Waiting for Gustav in SW Louisiana -- Monday Midday

Our little storm posse stands at 9 people here at the church.

Outside the rain is getting heavier and the we expect to really see some weather deterioration in the next hour. The really rough stuff comes later. Forecasters seem to be telling us that we are going to get hit harder by the backside of the storm as it comes through.

Inside, we have a pretty good little spread of snack foods. Seems like the thing to do. Folks have also brought little "busy work" projects to keep occupied. I think we are going to start focusing on lunch and anything else that we can do while we still have power.

The wind howls every once in a while and the lights flicker.

Still waiting. But not complaining.

Waiting for Gustav in SW Louisiana -- Monday Morning

It is early, but we have arrived at church. We announced that the church would be open if anyone wanted to ride out the storm here instead of on their own. I do not know if anyone will show up.

The most recent forecast is that later today our town will experience 80 mph sustained winds. Right now it would still be considered breezy, but it is picking up. I think there are predictions of high rainfall amounts, but maybe not as much as would TS Fay left in Florida.

I drove down the main drag this morning on my way to church and it is pretty quiet out there. Many businesses were boarded up. People here seemed to wait longer to board up than they did when we lived in Florida. For a while we were amazed nobody was boarding up. I did not get our house boarded up, since I figure this far inland people didn't do that. Then all of a sudden out came the plywood. Oh well. We expect to learn a bunch from this experience.

If nobody else is coming to church, I think we would rather be at home. But I don't want to "close the door to ark" too soon or wait too late to get back home. We'll play that by ear.