Eye of a Storm

Although the storm track keeps shifting with each revision, it looks like we will be slammed pretty hard by Katrina one way or the other. The weather here is wonderful today and Tulane is hurridly shuttling its new students through orientation even as a Category 3 hurricane with our name on it stirs out in the Gulf. The Giro ride had a medium-sized crowd today and I felt like riding hard, perhaps sensing that the next few days could be bad. On the way out on Chef Highway I dropped out of the rotation at the front and eased back for a little recovery time. By the time I had gotten back in, a little group had rolled off the front. The moderate headwind seemed to be enough to keep most of the riders in the pack from wanting to chase, so we arrived at the turnaround half a minute back. On the way back, I was uncomfortable with the slow pace, and so Woody and I did some work off the front, finally getting reeled in a couple of miles before the sprint on Chef. After the sprint the pack sat up again and three of us rolled off the front. As we came down Bullard toward the lake, the cellphones started ringing. I had three phone calls myself. The Mother, The Sister, etc. It seems Sister #1 left her dog at the vet while she went to Florida. Because of the hurricane, the vet is closing at 1 pm today and Sister#2 is supposed to pick up the Doberman (which BTW is quite neurotic). However, since her car got stolen and is in for repairs right now, I'm the only one with a vehicle that can handle the beast.

Cars are already lined up at the gas stations around here and some people are planning to evacuate. I expect we'll get a voluntary evacuation order around noon today. Don't know yet if I'll stay or go. As I'm writing this, I got an e-mail from Tulane:

In response to Hurricane Katrina’s shift to the west, Tulane University will close as of 5 p.m. today, August 27. Classes will resume on Thursday, September 1. Tulane employees should report to work on Wednesday, August 31.

So it will be a very busy couple of days, I think, and if we end up getting a direct hit by Katrina it will be far worse than just busy. It will be a bona fide disaster. Let's hope we can dodge this bullet.