Premature Evacuation

As luck would have it, I have a trip to Atlanta planned for the weekend to see my sister. Currently, my mom, E and I are planning to drive to ATL on Friday and come back home on Tuesday. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether driving back to the Gulf Coast will be possible come Tuesday, but at least perhaps we'll beat the evacuation rush out of town if Gustav continues heading this way.
I know, I know, we're still at least five days out from landfall, but I think Gustav has all of us feeling a bit jittery. It didn't occur to me until last night, when talking with my friend Curtis about how unsettled this has made me feel, that this is the first time we've even had to discuss evacuating ahead of a storm since Katrina.

So, the plan for now is that Mom, E and I will go on to Atlanta as planned, while K and my stepfather stay behind to batten down the hatches, if need be. This is the same way we evacuated for Katrina, with me, Mom and E leaving a day ahead of K and Nick, both of whom had planned to ride out the storm and both of whom quickly changed their minds when Katrina became the monster storm she did. K told me to write down a list of things that I'd want him to take with him if Gustav looks bad enough to necessitate him evacuating as well. Oh, how I love hurricane season.


I'm not as freaked out as I thought I'd be at the possibility of going through all of this again. If it happens, it happens. And after losing everything in Katrina, the thought of having our house fill up with water again doesn't really bother me. The thought of trying to explan to E why we can't go home bothers me, as she was only six months old last time we went through this and wasn't real concerned at the time. The thought of New Orleans and/or the MS Gulf Coast being dealt another severe blow really bothers me. Will it be possible for all of us to put the pieces back together if it happens again, so soon after Katrina?

For now, I guess I should decide whether I'm okay with just taking a four-day supply of summer clothes to Atlanta, or whether I want to throw in a few pairs of jeans and some sweaters, just in case I'm still there come November....