9:00pm

Power is still on here at the hotel but the staff is ready to clear out.  I was down in the lobby earlier with some other insurance people (mainly independent adjusters) and watched the hotel staff clear out the pantry in a hurry.  I honestly think they are abandoning the building for the night, leaving us residents to fend for ourselves.  Glad I have two locks on my door tonight.

You know the news is running out of stories when they start replaying the stories from this morning and acting like they are going on right now.

Rain is pretty much non-stop now as well as the wind.  Earlier I ventured down to the street level between rain bands to get an idea of the wind.  I had to walk down to the corner to actually get a feel for the wind due to the high buildings.  It wasn't bad, the worst I saw was a small tree branch move down the street.

The storm seems to be hanging off shore and not moving.  This is not good for rain reasons, unless this storm starts moving, it's going to drench the lower portion of this state to the point of beyond saturation and create a lot of storm surge in one area.  Per our intrepid weather man, there isn't anything to move this storm either back out to the gulf or push it inland.

A quick look out my window to the left and to the French Quarter shows almost all the neon signs are still up and doing well, only one letter is out but I'm not sure if it wasn't already out before the storm.  A look out towards the river bridge and Harrah's and Lowes show power still on there as well and all the residential and office buildings in-between. 

One thing I've noticed is there hasn't been any lightning.  I've seen more lighting on the TV's backdrop then I have outside.  I've heard some thunder but nothing major. 

Per the news, the worst is yet to come but they've been pushing this ominous prediction back every hour or so.  In preperation (and following hotel guidlines) I've filled my bathtub with water, plus every glass and coffee mug in my room plus a full ice bucket on top of the other couple gallons of bottle water I have.  I really doubt I'll need any of these things but better safe then sorry.