Hello all and welcome.  Let me tell you a story about a tropical storm named Issac, who, as I type, is about 2 hours off the Southeastern shore of Louisiana and bearing down on the Gulf Coast.  I am stationed in downtown New Orleans to provide inital ground reports for my company.  Before I start more current updates, let me discusss the past 24 hours and set the stage for the rest of this week.

I left my home in Fort Worth, TX around 1pm on 8/27 after spending the morning getting things set for my home and dogs.  The drive out was pretty uneventful till I got around Tyler in East Texas when heavy down pours from isloated storms slowed down my drive and added time to the already long (8 hours) drive. After hitting around three of these storms all the way to the Louisiana border, I entered Shreveport around 4:45p and booked it South towards New Orleans.

For anyone who has ever driven to Southern Louisiana from the North, you take I-49 South to I-10 and you know that there are very many isolated pockets of civilization that usually consist of truck stops with casinos and then nothing but open land or swamp lands.  The traffic on I-49 is never heavy and this trip was no different though there was noticeable addition to the usual vehicular traffic: National Guard convoys.  I personally counted 7 convoys on the drive into New Orleans, most of which were between 10 -15 vehicles each including Humvee, Potable (drinkable) water trucks, and fuel trucks.

I reached Baton Rouge around 9pm and that's when the West bound traffic on I-10 was bumper to bumper of presumably evacuees.  I stopped in Baton Rouge for food around the LSU area and the sheer madness of the area was impressive.  In one block I saw two gas stations with lines that stretched out to the street, one gas station that had no fuel, one accident that shut down part of the road and packed grocery/drug stores.  Maybe due to the sheer number of students in the area (school starts Sept. 4) but there seemed to be an air of nervousness in area so I knew getting out quickly was important.  I was back on the road by 9:30p and the stark difference between East and West bound traffic was starting to grow more noticeable. 

The drive from Baton Rouge to New Orleans is a dull one to say the least, nothing but swamps and trees along a 40+ mile Utrecht of a I-10.  Add the fact that there is only a handful of sections that have any lights on the road way, it makes for a dark drive at night.  As I moved closer to New Orleans, the traffic East boung (towards New Orleans) grew smaller and less frequent and the West bound traffic started to thin out and finally went back to "normal" flow around the Western edge of the Lake Pontchartrain.

The drive into New Orleans was eery due to the lack of traffic on the road and, for a city that is known for it's night life, there was none to be had, seen or heard.  The drive through downtown showed empty streets, boarded up buildings and open bars.  Yes, this is New Orleans and even though there may not be the foot traffic, there are bars that are open and will remain open through this storm.  I got to my hotel around 11pm and parked my car on the upper levels of the garage and proceeded to check-in, get selected and check on info on the storm.  

I awoke this morning to sunshine and a strong breeze buffering my hotel window, though no rain.  Since my hotel has stopped food service, I set out in search of food to stock up on and discovered to most places are sealed up tight with wood or metal covering the windows and doors and two bars between my hotel and the open CVS pharmacy that were open and offering hurricane drink specials (again, this is New Orleans).  CVS was open and not too busy, I grabbed as much I thought I'd need and went to stand in line.  While in line I heard from two different people about being mugged by a group in the quarter area not more than an hour earlier and they had taken all their cash from these people and fled quickly.  Not sure how accurate this is but it does make one think and be more aware of their surroundings. 

My walk back to the hotel was rain filled and some wind but nothing that I haven't experienced before here.  By the time I got to the hotel again, the rain had passed, the wind had stopped and the sun was out. And here we go into real time (or as close as I can...)