Hurricane Gustav
 

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Once again, a strong hurricane is entering the Gulf, and it seems to be heading towards Louisiana. It's Category 4 going into the Gulf, and is expected to strengthen.

Landfall is projected to be on Monday.

The mayor of New Orleans has issued a mandatory evacuation.

Not a whole lot I can articulate this early in the morning, I just am hoping that it weakens instead of strengthens.

Maybe we should stop rebuilding a city inside a soup bowl surrounded by soup. I understand that there is a lot of culture and history and whatnot, but if they have to evacuate every time a hurricane comes, and what with the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina, it doesn't seem sane to keep rebuilding it. I hope the hurricane doesn't hit or weakens or something, but still.

Well, in all the history of New Orleans, it really hasn't been hit hard by hurricanes until the past few years. Not with this amount of devistation. It was hit by Betsy back in 65, and wasn't severly flooded like in Katrina.

The problem is that New Orleans is literally sinking below sea level (subsidence is a bitch).

And global warming - if it exists anyway - certainly isn't helping.

Let's just turn New Orleans into an underwater domed city.

I'm sure the bubble shield will hold off the hurricane and/or hundreds of pounds of underwater/elevation pressure for all of five minutes.

I was kinda hoping to keep this discussion serious. It just seems, to me at least, a bit tasteless to be joking about it at this point.

85 deaths have already been attributed to this storm, from Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.

There's also talk of postponing the Republican National Convention, because to hold a big party while massive devistation is happening in the Gulf Coast probably wouldn't sway them any favor in the eyes of the public.

Atleast they're letting the people leave with their pets this time.

Fair enough. Sorry.

However, I have a question. How are the evacuations going this time around?

It hasn't become mandatory yet. It will be mandatory at 8 AM this morning, and officials have urged people to start leaving sooner. It's estimated 1 million people have already fled the Gulf area (source).