Wondering about Drince88

[Drince88]

Finally made it back here for a little while (here to the Lounge - most of my surfing time has been spent on news sites, trying to find out if my house flooded).

If any of you have a chance to watch CNN, they've been playing sound bites from the Mayor of New Orleans - that man is severely (and rightly) peeved. I'm not sure if they STILL have got the levee breach fixed. Ok, I just found this -

7:01 A.M. - Jeff Parish Emergency Operations Center Director Walter Maestri: 17th Street Canal Levee breach is now under control...not fixed...but under control.

(This is Central time on Friday morning)

And the 'going to a place with an office for my company' is for my own personal sanity, not for some 'altruistic' type reasons - I evacuated from Ivan (unnecessarily in retrospect) to a small town between Jackson, MS and Memphis, TN (Grenada) and it was tough being someplace like that, where I only had dial up, and wanted to do some work to take my mind off of questions in my mind (before the hurricane hit). For that one, we had a little more warning, too. I was in the office for 8 hours on Tues and Wed, and between the 2 days, got 2 hours of work done - so it's more for the structured support and ability to communicate than anything else (and to not feel 'stuck' in a hotel room).

They are letting people into my Parish to check on stuff starting on Monday, but don't want anybody coming back for good for about a month (I live in Metaire, in Jefferson Parish - the New Orleans airport is in Kenner in Jefferson Parish - Metairie is between Kenner and Orleans Parish). I saw one FEMA map that showed my house may have flooded, but I really don't know (but unless there was damage from a tree, it shouldn't have been deep enough to sweep it off the foundation). I did find a NOAA-related site that has some photos - but couldn't quite bring myself to look at them quite yet to see. I'm NOT going back on Monday - I need to hear that there aren't problems with car jacking and looting of people going back before I'll do that. I am going to have either my Dad or a Brother-in-Law come to Dallas to drive with me there to check on things.

There were some houses along the Mississippi coast that had survived MANY a hurricane that were leveled by this one. Including the house of one of the Senators (I'm thinking Trent Lott, if he's from MS). Fortunately, they're able to start their recovery efforts (I'm sure they don't fell fortunate, though!) That's what toughest for me to deal with right now - I can't even start an insurance claim because I DON'T KNOW if I have damage, or if I do, is it from the wind (and therefore covered by homeowners) or rising water (and therefore covered by my flood insurance, which is a different policy).

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers for everyone in the region - And no matter what Hastert may say - New Orleans (and the whole region) WILL rebuild! As soon as it's up and running, you all make sure and visit and support the economy!