Day 154 - Meridian

We got out of the village late yesterday (saturday) and faced constant traffic on I-59N. Almost all cars had Louisiana plates and they drove as if they were in fear of their lives. At least people are taking this storm seriously.

We ran our people to Meridian in two convoys. The second didn't leave for almost two more hours after us. I called Joyce of Trinity Presbyterian Church about 30 miles out of Meridian and her husband gave us good directions to the church. I pulled my truck and trailer to a near-level spot in the parking lot, parked it and didn't both to set up a generator. I just opened the windows and hit the sack. Our second convoy ran into heavy traffic on I-59 and did not arrive until 4AM.

When I rose this morning, it was sunny and the lot is full of vehicles. I planned to attend the service at 10:30AM. I find that William DePrater, the Mississippi Presbytery exec is preaching and on top of that I find this is Bubba Martin's church! They tell me if he is here he is singing in the choir. Bubba Martin in Joe B Martin IV's uncle. JoeB is the minister at Northside PC in Chattanooga, my home church. Bubba's brother was governor of North Carolina, a very interesting family. Unfortunately Bubba is in South Carolina but they tell me he will be in about 4PM, maybe I'll see him then, there is a big dinner tonight cooked by Kevin, one of our people from Houma.

Kevin and his extended family came along with us. You have to see the faces to appreciate the gratitude they have to us. They live in Houma and the latest forecast indicates Houma will take an almost dead-on hit by Gustav. Kevin is going to fix us shrimp gumbo tonight, and that is enough to lure Bubba and anyone else in within the aromatic vicinity. I'll have more to say about Kevin in a subsequent entry. Kevin is expecting to lose everything to Gustav.

The National Hurricane Center is predicting a bad surge and Pearlington has a mandatory evacuation. One of our staff lives there, she may well lose everything also.

At the moment, there is a mandatory evacuation order by the governor for all people south of I-10 is Mississippi. I-59 is down to 1 lane due to an auto wreck. The governor has declared a 6PM to 6AM curfew for all of Hancock County and the National Guard is going house to house notifying people to evacuate. Tropical force winds are expected in Gulfport by midnight. We expect rain in Meridian later this afternoon. Both cloud cover and wind have picked up here.

I-55 and I-59 are now countercurrent flow (all four lanes moving north, no south traffic allowed.) I-10E was closed early this morning at the Alabama state line due to congestion around Mobile, they are moving people north on surface roads.

The Air Force is flying transports out of New Orleans. Buses drive to passenger pick up points, load people on, drive to the airport and up into the aircraft. The aircraft doors close and the plane takes off for Meridian, Jackson or another location. The planes return to New Orleans and repeat this shuttle.

The NHC reports that Gustav is accelerating, they have moved up the impact to tomorrow mid- to late morning. I just looked at the time-lapse satellite loop on the NHC web site, and its current speed is amazing to me. Although the intensity is fluctuating, they are still predicting a likely category 3 or category 4 storm at landfall and the expectation it may slow down on landfall creating torrential rain.

Pray for Hancock County. The geography of Bay Saint Louis, Waveland and the unincorporated western areas on the Pearl River such as Pearlington make or a dire situation in the face of warnings of a strong surge.

Driving around Meridian I see piles of sandbags stacked in many store fronts. We went to the Walmart for flashlights. The place is packed. The flashlight display is stripped. I hope we went far enough north.


I'm sitting in a Quizno's composing this entry, it is the only wifi hot spot I can find. My next entry may be post landfall.