I heard that. And have been sending. Of course, it will take something more than that to teach my Mom how to realize that she has a text message and send one in reply.

Good question. One I realized from looking at the cross-sectional topography maps that our place is actually one of the higher elevation levels in the city since it is very close to the Mississippi River. So, if looters don't break into our home (a big if) and if the roof and windows weren't damaged, we should have a home to go back to.

The plan right now is to head to NJ, which is where I'm originally from and where my very large family still lives. My mom is 1 of 13 kids and we have lots of uncles, aunts, and such that are offering us a place to stay.

The questions I'm trying to determine is:

Does LSU Medical School want me to move to Baton Rouge and find a place to live there and are we going to be working there?

If LSU tells me, sorry we don't have a paying job for you right now, than I'll almost certainly head to NJ until it is safe to return to New Orleans (a few months?)

I imagine I will try to find a job at a clinic or something temporarily in NJ. I know my medical school desperately wanted to hire me as staff for their psychiatry department last year. Are they going to want me to work for 3 months? Doubtful.

Also, I'd have to get a temporary license and a permanent license to practice medicine in NJ (really just a matter of paperwork) as I've put off getting my NJ license for the past year or two. I've put that off because I figured I still had time to do so in case we ever wanted to move back to NJ (It has to be done within 10 years of graduating medical school or you have to take tests if you wait longer.)

If it is only going to be a month (which seems more doubtful) than I probably won't work as hard to make sure that I find a job.

I guess ultimately, there are just many questions still. Least I have a big family that wants to see me, and I also have a fairly good amount of money built up (we were saving for a target of 100k down on a home by June of next year.) So, we'll be able to pay for our food and whatever while we are up in NJ staying at my relatives (rather than just being leeches.)

However, I think I'm going to talk to Mrs. Eaglesfan in a bit and see about extending the room one more day, so that I can see if there is anything posted from the LSU Medical School conference tomorrow to make sure they don't want us to return to Baton Rouge or some other area.

I'd wait, EF. I'd say there is a pretty good chance you'll be heading to Baton Rouge.

On CNN.com:

Mini-version of gas hell around here right now. Lines are into the street at every station in town, price literally jumped 50 cents while I was in line, it's up 71 cents since 10 a.m. Adjacent county (Putnam) is out of gas, school officials are rumored to be trying to determine if they have enough on hand to run buses tomorrow or if they'll go ahead & shut down for the week. Reports of most stations being out in at least northern Bibb County as well (that's Macon area).

And the people in line? Well, let's just say I appeared to be one of the calmest & least agitated people trying to get gas. When I'm the voice of reason ... well, at that point you're probably pretty screwed.

I am sooooooo glad I tanked up on Sunday.

EF, I didn't realize LSU was the school you were offer a contract to?

I would personally stay one more night, and wait to see what happens. At least the lone bright spot is you get to be with your wife (which doesn't happen often, correct?) and family.

I am curious, how is the NO airport? Is that flooded or damaged? Are flights grounded?

Yeah, I work for LSU Medical School. I just extended the rooms for one more night (til Friday morning) so I can see what happens with the conference tomorrow. Hopefully, they post results of the conference and a plan tomorrow.

The NO Airport is reportedly in very good condition. It is open only for humanitarian flights such as evacuating medical emergencies or flying in supply/personel to help the region.


Edit: I was also offered a job as a professor at Tulane's Medical School and it was a very tough decision for a variety of reasons.

The rumor around my school is that we will be getting some students from Tulane and other schools damaged by the storm. It turns out we have quite a few openings in our dorm. That would be quite a drop off, going from Tulane to Delta State.

Sounds like your wife and yourself are very good at what you do, so at least you have plenty of options in terms of jobs.

I meant to fill up before I went to work Monday morning but forgot. Gas was at $2.50 at that point. When I got off of work eight hours later I filled up (luckily I was only down a 1/4 tank) at $2.53. Yesterday gas was up to $2.65. A couple of hours ago it was up to $2.79.

I'm really glad that I have a very short drive to work and that my car gets good mileage...

Roffle- I told my roommate Sunday night to go out and get gas, and to buy foreign based oil stock (those without Gulf of Mexico operations) - so far, fine on that end. That being said, I dont think the oil disruption will be that immense, as it appears- those rigs are built to withstand pretty much everything/

Good news is most of the Gulf oil equipment was not damaged badly. Problem is that the shore based stuff needs powere, and also the gas is being rationed.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/12524944.htm

First reports of gas outtages in central Georgia (the places they're talking about are 1+ hours south of me, but similarly located kinda away from the bigger cities of Atlanta & Macon).

I don't get paid till tommorow. I have about enough right to buy 1 gallon of gas. One vehicle is totally out of gas, and the other has a quarter of a tank. I'm screwed.

EF thanks for sharing. It's good to know you have a place to turn. It is also great to know you have a bit of a nest egg to live on (I wish I did). From your reading I determined that you weren't a home owner, I guess that's good news considering the trouble you'd have to go through with that right now.

I hope all your stuff stays safe

Opening up Public works program akin to the CCC of the 1930's should put them back to work.

I wouldnt doubt it. I wouldnt doubt the final overall too to be in the 4 if not 5 figure range. :(

I don't mean to sound insensitive but when Wolf Blizter was acting almost surprised that the mayor of New Orleans said maybe thouands were dead, I just wanted to dope lap him and say "no kidding".

