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Day 1102: Still In Birmingham [Updated]

D and I have decided to stay in Birmingham for another day since City Hall has decided, in its infinite wisdom, that we cannot enter Orleans Parish until Thursday.  Many of us think that they had better not keep us out for too long because this will keep people from leaving for the next hurricane evacuation.  St. Charles Parish will tentatively re-open tomorrow with Jefferson Parish’s Aaron Broussard hinting that Jefferson Parish will open sooner than later.  Those of us who have left wait for various press conferences which will tell us when we can go home.  What a pain.

ABCNews.com interviewed me yesterday on social media, such as blogs and Twitter, as an emergency tool.  I talked to them about predicting that Twitter would be terribly useful in a situation as we are in right now and also plugged Rising Tide.  Kristian Knutsen of Madison’s Isthmus newsweekly also spoke with me yesterday on the recovery from Katrina and the impact of Gustav and that interview is available here.

Seen In Birmingham

Last evening, we ran into Michael Dingler and a friend who had evacuated with him at a bar and grill not far from our hotel.  Other evacuees walked in and out of the restaurant and we talked with some of them, reassuring and eerie at the same time.

Alright, we’re off to make use of our added day in Birmingham with a visit to the Civil Rights Institute.  I’m still on Twitter, so look for updates there.  Hope we can all re-enter our homes quickly and safely.  I want to go home!

10:00PM – After much thought and three nights of staying in a hotel, D and I are heading back to New Orleans tomorrow (Wednesday).  We understand that, like St. Charles Parish officials warn, “primitive conditions” await us – we will be taking groceries and water back with us and will leave town for an area with power (for how can D and I live without AC and internet, respectively?) should it not come back on by Thursday.  If we are to believe what Shelley Midura and the rest of New Orleans City Council says, it may be “weeks before power is restored” and there is very little food and gasoline in Orleans Parish.  Let’s hope for the best.

3 comments… add one
  • Marco September 2, 2008, 7:03 PM

    Go NOLA!

  • liprap September 2, 2008, 8:54 PM

    We’ve been doing the museum thing ourselves. First the Cowboy Museum and today was the Science Museum, where there were some *ahem* interesting displays for the kiddies, the pictures of which I must still download to Flickr.

    What the hell ELSE is there to do?

  • Adrastos September 2, 2008, 10:52 PM

    We’re headed back on Thursday. Hope we still have power. Let’s talk when we’re both back. Hoping to open business for Saints game on Sunday if I have power.

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