Less than 3

Fell into a deep sleep before midnight. I mean dead to the world. Woke up to Gustav downgraded to an upper Category 2. Guests in the hotel have been trading Katrina stories and reports about current news in the city. I'm switching between MSNBC and CNN.

Got a report from my next door neighbor. Power went out about two hours ago. A tree went down across the street, perhaps hitting a power line in the process. I'm seeing stories about a couple of big fires, lots of downed trees and wide-spread power outages. The big news is on the Industrial Canal, the site of the infamous breach that took out the 9th ward. There are two ships and one barge loose. Water is over-topping the levee there, but on the industrial park side, not the residential area. MSNBC just put up some video of that. When the surge changes direction, there's a good chance both the boats, barge and overtopping changes sides.

We're all pretty calm. I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. The kids are swimming downstairs. No effects here yet, but they're predicting rain for this afternoon. In all, we're pretty good.

There's surely an air of uncertainty, but we're all pretty optimistic. This could have been much worse than what we're seeing. But we also said that once Katrina passed.



EDIT: some more reports...

-Major power lines across I-10 in both Kenner and Metairie
-Boat sinking in Mississippi by Elmwood
-A photo of the overflow on the Industrial Canal, courtesy of NOLA.com