-36 hours

Biking around the neighborhood, I heard for the first time the unmistakable buzz of a circular saw cutting plywood. Sure enough, a few houses now have a few boarded-up windows. I'm still surprised at the lack of visible preparation. This neighborhood is full of expensive houses with large windows, and with enormous old oak trees with rotten limbs ready to become airborne projectiles.

I was just thinking it was a shame that I haven't gotten the Baton Rouge Wiki up and running; a wiki would be a great resource with which to share disaster information, updated in near real time. But of course, someone has set up just that: http://gustavwiki.com/

Remember that livejournal user interdictor who reported on Katrina from his fortified internet bunker in downtown New Orleans? Well, he lives somewhere else now, but folks are still gathering on his blog. There is an IRC channel:

#interdictor on irc.freenode.net

The physics building at LSU has an amateur radio station. I might check that out. Not sure yet where I'll go: stay at home, go to a friend's house, or utilize my office/bunker at LSU. (It would be nice to find a good hurricane party, but I haven't heard of any!) My house will almost certainly lose power (above ground utilities + lots of big old trees). We're told to not expect to be able to drive anywhere for a while after the storm. I do have a bike to use.

p.s. Also note the #@$% that's going down in MPLS in advance of the RNC.

all quiet now

12:28 Neighbors across the street just left, evacuating to Arkansas.

15:25 Ice cream truck just went by. (-:

19:10 first rain and wind

21:09 All quiet again. I guess that was the 'first band', the first spiral arm of the storm passing through.

In the late afternoon (5pm?) I took another ride around the neighborhood on a bike. No slowdown at all on I-10 through town; traffic was moving swiftly. All the gas stations nearby, however, were out of gasoline (although some appeared to still have diesel fuel). And out of ice. I saw a couple small sandbagging operations, too. But, overall, still very quiet. A couple places (near the Perkins overpass) with rooftop billboards took the billboards down (slashing them with knives, I think!)—a good idea, 'cause otherwise those things would just be sails and would rip the roof off!

I did a little tour of downtown by car at dusk. Very boring down there, most businesses closed (it is Sunday afterall, so maybe they'd be closed anyway). I am disappointed that there are no local businesses pledging to stay open through the storm to offer a gathering place, a 'restaurant at the end of the universe.' But perhaps that would be ridiculous.

Saw several tugboats scooting here and there in the Mississippi. Fortunately the river level is very low. From the top of the levee you can see the whole inside of the levee, and then grass and small trees at the bottom, and then the river. (By contrast, a few months ago, the river was a few feet from the top!)

Still very calm at that point, but maybe a more urgent calm.

The local liquor store was doing a bustling business, however. They, too, were out of ice.

I'm told Albertsons was mobbed at 4:15pm. They boarded the place up and closed at 5pm. I'm told that Whole Foods was empty, open, and giving away free ice.

Someone on batonrouge says she saw two tornadoes this evening.

Someone on neworleans just posted a video of the hurricane's arrival there.

Add those two communities as friends if you want to follow what's happening... I'll probably just update livejournal until the power goes out. And use TxtLJ after that.

p.s. How do I, with AT&T and a Samsung SGH-a737, upload photos from my mobile phone to flickr? I tried the usual email gateway (SMS to 111 with the email address as the first word in the message) with a picture attachment, but it didn't work. I couldn't even email myself a photo that way.