breach in New Orleans

Will This Ever Be a Non-Hurricane Blog?
Obviously there will be no DQ road trip weekend for me. I will be riding out the hurricane hunkered down in my generator-powered command post at the folks’. I just talked with them, and they’ve already lost power, but hopefully we’ll only see tropical storm force winds. The LSU game has been postponed till Monday, so I have every intention of being a super dork and making this weekend bookfest 2005 with the 2 or 3 novels I’ve toted along.
I have to admit to being a little apprehensive about this storm. After grossly underestimating Katrina and then seeing her damage firsthand, I have a new respect for hurricanes that borders on paranoia. Someone on the radio yesterday called Rita “Katrina’s big sister” and that was enough to convince me to take every precaution for this storm.

Last night I went through my official hurricane preparedness drill: wash everything in sight. Make sure the car is full of gas since there’s no doubt in my mind we’re about to have more gas drama. Make sure we’ve got water in the apartment (even though I’m going to the folks). Clean my room. (Somehow a clean room is less susceptible to hurricanes.) Get cash in case banks go down again. Pack the three books I’m reading at the moment. Cook and eat a really good supper. (I’m from a food-oriented culture and the fear of no electricity and “out-of-the-box/can” meals is traumatic.) So now I think I’m good to go. This is one of those occasions where I’d gladly poke fun at myself later for over-preparing. Sure beats the alternative.

Right now the wind is whipping around pretty good. We’re getting significant rain bands. It’s hard to tell just how much it will affect our area. The Dadster was supposed to stay at the plant through the storm, and yours truly was going to take care of the barnyard critters tonight. I would normally get Old Testament on them and make the livestock fast, but I feel sorry for the horses and puppies. Fortunately for all of us, the Dadster is getting to come home tonight. So no images of me brandishing a slicker and trying to recreate my favorite scenes from a little film called Twister. Instead I’ll be taking it easy and praying for power.

General Conference Blog
My pal Liz asked if Ninetyandnine would be sponsoring a group blog from General Conference. The answer is (enthusiastically): Yes! Ninetyandnine will group blog from GC, similar to the Youth Congress blog. It will be awesome fun—don’t miss it! More details will be forthcoming as the bloggers gear up for the big week in VA!

To Help You Feel Better About Yourself
No offbeat Lee Ann stories. I have had a strangely “normal” week. Well, “normal” if you can call a category 5 hurricane blowing through “normal.” Keep the hurricane victims in your prayers.

Rita, Katrina, and Then Some Good News

Rita is a 5
Time is standing still for east Texans and southwest Louisianans. No need to dramatize what is already a frightening experience for the many Houston/Galveston area evacuees. And now Gov. Blanco has ordered mandatory evacuations for Morgan City and all points westward. I had hoped the storm would head toward a remote area for the sake of sparing human lives, but Rita has turned north. The storm is still far enough out that its exact landfall is hard to pinpoint. My prayers are with the good folks in Texas this week. And with the way Rita’s already turning, we’d better remember Lake Charles and southwestern Louisiana as well.

And a Look to My Eastern Neighbors
I’ve focused primarily on Katrina’s impact on Louisiana and the New Orleans area. During the weekend road trip, I had a real eye-opener. I hope I haven’t seemed negligent toward the Mississippi/Alabama coastal region in my coverage. Simply because New Orleans is my backyard, I’ve discussed it more. But my neighbors in Mississippi have greatly suffered and are still in need of much prayer and help.

While New Orleans has the long-term flood problem, Mississippi bore the brunt of the wind damage. Just from the Interstate without even touring the coast itself, the damage was overwhelming. Here are some brief observations:

• Some exit ramps were completely closed. Imagine a town closing. The sad truth is that some areas were so badly devastated, they’re considering bulldozing the entire town and starting over.
  
• We passed two churches whose steeples were laying in their parking lots.
  
• A local favorite—the giant factory outlet mall beside the Interstate—weathered severe winds. In the process, the roof structure and cupola of the center food court were destroyed.
  
• The amount of debris was shocking. Where did it all come from? We saw boats sticking sideways out of the ground, furniture hanging out of trees, and nondescript trash everywhere. Every tree or bush left standing was filled with miscellaneous trash it had caught during the torrential wind.
  
• The eeriest part of our survey was the darkness. Of course lots of areas are without power, so there aren’t the comforting dots of lit houses in the distance as you travel down I-10. But besides that, all the billboards are destroyed, so the drive from the Louisiana line to the Alabama line is largely a dark one.

Good News
The UPCI web site is keeping a running tally of the donations for Katrina relief efforts given just through UPCI (not individual churches). Today the number has passed the half-million mark! Check back frequently to see the number grow as more people give.

Three Red Cross vehicles parked in front of a damaged hotel in Pascagoula, MS; structural damage to the hotel.

Did I mention that I like ice cream?

Rita is a 4.

So Maybe I was Wrong…
Some New Orleans residents don’t want to evacuate this time around. I would have thought after the Katrina horrors that no one would ever want to ride out a hurricane again. But not so.

