Helloooooo hurricanes

Well, as you know, Hurricane Gustav hit Baton Rouge last week. We left a day early to avoid it but wound up sitting in evacuation traffic for three days. No biggie - We felt incredibly grateful to get home to our air conditioned home with running water. Plus, Mark booked a few hotels along the way so we were guaranteed a night's stay at each stop. There were plenty of people who weren't so lucky. We took one picture of the highway on the way - You can see the cars piled bumper to bumper on our side (going north) and no one coming south. It was really weird! That and seeing the cars - filled with people and bags and PETS. We made several pit stops along the way and saw people with 3 or 4 dogs apiece! Anyway, it was surreal.

Thank you to everyone who has inquired about my folks. They are doing great. Even though my dad laughed at himself when he did it, he bought a generator after Hurricane Katrina. At the time he said "I'm sure I'll never need this but I feel much better having it on hand!" And now it has come in extremely handy! It gives AC to the kitchen and guest bedroom and they have lights on in the rest of the house. They can also use their washer and dryer. They have enough oil to last a week to ten days which is great because it doesn't look like they'll get power back for at least a week. That is... unless Hurricane Ike hits them on Friday....

They'll have to replace their fence (it's been totaled by fallen trees) but that's a small price to pay considering their neighbor's house has a tree right through the center of it. They are extremely grateful.

My grandma is doing well and got power back pretty quickly because she lives right by Women's Hospital. Thank goodness! We're all a little worried about what will happen to her next year though when Women's Hospital moves. She has alwyas refused to leave her house.

Jack is in California and is doing well. He cleaned out his fridge before he left and moved all of his valuables just in case. As far as I know, everything is ok there. He's been busy with work but my folks have spoken to him once or twice.

That's all I know for now! Please keep Louisiana in your thoughts and prayers (and Texas and the Florida Keys...!) during this hurricane season. I've been promised awesome pictures whenever my folks get internet back up so I'll post those when I get them.