SI

A grim assessment that I read on another board:

That's more along the lines of what I was thinking when I posed the question about rebuilding on a much smaller scale.

Even if/when you spend the money to rebuild the city, how many businesses just won't exist anymore. My brother in law works for a refrigeration supply company whose main competition is based in Wisconsin. There is a good chance that by the time they are able to be up and running, there won't be any clients left.

Multiply that by the thousands of small businesses in the area and you start to get a sense of it.

Saw that too. I cant believe someone who has been in the news busuness can act soo naive.

Thanks. Nope, I'm not a home owner. At worst, I lose about 10-15,000 dollars worth of stuff (plus some sentimental stuff that we just couldn't fit into the cars.)

He may be naive, but quite honestly, no one went into this thing looking for a Galveston-style body count. We just don't have huge numbers of casualties in hurricanes in this country anymore, so to start talking "thousands dead" is something that's a little challenging to get the mind around. Sure, intellectually, you can size up the deficiences and failures in New Orleans and come to a conclusion that hundreds or thousands died, but the actual acceptance of that is a little tougher to do, especially since, unlike 9/11, we could anticipate this disaster and still lost all those people.

I didn't see it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Wolf's reaction was done for effect.

I just emailed the person in charge of coordinating medical care on behalf of the state's disaster management response because I read on wwltv's website that they are looking for doctors (and an email address was given.) If they are willing to guarantee that an apartment will be available for rent that will house my family, or that another similar housing arrangement will be available to house my family (including pets) I'll head back to either Baton Rouge or one of the other medical staging areas to help treat patients.

I'm anxiously waiting for a reply (but realize it might take some time depending upon how many doctor's are writing her.)

Here is an interesting article from a UK paper:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...246049,00.html

For the click-challenged:

Not meaning to belittle any of the other expressions at all, but I thought this was particularly classy on their part.

Seems like the ''enlightened'' dutch and europeans try to spit on our face again. Lets see something big like this happen to their country.

Here's one thing I haven't heard yet: now that the water has reached equilibrium, I assume that the agenda would be (broadly speaking)...

1. fix the breaches in the levees
2. get the water out
3. assess rebuilding needs

My main question would be regarding #2. How long is it expected to take to get all that water out of the city? This isn't a normal flood scenario, where the waters eventually recede.

using the pumps they already have I guess? but i think it gets pumped into the lake which is obviously well above normal levels so I have no idea...

In terms of pictures, I've also been scouting through the flickr Hurricane Katrina pool of pictures, to see if there's any more information that can be gleaned from those pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/45871688@N00/

/tk

I've seen a Corps of Engineers estimate of 30 days once the levee is repaired.

Well, the Dutch do tend to be a very blunt people. It's part of their charm. And based on the diagrams of the city in the "New Orleans" threads, if the Duthcman is right and there are superior technologies available that could have prevented the breach of the levies (assuming it's not completely outrageous, and if the Netherlands can do it, I assume it's not), he has a point.

The Dutch don't have hurricanes. It's completely different then what their system is set-up to take

Huh? That's some selective reading there, chief. There is only a few of comments for criticism (and some hit right on the mark, honestly), but the majority of it is people actually saying they want to help. I don't know why, but it is nice to see.

Some of those pictures are from damage of Mississippi College which is about two and half hours inland. You can only imagine what the coast looks like. There is a report that one of the 4A high schools, D'Iberville, has completely vanished. Also, the MHSAA has cancelled all high school football games for the state.

I think the logistical problems behind building that gate between Lake Ponchartrain and the Gulf would seem to be quite significant. The Lake isn't right against the Gulf and it would seem there would be multiple problems in making that work. However, I certainly hope they come up with some plan that works to protect the city in the future.

And I don't know if it would work. As the water level in the Gulf rises as the hurricane approaches it could fill the Lake up and spill into the City that way

Is anyone else having trouble getting cell phone access? I use Cellular South and I really can not make any calls. I am not sure if anyone has been trying to call me. I am sure it has something do with maybe a tower or two being knocked down and overload the functioning towers.

From what I've read, the system is so complicated that a lot of things they do to help against hurricanes often have unexpected consequences. For example I read that a new hurricane baffle/bridge that was built across the canal that has now broken is too low for barges with construction cranes to get across, slowing the effort to seal the breach.

Plus the towers have to hook back into landlines at some point, so I'm sure that there are tons of substations that are still flooded or without power.

To anyone in Atlanta area: CNN is reporting that gas is as high as $4.99 and is strictly rationed because of a 10 day supply. can anyone confirm this?

I'm heading out the door of the office in a few moments. I'll pass several gas stations on the way home. I'll let you know the prices.

--Ben

Good god! If this moves up north I won't be able to drive to work

Call this the skeptic in me, but weren't gas prices on Sept 11, 2001 spiking like 75-100%? And within a few days they were back to a somewhat reasonable price. I am in the belief that our worries of a major 70's like oil crisis are way overblown and those who are buying the gas at $3/$4 a gallon are just being bullied by the gas stations.

My wife was driving home and saw 10+ car lines going out into the streets and highways at many gas stations in the Duluth and Norcross areas(NE Atlanta), but the highest price she saw was $3.27. Someone I know at work said that his wife saw gas nearing $5.00 on Memorial Drive near Stone Mountain. I don't know that area well though to point out an exacat location.

I would love to know how they can justify the hurricane spiking gas prices right now since the gas was obviously drilled and refined a while ago and certainly well before the hurricane.

it's just people making a buck