New Orleans, MAX and Katrina

I just wanted to give a shout out to my friends in New Orleans. Thanks for hosting us at MAX last year. It was fun. To my friend, Adam Bell, I hope you're safely in Houston by now. (And I hope the New Orleans User Group is safely evacuated.)

All that said, I'm a Florida girl. I lived in Baton Rouge, LA till I was three, and then to Jacksonville, FL until I was about 20. For about 9 or 10 years now, I've been back in beach country in Wilmington, NC. Yes, I'm definitely hurricane saavy. And so, I watch in horror as Katrina prepares to decimate the gulf coast. And at this point, I do mean decimate.

I've been talking to a friend on MSN and comparing links to information about/from the area. Interesting stuff. I hope we don't see a repeat of the hurricane parties that ended in devastation during Camille. I hope people were wise enough to leave… but watching the Weather Channel earlier tonight, I saw 20-somethings that seemed almost excited — "We're staying. We've never been in a hurricane before and we really don't know what to expect," the young couple said grinning. Oh my. I know what to expect.

If you'd like an idea, check out:

• The Weather Channel's blog – blogging by the meteorologists that bring you the best.
• Storm Digest Blog – real talk about the weather — interesting stuff.
• Insomnia: New Orleans Stories – live blogging by people who didn't leave — though without generators, I doubt we'll hear from them for much longer tonight
• Darwin calling on New Orleans – an intersting post discussing the situation's gravity.
• Weather Underground – blog from the Wunderground

I'd love to think that they'll all get out of there, Katrina will drop to a level three before hitting, and we'll all live happily ever after. Time will tell.