I Can’t Spelll
Kudos to everybody’s favorite fireman for catching yet another spelling error on my part. Bookfan/fireman noticed that I misspelled the Hamlet character in last week’s trivia question. But I’m actually going to try to wiggle out of this one. I don’t know why but for the life of me I have the word engrained in my head as Youric. Don’t ask me why. A quick google turns up Yorick, so I got desperate and made a library trip. Sure enough, the modern anthologies in our local public library show Yorick, and I’m not quite obsessed enough to make a trip all the way out to the LSU library. But I’m convinced this is one of those Middle/modern English issues because I usually never forget the spelling of so unique a word. So… you are jury.

Trivia Part II
Does anybody out there remember a Youric spelling or have I burned out all my brain cells on Ice cream?

Speaking of Ice Cream…
In my road trip details from the weekend, I have yet to share one dramatic escapade of huge, huge, huge significance. My reasons for taking the road trip (besides dedicated professional journalism, of course) was Dairy Queen, Dairy Queen, and Dairy Queen. I think you should know that ice cream is very important to me. In fact “Duct Tape, Dairy Queen, and Me” was a close runner-up for the blog title. Tragically, there are not many Dairy Queens (DQ) in south Louisiana. So a highlight of the road trip was to be a delightful DQ visit.

I have this weird thing about “saving the best for last,” so I reserved my DQ trip for the ride home. I made the mistake of waiting till after Pensacola to start looking for a DQ. After much prayer, we topped an overpass just inside Alabama and located the beloved DQ. As I pulled up, I noted that the drive-thru looked very closed, but because of my appreciation for effort conservation (aka laziness), I tried the drive thru anyway. A sign (with poor font choice) confirmed the drive thru was closed. No problem, it’s only 7:30 p.m. I pull around to the front slowly, being the safety-conscious driver that I am. As I walk to the door, a proud DQ employee races to the door, beats me to it, and locks it. Apparently the area is still reeling from the Katrina aftermath and had to close early. And thus I encounter my first true moment of suffering from Katrina’s wrath. I literally had tears in my eyes. Petty, you say? Well, my response was better than the lady that walked up as we were driving away and let loose (mad lady, not us) with a string of words I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have recognized.

Back in the car Cuz reassured me that there are more (figurative) fish in the sea, and that we’d find a DQ for sure. A half-hour later, our faith was waning. Cuz did some serious praying, however, and imagine our unfettered joy when we topped yet another exit ramp west of Mobile and spotted a precious DQ. “Run, run,” Cuz screamed, as Snowflake the Camry skidded to a stop, “in case they close too!”

I run-walk into the DQ/Stuckey’s (a Southern institution too unique to describe). As I heave my purse breathlessly onto the counter, the attendant begins, “Ooh, and I can tell you wanted ice cream the way you run up in here. Mmm, that’s a shame.” I was still trying to catch up with the conversation when she dropped the bomb before I could get a word in edge-wise, “Our ice cream machine is broke. I’m so sorry.”

I just slumped onto the counter and asked sadly, “Where is the next closest Dairy Queen?”

“There was one back at Mobile on 90 by the DMV. You could try it,” my new compassionate friend informs.

“Missed it. And we’re headed west to Baton Rouge. Are there any in Mississippi?”

And then she dropped the hurricane line on me. For the love of hot fudge, can’t we get generators to these people! I need my DQ!

Cuz and I conferred in the car and decided that the next best thing would be to make it back to Baton Rouge before 11 p.m. and hit up my favorite local ice creamery: Cold Stone (CS). I was a woman on a mission and Snowflake was feeling me. We made it back to Baton Rouge at 10:44 with a cool sixteen minutes to spare. I calmly parked and climbed out of the car, only to have—for the second time of the night—the proud CS employee bolt for the door, beat me to it, and mercilessly lock it. …Let’s just say it was not one of the happier moments of the trip. For the next hour or five, I flip-flopped between brooding over the stirring letter I was writing in my head to report these travesties to CS and DQ (respectively) and then several “maybe this is God’s way of telling me ice cream is ruling my life” moments. Luckily I always snapped out of the latter.

In CS’s defense, I went back the next night (persistence pays, or so they say) and a sign (with font choice equally as lacking as DQ’s) announced new fall hours that cleared CS from the previous night—I had arrived 14 minutes after they had closed. So I momentarily took back all the vicious thoughts I had against CS. Until… I walked in and without so much as glancing at the menu, placed my order—the one and only thing I ever order at CS—the “love it” size cake batter ice cream with cookie dough. To make a long story and a traumatic memory short, CS no longer carries cake batter ice cream. Something about problems getting the secret ingredient from vendors now, which I again blame on Katrina. People, I have a new passion to see the South recover from Katrina! CS must emerge from the rubble with the cake batter recipe intact!

