Am sitting in my (still) Katrina-damaged home thinking to myself: “Can we go through this again?” As of this writing, Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to strengthen and hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast east of New Orleans, which means our city will be be on the bad side of the storm, getting the most wind and rain. We went through almost exactly the same scenario almost seven years ago with Katrina. If you’re like me, the edginess and anxiety is encroaching rapidly. Of course, if you live in our area, every hurricane season brings with it the same fears, buried underneath the usual denials that “it isn’t going to hit; it will turn” and blah, blah, blah. Always, always wishful thinking.
All of our local weather pundits are feeding the anxiety (hurricanes a’comin’ always make for great news potential), by bringing us half-hour reports. We’re thinking about how many batteries we have in the house, bottled water, prescriptions, canned food, ice. Where we’ll go if we’re called on to evacuate. Where will our kids go (luckily they’re old enough to drive)? OffBeat employees? Friends and family? So far, no calls from the city to bail.
The September issue is set to come back on Thursday, and we’re preparing, as usual. We have no choice.
The not knowing what will happen in the next few days is the worst. The days of hoping for the best and blissfully going through the motions and not worrying about it are long gone (those were the Pre-Katrina days). Every time there’s a track of a hurricane that’s headed our way, I sort of quietly freak out.
I’m sure there are a lot of my fellow New Orleanians and Gulf Coast residents are in the same boat as me. No pun intended.
Cross your fingers.