Random thoughts on Gooostav

With the threat mostly over, I have decided that instead of a dry boring update, I'd rather give you all some little nuggets you might have missed if you weren't awake watching hurricane coverage for about 44 of the past 48 hours. Yes, my eyes are about to bulge out of my head, and I have seen more of Bobby Jindal in two days than I saw of Kathleen Blanco in four years. But here goes:

First, let me give my thumbs up.

TO BOB BRECK for being the first to let us know that we weren't all going to die. A level head, who could tell us he thought those of us staying home were making a mistake, but that we'd probably not have to axe our way out of the attic and live on top the roof for five days.

My favorite moment from the longest-running meteorologist on New Orleans television (and the one I trust the most, although he can be a little loopy sometimes), came late Sunday night about eight hours before Gooostav's arrival. Paraphrased, he said:

"I am looking for any crumb or nugget of good news here, but it seems as if Gooostav is losing a little strength every time I see an advisory. This dry patch of air is wrapping around the storm an taking some of the oomph out of it. Don't get me wrong, this storm will still do damage, but it certainly won't be (slight pause) the Mother of all storms."

SAY WHAT? TOP 5
5. Newell Normand, Jefferson Parish Sheriff
"If you are out driving around Jefferson Parish, you will be stopped and challenged."
Call me duh duh dumb: Does he mean if you get pulled over, a deputy will say, "One, two, three, four, I declare thumb war?"

4. Unidentified WDSU desk reporter
"The storm looks like it is beginning to slow down. The 4 p.m. advisory has it moving northwest at 16 mph."
Call me duh duh dumb: The previous advisory said NW at 17 mph. Whooooa Nellie, that thing is almost at a crawl.

3. Unidentified WVUE field reporter
"You can see here the line of flooding just stops."
Call me duh duh dumb: No. You don't say? I thought maybe this storm was so strong that the entire Earth was covered. It's gotta stop somewhere, MO-ron.

2. Dan Milham, WDSU meteorologist
"As the hurricane pulls away from us, you will see that our winds will begin to decrease."
Call me duh duh dumb: No way? Is that how it works? Now, he has always been one of my favorites, but I am beginning to think the peeps at WDSU ain't the brightest light bulbs in the scoreboard. Margaret Orr, their morning weatherwoman said on numerous occasions how she sent her family to Baton Rouge, where the weather was almost as bad as it was here and had nearly the same percentage of power outages as did metro New Orleans. And she's supposed to give us accurate forecasts. (Oh, and to ramble on for a sec ... I am sick of her saying things along the lines of, "Like I told you yesterday," and "I warned you about ..." Yayyy. You got one or two right in 20 years. You don't need to tell us. If we care, we already know. Act like you've done it before.)

1. Ray Nagin, New Orleans Mayor
"This is the mother of all storms."
"This storm is so powerful and growing more powerful every day, that I'm not sure we've seen anything like it."
"This is the storm of the century. There's not another one that anyone can think about that is as powerful and we really don't know how strong it's going to get."
Call me duh duh dumb: And you're the mother of all assholes. I can't figure out whether he believed that nonsense he was dishing out or whether he was just trying to scare the daylights out of everyone in southeast Louisiana. Either way, there should be public outrage over this. It's fine to say, "You should be scared," and to "Get your butts out." This was WAY over the top. Instead, he caused mass chaos of people getting stuck trying to leave the city. These same people will not believe him next time he tries to beg people to get out; he used his trump card. What could he possibly say next time to get people to leave if we REALLY have the mother of all storms? For four days, this storm was projected to hit land more than 80 miles from New Orleans. Never did it really have the capability of doing to the city what SHE did three years ago. It didn't have the right track, and it continued to lose strength. Even if he did believe it was going to be as bad or worse than HER (which I do not believe for a second), to cause panic is not the way to go. But what do I know? I didn't have to sit in that traffic. Rather I stayed in my own home, slept in my own bed and saved about a thousand bucks. P.S. We already had the storm of the century.

See you all in a few days. Be safe on your trip back.