we were just watching the news, seeing pictures of devastation in galveston, tx [which was under water before the storm was even close]..
..when cindy called to tell matt that the mississippi runs backwards. this happens when too much water from the gulf pushes towards inland.
besides this, water started coming over the levees, as both lake and the river canals where too high.
where's the parking lot?!when the tv started *beeeep beeeep* alerting louisiana coastal areas to evacuate from possible floodings and announcing new orleans in the ‘tornado watch’ zone, i knew ‘thank you very much, i’m outta here’. thanks to my panic attack, matt packed our most valuable belongings [the laptops, his pillow and my cosmetics.. *duh*] and we left.
weather was bad, it was stormy..
but it did not take us too long to go to poplarville, where kenny and lindsey welcomed us warmly. we stayed by them for the weekend.
on sunday we passed by mike’s again to say goodbye.. as i am leaving on thursday. 
charmaine and me, looking at our pictures
certainly nothing happened to new orleans [and especially not to our apartment, as we are on high grounds], but now i finally understand the hurricane threat for the city. the fact that even ike, who passed 250 km south of us, had caused a storm surge [the wave created by the wind] of 4 meters and jeopardized the weak levees to break [it’s not likely, but possible] proves that a hurricane like katrina coming towards us, and pushing even more water against the levees, floods the city within minutes.
ike made me appreciate even more that gustav had missed new orleans.
