Hurricane Katrina

Judging from the coverage on the news channels, there's a nasty storm bearing down on the Gulf coast of Louisiana. According to the National Weather Service, winds are already gusting to 56 mph and the hurricane is still hours away from making an official landfall. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, the best parts of NOLA will still be standing and injury and loss of life will be at a minimum.

In August of 1989, I went through the experience of riding out a hurricane while visiting my grandmother in Houston. Hurricane Chantal was a Category 1 storm that delivered a glancing blow of 70 mph winds and several inches of rain on the Houston area. Since the storm made landfall overnight, I slept through the worst part of the storm and the next day didn't look much different than the average rainy day that I was used to seeing at home. Around 5:00 the next afternoon, we walked across Memorial Drive to see the raging water of the rain-swollen Buffalo Bayou. This was fascinating for a geeky 13 year old, but I'm not sure it left much of an immediate impression since the horrendous heat of August in Houston returned the next day.

There was a little, tiny part of me that was scared of that hurricane 16 years ago, but I can't imagine what would possess someone to ride out the 150+ mph winds bearing down on Louisiana this morning. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of New Orleans and anyone who has family from that area. It sounds like they have a long week ahead of them.