Feeling it 500 miles away
The enormity of this storm is mind-boggling. 500 miles away from New Orleans, here in Huntsville, Alabama, the effects of this storm are already being felt! The wind is steadily picking up, starting to bend the branches of our trees, especially the soaring, 200-yr old oak that towers over my house from the corner of our backyard. We normally get our storms from the SW, but these winds are all coming from the "wrong" direction - hooking around from the SE -- an ominous sign. Several nearby school systems have begun closing schools early; others have announced possible closings for tomorrow in anticipation or dangerous conditions. We are preparing for a long night. Even this far from the initial landfall of the storm, predictions are surprisingly dire: Tropical Storm warnings, with all the accompanying warnings: flash floods, tornados, etc. Our greatest fear here is what looks like will be some monumental flooding -- we haven't had rain here for several weeks, the clay ground is too hard to absorb everything we are going to get hit with. It's like expecting a brick to suddenly absorb water! There will certainly be serious flood damage. We are praying hard for everyone who will be in harm's way because of this monstrous storm.
--Anna Raebel, Huntsville, Ala.

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Narrow escape
When I arrived in New Orleans Friday afternoon to begin a weekend vacation to celebrate my birthday, Katrina was still a category 1 storm in the Atlantic. Saturday, after a lovely day under cloudless blue skies exploring the French Quarter, eating fabulous Creole fare, and listening to an impromptu jazz and blues concert in Jackson Square, I found out that the hurricane had moved into the Gulf of Mexico and was threatening the city. By Saturday evening several airlines had cancelled service to Louis Armstrong Airport, and Greyhound and Amtrak had stopped running. When I called my airline that night, they said that my 7:23 p.m. August 28 flight was still on schedule. After all, the weather was fine, why should they strand so many tourists when the storm of century was approaching?

As the night wore on and I saw that more local businesses and restaurants were closing and posting signs that they would not reopen until Wednesday or Thursday, I became really concerned. Then my hotel posted a notice that they too would be closing. I was traveling with a friend who was pregnant, and even though we are both seasoned hurricane veterans, we didn't want to be stuck without a hotel room or transportation out of N.O. So I called Hertz, reserved a car for 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning, moved my plane reservation from a N.O. departure to one from Birmingham, AL, three hundred miles north of the city, and grabbed a few hours of sleep. By the time we got to the airport before dawn on Sunday (which was thanks largely to a savvy cab driver who skirted a jammed, unmoving I-10 and took surface streets to get us there in under 45 minutes) we picked up what I believe was one of the last rental cars left. We traced the cab driver's city street route out of the city and headed east on I-10, the opposite direction as most everyone else escaping the Big Easy, and made good time to I-59 N and safety. My flight from Birmingham left on schedule, and I made it home to San Antonio in time for dinner with my family. I can't believe how lucky I am, because the despite Sunday's calm weather, the airport closed early that morning, and I would have been stuck with 10,000 poor folks in the unairconditioned Superdome. I am amazed that the trains, planes, and buses stopped running so long before the weather turned, in effect, stranding thousands in a city headed for disaster. What is their excuse?
--Judi Free. San Antonio, Texas

FREE VIDEO
Strong surge 150 miles east
August 29: Liz and Mike DeHart of Mary Esther, Fla., 150 miles east of where Katrina made landfall, sent in this video of the sound in front of their house, which is separated from the Gulf by a barrier island. The surge was close to overtaking their seawall.
MSNBC

Report from Houma
I am in Houma, Louisiana. We are west of the storm and we have been receiving winds of at least 80 to 100 mph. The winds started to increase in power around 3 a.m. and are still gusting hard at 10:30 a.m. So far we have been without power since 10 p.m. on Sunday night and we have lost part of our fence and many shingles off of the roof of our house. We have not had any flooding, but the storm has certainly been frightening. We still have water and phone service.
--Kaya Eschete, Houma, La.

Moved in Friday, evacuated Saturday
I am a freshman at Loyola University New Orleans. We moved in Friday and evacuated Saturday. I came home to Franklin, La., in St. Mary Parish. The sugarcane crop is being flattened and a tree fell in my yard, but the weather is not that bad yet and we still have electricity. My aunt is here but her husband called from their home in Raceland, La. and said that shingles were flying off their roof and water was coming into the house. We are waiting it out and hoping that the damage is not as severe as what has been predicted.
--Anne Longman, Franklin, La.

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Bringing out the best and worst
I work night audit at a hotel in Alexandria, Louisiana. Sunday nights are usually nice and quiet. Not tonight. Tonight, I had families flooding in, begging for rooms. I've had to tell everyone to head for Texas or Arkansas, and give dozens of people the number to the Red Cross or directions to emergency shelters. Natural disasters seem to bring out the best and worst in people. What do I mean by the worst? Instances like the man who has two rooms reserved, called to let us know he wouldn't be coming, but to make it a no show and charge him anyway, so no one else would get his room. (This would be one of the few times we would cancel outside of our normal policy without charging for the reservation.) Or the woman who said if she'd wanted to stay in a shelter, she would have stayed in Houma. But then, still, there was the gentleman who came to check out of his room at 5:30 in the morning, and ask if it would be against the rules for him to invite an elderly couple, who were sleeping in their vehicle, to come in to his room, shower, and freshen up. No, I don't see a problem with that at all.
--Amanda, Alexandria, La.

It begins
It is just past midnight on Sunday night here. Strong gusts and horizontal rain is pelting my house right now. The wind must be 50-60 mph in 20 minute intervals. I can also see lightning flashes outside. Ivan flooded my home, Dennis bashed it again. If we get more than a 10 ft. storm surge I'll flood again. I don't think we can take any more of this. I pray for New Orleans.
-- Kragh Folland; Gulf Breeze, Florida

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CONTINUED : More Hurricane Katrina reports

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