Waiting for Hurricane Gustav

Posted by Maureen K. Fleury Aug 31, 2008

It’s around 1:00am on the eve of the arrival of Hurricane Gustav.

I’ve been watching the broadcast on CNN since this afternoon. The split screen on my TV is showing the number of miles Gustav is away from New Orleans. The eye is now 226 miles away from landfall and Gustav remains as a category 3.

On Saturday, Gustav slammed Cuba as a category 4 and the National Hurricane Center said that Gustav was very close to being a category 5. It had been predicted that Gustav would intensify over the Gulf of Mexico. Even so, a category 3 can still cause extensive damage.

My thoughts turn to the devastation of Katrina that happened just over 3 years ago on August 29, 2005. They recently had a memorial to Katrina on its third anniversary this past week. With the approach of Gustav, interviews with residents are showing a resurgence of bad memories.

I’m pleased to see that there were improved evacuation procedures in New Orleans. It disturbed me to find out that not all the levees were repaired. There are mandatory evacuation orders in New Orleans but there are some people who refuse to leave. What I heard on CNN is that people cannot be ordered to leave but they can get arrested for breaking curfew.

I certainly hope that a lesson was learned from Katrina in terms of emergency preparedness.

Gustav is expected to land in about 10 hours from now. The winds have already started to blow in New Orleans and this is only the beginning. I will continue to watch CNN because they always have excellent hurricane coverage.

My heart goes out to the people on the Gulf Coast.