You are one of several FReepers I've been looking forward to hearing from since Katrina. Hope you weathered the storm without too many problems. You are the third one to check in since Friday...three more still MIA. Good to see you back!
We evacuated to family in Missouri and spent 2 1/2 weeks there. We had minor damage to our home (no water). The worst part to our arrival back to our home was the herrendous funk we were greeted to as we opened our door. After a 10 hour trip back we had to deal with the fridge first and foremost. The smell was so bad in the house it woke me in the middle of night......I then went outside to try and sleep in the truck. The fridge has been ejected from the house!
Our area (North of Covington, Lousiana) had extensive tree damage. Some areas look like a war zone. There is no doubt in my mind that Hurricane Katrina spun numerous tornado's off of her. In many places one can see a clump of 10-20 tall pines all snapped off at the same exact height. Still in all, our area fared relatively well!
It's good to be back!
I can't believe another one could be in the middle of the gulf in a few more days. It's just unreal!!!
I want to thank you again for what you do for people in the paths of hurricanes by the posting of these threads. I also thank the many contributors to your threads, especially the one's who seem to be hours ahead of the forecast models. Someone here, and you know who you are, forecast the models on Katrina to change WEST almost 4 hours before it was "officially" changed by the NHC. The same thing happened again some hours later, and it was trumpeted here before the "official" forecast was released.
Keep up the great work!