Your Hurricane Weather forecast with Local Weather Girl Ashley.

Ashley has been keeping me posted about the upcoming Hurricane Gustav. She said it won't be bad. Let's hope so. The last Hurricane that was bad for us was Katrina. I was working at LSU Health Science center in Monroe (known as E.A. Conway hospital). Our main computer was located in the basement of the charity hospital in New Orleans. Needless to say we lost our computer system for around 6 months, had to get organized for the extended downtime, & got tons of evacuee patients from down south. It wasn't fun, but you know me I love a challenge. The only time I got kind of scared was when we couldn't find gas all the way through Memphis as we were traveling to my parents house near Nashville. We also didn't take cash b/c we always use a bank card which was a tragedy in itself. No one could take a bank card b/c the phone lines were down so we couldn't buy the kids food through Memphis. Jarrett was a baby and we couldn't find ice for the ice chest to keep his formula cold. You could just see the love from strangers everywhere for us b/c we were from Louisiana. A friendly store clerk hand bagged some ice for our cooler and wouldn't charge us. Another friendly guy offered to buy our supper at a Burger King b/c we couldn't find anyone to take the bank card for food. (We didn't take him up on his offer though b/c this trip was our choice.) This was an adventure I bet the kids never forget. I think we even had to stand up at my parents church so they could pray for us since everyone thought we were evacuees. We just so happened to have a trip planned to see my parents that weekend. We didn't have to go, but I was going going through a period where I missed them tremendously and I haddddd to make that trip. (Yes Mom I still miss you all tremendously, but I can handle it better now for some reason.) I took lots of pictures of the no gas signs, the traffic, and all of the out of gas vehicles on the way. We even counted the number of cars on the side of the road. It was more than I've every seen in my life. I tried hard to keep my kids from getting nervous about the situation. I only stressed where they could see me when we couldn't find gas and our gas light had come on.
As for this hurricase season...
I am a departmental supervisor in the lab at a different hospital in the same area. I'm not sure where our computer system is stationed. I could only hope and pray that it is up north somewhere. We'll see. Please help me pray for this hurricane to somehow not be bad on anyone. I won't pray for it to turn b/c that will be praying for it to hit someone else. Please pray that the levees in New Orleans hold up this time and their are no lost lives.
Please pray for Coleman and his family as they travel back to Iowa for his chemo to continue for the next month until he can have the other type of treatment. Please pray for Joseph's family as they mourn.
Brandi

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