Evacuation

Truthfully, I was really and very deeply affected by our experiences in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

When we landed on Friday, it wasn't too terribly noticeable that there was a hurricane en route. There was coverage on the radio and a lot of traffic on the roads, but it was also nearing rush hour, so nothing seemed out of place. After we checked into our hotel in Baton Rouge, we decided to head back to New Orleans for the evening to eat dinner and check things out. When we got back to New Orleans, we saw a few boarded up buildings, but there were definitely plenty of people about. Not nearly as many as normal, but definitely people milling around. Our restaurant on Bourbon Street wasn't crowded at all, but there were plenty of people walking up and down the street. While in New Orleans Friday night, we also saw quite a few National Guard troops on foot and in their vehicles. Very unsettling to see members of the military armed and standing guard in an American city.

When we were heading back from New Orleans to Baton Rouge Friday night it became very apparent that things were changing. Traffic was very heavy on I-10. We were moving between 45-60 mph for the most part, but we had to slam on the brakes a ton! There were so many people pulling trailers or in cars completely filled up.

Saturday morning we were all pretty isolated from news reports because we were at the football game, so we weren't really getting much news until we made it back to the hotel. Once we returned, Callie, Clay, mom, dad, and I all convened in mom and dad's room and we called Brian to put him on speakerphone (he didn't go to the game and he was out driving around in Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi). We spent a good hour discussing the possibilities--drive home on Saturday, drive to New Orleans Saturday night and spend the night in a hotel or in the airport to fly out, or wait until Sunday morning to drive from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to fly out Sunday morning. After talking through everything, we decided that we would rather drive home because then we all were completely in control of our fates. Additionally, none of us wanted to wait until Sunday morning to drive from BR to NO and that in the 12-18 hours that we would have spent overnight in New Orleans, we could already be out of the line of fire and safely in Alabama.

So we took off pretty quickly after we made our decision and since Brian was already farther east in Mississippi, he found a place off I-12 in Slidell, LA to wait for us, until we made it that far down the road. When we met up with Brian, Slidell was very eerie. The Shell gas station was completely out of gas and all the buildings (including a Wal-Mart and mall) were closed and boarded up. The only thing that was open was a Wendy's and it was only open at the drive thru. We later found out that they're expecting possibly 6-14 feet of storm surge where we met Brian in Slidell (south of I-12).

As we got back on the road, traffic was very heavy as we had crossed a junction that put us on I-59 with many other New Orleans evacuees.

Now, this is where it really started getting scary.

We're all very, very familiar with Interstate driving, but it was very clear that many of the people who were on the road with us were not familiar with the Interstate. There were many elderly drivers and so many cars that were completely packed down or pulling trailers with numerous possessions. People were constantly slamming on their brakes, pulling off the side of the road, or being forced to pull off because of car breakdowns, running out of gas, switching drivers, etc. There were also numerous people driving way too slow (like 45 mph) and at one point we had an elderly couple get off an exit and completely stop on the exit ramp. It was very dangerous.

During this time, we were listening to the local news/talk station--870 WWL AM in New Orleans. At this time, Mayor Nagin was giving his now-famous "monster storm" speech and it all started sinking in that all of these people were leaving their homes, belongings, and memories and they had no idea if anything would be left when they returned. And most of them were doing it for the second time in three years. People had everything from dog crates to mattresses to grills to four-wheelers and coolers in their cars/trailers. Essentially, all their most important things or the things they needed to survive were all displayed for the world to see.

According to preliminary estimates, some 1.9 million people evacuated from southern Louisiana.

At one point, our two cars got separated and Brian and I continued on to the hotel in Birmingham, but my parents' car stopped for a few minutes at a rest area in Alabama. I wasn't with them to see it, but they said that it looked like a refugee camp. People were sleeping in their cars, there were dogs tethered to tailpipes, and everyone was clearly exhausted.

With all the people who were breaking down on the highway, under all the stress of an impending storm and evacuation, it's really clear how violence or other problems could quickly escalate. We never saw anything like this, but you could really sense the tension on the road and none of us would have felt comfortable stopping to help someone on the side of the road.

We were all very relieved and exhausted when we we made it safely to our hotel in Birmingham. As Brian mentioned last night, the hotel was completely sold out through Wednesday night. Just as an FYI, Birmingham is 353 miles (or 5.5 hours) away from New Orleans!

The drive today definitely felt more normal, but we continued to see many filled up cars with Louisiana license plates as far north as Atlanta.

All-in-all, it was a very powerful experience for me. We met so many wonderful people in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and en route to Alabama. All I can really do is pray for them and their safety, but it was definitely an experience that I will never forget and really can't fully explain.

I did take some pictures that I put up on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/lsleblanc82/NOLAAndEvacuation.

I can say that we did have a great time at the game, despite the outcome, and I'll post about it a little later and post some pictures, but it doesn't seem right for me to do so until Gustav has passed.

We're also closely watching TS Hanna, which is possibly threatening Wilmington and Morehead City...