Shokufeh is... home

On Watch

I've been checking regularly the progress of Ivan. In my lifetime, New Orleans has never had such a threat. Sure, there were times when it looked like a hurricane might hit, or deliver a glancing blow, but it was never such a massive storm system. We've gone through the taping of the windows, the stockpiling of the water, the loss of electricity, the picking up of branches. But I don't ever recall the mayor making the statements that were made today, with such seriousness suggesting that people leave town. My family's never given such consideration to evacuating. I've never contemplated what I would want saved in the event that our life's accumulations were left behind. I've never wondered if New Orleans would even survive a Category 5 hurricane - what if the levees that allow its existence can't withstand the storm surge?

It doesn't make me feel better that here in Hawaii, sitting in the middle of a different ocean, where hurricanes are on a different naming system, my hometown was mentioned on the local news. What I wouldn't do for a word of reassurance from Nash Roberts.