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Thank God I have nothing to report. The storm went north, parallel to me instead of straight at me. Last year Laura made mincemeat out of my block, so I was really worried. Ida is currently 100 miles east of Alexandria and I have marked myself safe. I am filled with humble gratitude this morning!

Hi all, I’m still here in Pineville, Louisiana. My neighborhood was absolutely trashed by Laura last year, so I can’t say I’m looking forward to Ida at all. Thanks as always for being here and providing the best hurricane forum ever!

Hi NautiNurse! I am in Louisiana but my daughter attends college at the St. Thomas campus of the University of the Virgin Islands. I am one worried mom. Thanks for continuing to maintain these threads!

Hi, just checking in from Pineville in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. Glad to see you’re still here, NautiNurse — thanks for all you do to help us during hurricanes!

Hi NautiNurse, just a shoutout from Louisiana. Nobody does this hurricane live monitoring stuff as well as you, IMHO, and I wanted to say it’s great that you’re still here after all these years. I shouldn’t jinx myself by saying this, but it feels weird to be on the outside looking in for a change, because for once I’m not in the path of this hurricane. But I’d better quit patting myself on the back while I’m ahead, because hurricane season’s a long way from over!

Oddly enough, my daughter and I just spent the summer on vacation in the Northeast. We spent six weeks in Gloucester, Massachusetts and took a leisurely return drive via the Port Jefferson-Bridgeport Ferry to Long Island, followed by Manhattan, Seaside Heights, New Jersey, Delaware, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Washington DC, and the part of Virginia believed to be the center of the recent earthquake before continuing home to Louisiana. If not for the fact that school starts several weeks earlier in Louisiana, we’d still be up North right now and in the path of the storm. Amazing!

Thanks again for all you do, NautiNurse — lots of people depend upon and appreciate you everywhere!

Re Yoko Ono, I agree with your choice of “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)” — if my memory serves me correctly, there was a similar track on that Plastic Ono Band album (”Live Peace in Toronto”??) called “John John (Let’s Hope for Peace”). And then there’s always her solo hit “Walking on Thin Ice” with that “Ai-ai-ai” break in it.

Now to comment on this subject in general. I always raise an cynical eyebrow when I read about musicians who don’t want their music associated with a specific purpose which is contrary to their personal beliefs. For example, Heart’s objection to “Barracuda” being used to promote Sarah Palin and other songs that became popular at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions against the express wishes of the artist (Jackson Browne comes to mind here, but I can’t remember what song he was upset about). My immediate reaction is to think of the money these artists make from publishing and performance royalties, so even though they’re getting some attention from the press that they probably consider themselves long overdue for, the bottom line is that they’re complaining all the way to the bank.

The best solution goes along with what others have suggested here. Take the artists off the torture playlists who have registered an objection, and substitute other artists who would be proud to have their music play a role in eliciting confessions from terrorists. Ted Nugent is certainly a great suggestion here. My personal recommendation here would be a band whose body of work has really repugnant lyrics, such as Cannibal Corpse, alternated with a completely opposite type of artist, maybe someone who does novelty or parody songs like Ray Stevens or Weird Al Yankovic. The boy-band idea is also a viable concept. Guaranteed madness...

Several posters have mentioned the birth announcements in the Honolulu newspapers, so I surfed on over to see what the reaction was to this suit in the Hawaiian press. I was intrigued by a link to a story about local tour companies which claim to know all the places Obama spent his Hawaiian childhood. I have read many threads on this subject because this whole thing strikes me as disturbingly Orwellian and I just want to know the truth. In the course of all the posts I’ve seen, no one has yet mentioned trying to obtain the original registration records from the elementary schools that Obama is alleged to have attended in Hawaii. This certainly seems like the sort of instance where one would have had to produce an old-fashioned birth certificate, right? I’d be fascinated to know whether the elementary schools in question have any archives. Have I missed something? Here’s the link:

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081203/NEWS21/812030386/-1/SPECIALOBAMA08

I moved from Massachusetts, home of Dunkin’ Donuts, to central Louisiana, where everyone raves about Community Coffee. I miss DD terribly!!!

I would liked to see Trace Adkins in “An American Carol” but it isn’t playing around here.