So it has now been over two weeks since I’ve had a positive ice cream experience. I have to tell you that I’m going to have to make another DQ road trip this weekend. I would say “head west, young lady, head west,” but with Rita on the prowl, I may have to fly North. Any readers up North want a house guest for the weekend? C’mon, don’t you want to do your part to relieve the suffering of those affected by Katrina? Let’s start with the important stuff: how far to your nearest Dairy Queen, Braum’s, or Friendly’s? Better yet, do any prudent, opportunity-seeking investors out there want to open a DQ in my backyard, making loads of cash and a hurricane victim happy?

This Week on Ninetyandnine

It's just Sunday school... right? Or is it? Be sure to check out Sarah k. Holland and Jason Ouellette's "The Failure of the Apostolic Movement." With a title like that, you've got to.

Not Again!

Rita is officially a hurricane. She’s pounding Florida mercilessly and moving into the warm waters of the gulf. There’s probably not a single south Louisiana resident that heard the news without having that sinking feeling in your gut.

You can believe the people that made it back into New Orleans will think twice before riding through another one. But with one of the two major Interstates out of the city being badly damaged and impassable from Katrina, should evacuation become necessary, it is going to be difficult for anyone still in the city or workers in points south. Fortunately Mayor Nagin scaled back re-entry due to Rita.

Wesley wrote in regarding the projected path discussion. He’s a reader from the area near Rita’s predicted landfall. Wesley and I agree that barring a miraculous dissipation, the next best option would be for Rita to make landfall in the parts of South Texas with little human population. I’m not greatly familiar with the area, but there are areas that are mostly ranchland. I certainly don’t wish bad things for Texas, but I’m praying for no loss of human life with this storm.

Sure there are eery Katrina flashbacks as Rita’s path could possibly follow Katrina’s. However, the bottom line is that the storm could still do anything. There's no need to incite panic or paranoia. We'll keep an eye on the storm and pray.

New Orleans: Rebuild?
If you’re a native, this is a non-issue. Of course, New Orleans will be rebuilt. I can’t even begin to explain the cultural, historical, and industrial impact of the city. But from a practical standpoint, we have to think about how implausible it seems to rebuild a city destined for destruction by its intrinsic geology. Fortunately there is a successful Dutch model. In President Bush’s address to the nation, he promised to rebuild. Right now, however, thoughts of rebuilding are eclipsed by the challenge of just surviving the rest of the season. December 1 can’t come soon enough.

This amateur photo was captured by co-workers from Metairie who made a trip to the city in attempts to salvage some of their belongings. This shot was taken on Sept 7 at the spot of one of the repaired levee breaches.

A Look Back at Ivan

Ivan Remembered
The weekend marked the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, which demolished much of the Gulf coast from Biloxi to Destin. To mark the event, executive duct-taper and roommate/cousin/road trip compadre [heareafter known as Cuz] were on the beat. We toured the Fort Walton area on Saturday (for strictly dedicated professional journalism reasons, of course).

A local paper noted that Katrina really puts Ivan in perspective and reminds Floridians it could’ve been worse. But the damage is still evident a full year later and gives you a fresh respect for the power of hurricanes. Telltale blue tarps still cover some homes, mangled signs and billboards litter businesses, and trailers and repair equipment still crowd parking lots.

On the way home we did some “accidental sight-seeing” (my word choice for what Cuz would probably call “lost”). We crossed the bay bridge between Pensacola and Pensacola Beach. One bridge is now closed and the other bridge has become a two-way bridge. As we started over the bridge, I kept wondering aloud, “Why is the other bridge closed? It seems perfectly fine.” I got my answer a mile or two later when the opposite bridge suddenly disappeared. Sporadically sections are completely gone like a child’s toy race-car track with snapped up sections here and there. Seeing a 12 foot high bridge missing 60 foot spans lends to a certain queasy feeling. It may be a year later, but Ivan is certainly not forgotten in Florida.

From a Katrina perspective, it’s scary to think that if there is still this much damage in Florida from Ivan, what will New Orleans and the Mississippi coast look like in a year?

Very Disturbing
There’s another one out there—hurricane, that is. Correction—almost hurricane. Tropical Storm Rita is kicking up trouble in the Bahamas. Governor Bush has ordered mandatory evacuations for the Keys. In a perfect world these things would suddenly disappear, but that never happens. So the question is where will Rita hit.

Some guys a few cubes over just got into a debate over which city should get hit on a "best-for-everybody" basis. They actually reasoned it should hit New Orleans since there’s nothing left to destroy. Their theory: if Rita heads Texas way and brings serious destruction to Houston, it could bankrupt the federal government. Not a pretty thought.

It’s so odd to hear this debated so nonchalantly. But we're back to perspective. There are displaced Katrina victims who’ve been reduced to a change of clothes and the car they drove out in. A little hard to reprimand them for not being more “thoughtful.”

Not that I wish bad things for our neighbors to the West, but I personally don’t know if New Orleans could handle this from a morale-standpoint. There is no win in this kind of situation. I find myself wishing this storm really could just magically disappear.

And the Emmy Blooper Goes To…
So the Emmys were on last night. I didn’t watch, but all the details complete with celebrity flubs are in this report.

Hotel pool in Fort Walton Beach, still filled with sand a year later. In the background, life continues as usual.