Link here from wdsu (Local New Orleans station) and jackson,miss. sister station.

Watching this is kind of crazy. It hasn’t even been a year since we moved away. They just said that that the pumps in the city have failed. This is really not good. The pumps in the city are the real protector of the city from flooding….they aren’t really even that good. (At one point they could remove about an inch an hour…it isn’t unheard of to have more than an inch an hour. Average rain a year is around 60 inches.) The city, being below sea level, needs the pumps to move the water out of the “bowl” that the city of New Orleans is in. The levees that surround city, at their peak, are about at sea level.

Family has moved up to Jackson (It will be a Cat 2 storm when the eye reaches there.) and Corinth, Mississippi and also to New Roads, Louisiana. Our prayers go out to family and friends that are being affected by this.

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For the rest of the nation…Hope that things aren’t going to be really bad in New Orleans…about 70% of the oil in the US moves through New Orleans. Gas Prices are only going to be going up if the damage is extreme…It already is at $70 a barrel. This is bad for everyone. Hey W, what are you going to do to help us all out. You gave the energy companies some tax relief, how about the rest of us now. Why not suspend the tax on oil during this crisis? That would be some immediate short term relief.

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