As for “W” it’s easy for me to understand why it wouldn’t have been popular in the area where we live. President Bush was here in Alexandria, LA this week and my daughter was one of the schoolchildren chosen to meet him. I somehow doubt that on the heels of such an honor, I would have taken her to the movies to see a picture which doesn’t sound particularly flattering to Bush.

What annoyed me about the article is that she used Piper Palin in the headline just to grab our attention. The article then hijacks us into her own personal pontification about what it’s like to be employ parenting skills one way in public and another in private. If I want to read about Piper Palin, I’m genuinely not interested in whether or not the author can’t get her kid to eat broccoli.

I really like Piper Palin, by the way. I read a report on the wheresgeorge.com currency tracking project website about how Piper once found a dollar marked with the WG “Track This Bill” stamp and entered it online from her home zip code of Wasilla, Alaska. Her message was something like “I am 6 years old. My mother is the Governor of Alaska.” It angers me that recently someone tried to smear the kid by publishing a photo in which Piper has an angry expression on her face and looked like she was giving the finger to another kid. One of those Snopes urban legend things.

Go Piper!

So now that it’s over, what did everyone think?

I envision it as being done as “Weekend Update with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey,” except as the camera pans in, it’s actually Sarah Palin doing a Tina Fey impersonation. That would be lighthearted and fun.

Thanks, I appreciate the ping!

We had a former Walmart building used as a shelter here in Pineville after Katrina.

Jesse Jackson brought a motorcade of buses full of Superdome evacuees into Alexandria and did a photo op in front of the abandoned England Air Force Base barracks demanding that his passengers be sheltered there. As documented in The Town Talk, Jackson had been advised well in advance that the Rapides Parish Coliseum was full and there were no other shelters in Alexandria.

The barracks had been abandoned for a long time and for good reason — no ventilation or plumbing and the presence of asbestos and toxic mold. (The Alexandria Housing Authority eventually had to re-open a similarly shut-down housing project to accommodate evacuees. Those who accepted shelter in these apartments had to sign waivers that they had been fully informed of the dangers of occupying them.)

Despite the warnings, Jackson went on grandstanding in front of the media anyway, and the buses were quietly diverted to the former Walmart in Pineville. Local locksmiths suddenly found business booming due to a sudden rash of break-ins in the neighborhood immediately behind the shelter. At the same time, the Chiefs of Police of Alexandria and Pineville went on TV vehemently denying there was a crime wave, even going so far as threatening to throw anyone who “spread rumors” in jail.

It wasn’t a fun time back then at all...

OK, I’m a Louisiana FReeper and I’ll answer you.

New Orleans gets all the publicity in an instance like this, but Gustav also headed northward and trashed the middle of the state as well. It took a two-day delayed reaction for tornado damage and flash floods to kick in with a vengeance after Gustav passed through places like Alexandria in Rapides Parish, where boats were used to evacuate suddenly flooded neighborhoods. Gustav has been described by residents of Alexandria as “Our Katrina.” However, Alexandria isn’t a glamorous magnet for the press, so the NY Times isn’t apparently not nearly as concerned with our perspective on the damage.

As a resident of Central Louisiana, I have been impacted just like the citizens of New Orleans, but no one was shoving a microphone in my face today as I spent the afternoon camped out at the FEMA office set up in a former department store in Marksville. I would have gladly granted a photo op while I was passing the time by simultaneously placing a telephone claim for Disaster Unemployment as instructed by the courteous FEMA caseworkers.

Is anyone going to hand me a generous FEMA debit card? Not likely. I’m already into the appeal process. FEMA automatically shot down my online application because I truthfully stated that I have a renters’ insurance policy. Almost needless to add, the insurance company advised me that my Gustav-related damages aren’t covered because of the deductible. As I incur expenses for the 70-mile round trips between my home and the FEMA office and the copying and faxing of the requested supporting documentation for my appeal, I keep wondering if I’m ever going to see a dime for my time and efforts spent chasing FEMA and the DUA.

If the NY Times would like to come down here for a reality check, I would gladly volunteer to be their tour guide.

As for the Jindal administration’s handling of Gustav, I only have one question. Jindal says he wants heads to roll at DSS for what happened at the shelters used for Gustav. What I really want to know is this: why does the same state agency which provides administrative services such as welfare, food stamps and child support also encompass more in-the-field type services as putting showers in hurricane shelters? Seems like there should be a much better division of responsibility on the organizational chart. If there is a division of the state government called the “Office of Emergency Preparedness” existing alongside the “Department of Social Services,” which one might you expect to respond in the case of providing refuge during an emergency?

Just this Louisiana FReeper’s $0.02...

I’ve been without cable (not surprising that there’s a delayed reaction — again), so now that it’s back on, I’m trying to play catch-up as fast as I can.

Did anyone recall seeing recent pictures of a restaurant called Fish Tales at 2502 Seawall in Galveston? I know a group of people who met at Fish Tales regularly, so I went down there once in July 2007 with my daughter and a family friend who was familiar with the area. We came into Galveston via the Interstate and left town via the ferry route, so I’m really glad that I had one opportunity to see the city of Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula before Ike. We had spent a really pleasant day in Galveston and planned to go back again in May 2008, but we had a family emergency and went to Florida instead and didn’t get a chance to return. Someday, in what I imagine will be a very distant future, if there’s anything left of Fish Tales, I’ll bet those regulars would return again given the opportunity. I wonder what happened to the place?

Just peepin’ in before I go to sleep. The awful rainstorms have finally abated and there haven’t been any tornado watches or warnings tonight.

The NWS flood watches and warnings are continuing to arrive via my e-mail subscription to AccuWeather.com, so I hope the other shoe doesn’t drop tomorrow like it did after Gustav. One of the bulletins was quite ominous and mentioned that most flood deaths occur in automobiles — “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.” This reminded me of previous posts earlier in the storm about warnings of “certain death” for those who didn’t evacuate — I wonder, is this a new trend with NWS warnings or is it just the seriousness of this particular storm?

A special shout-out to those who aren’t allowed to go home yet — being kept in suspense is truly awful. I lived in an apartment complex that was located alongside the Hackensack River in New Jersey in the early 1990’s. There was a very dangerous storm that made the river rise to unprecedented levels, and suddenly the police started pounding on the doors of every apartment in my building. They demanded that I evacuate immediately and they wouldn’t leave until they were sure I was out of there. I had been contemplating leaving, but I had an elderly cat and power was out at the local hotels. I didn’t know where else to go because I couldn’t take my cat to the Red Cross shelter set up at a nearby school. Meanwhile, the police weren’t taking no for an answer, so I jumped in my car with my cat carrier and no clue as to where we were headed. I finally accepted the invitation of a former neighbor who had moved to a house on top of a steep hill in Norwalk, Connecticut — it scared the daylights out of me driving across the George Washington Bridge in such high winds. Once I left, I couldn’t get any straight answers from the local authorities about whether or not it was OK to come home and I ended up staying in Norwalk for several days. Apparently I could have returned sooner, because my employer was located just the other side of the New Jersey Turnpike and the boss was furious with me for staying away as long as I did. I simply couldn’t get anyone to tell me what was going on at my home.

Unfortunately, it’s stuff like that which makes people think twice about evacuating the next time disaster strikes. So, here’s a special prayer for those people sitting in parking lots and rest stops, charging your cell phones with your car batteries — I hope you will be able to return to your property soon and assess the damage for yourselves.

I looked up your zip code for NWS warnings. You have a wind advisory and a flash flood watch, no mention of tornado activity. Sounds like you have a similar problem to ours, because it indicates that the ground in your area was already saturated before your latest rains came. This flash flooding stuff is nothing to mess with, because new places that never flooded before are suddenly inundated where you least expect it. Be careful and charge your cell phones if you haven’t already!

For me, it can’t pass soon enough. At this particular moment, there is an absolutely torrential rainstorm going on where we live. Every time I hear the wind speed up a little bit, I wonder “Is this finally the tornado that will get us?” I’m getting a tad paranoid maybe, but I prefer to think of it as what a friend of mine calls “a healthy fear.”

I looked up an old Eurythmics song that goes:

“Here comes the rain again
Raining in my head like a tragedy
Tearing me apart like a new emotion”

If this storm keeps up at its present rate, we’ll probably lose power and I’ll be back joining the others who are FReeping on cell phones and PDAs. Thanks to everyone who is courteous about keeping graphics to a minimal size — they’re a nightmare to download on the Edge network!

Gonna hit the Post button quick...

Please take these tornado warnings seriously, folks. Here’s an account from The Town Talk about one that happened earlier today in Mamou, Louisiana.

http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080913/NEWS01/80913021