A Sigh Of Relief

Denver, CO

Relatively good news yesterday: Hurricane Gustav dealt New Orleans only a glancing blow, with minimal flooding reported in the Ninth Ward, Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes. It is yet another setback to a city that recently marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but the general consensus seems to be that it could have been much worse. Over 2 million people evacuated coastal Louisiana in the hurricane's path, proving that despite a number of problems that remain with the levees, many of the issues of Katrina have been rectified. Meanwhile, out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Hanna and Tropical Storm Ike are beginning to intensify. It appears that Hanna will travel up the Eastern Seaboard, striking somewhere between Florida and South Carolina sometime this week. As Jimmy Buffett sang, "Tryin' to reason with hurricane season..."

The question now for me is where my team will be deployed. I was supposed to head down to Biloxi, MS on Wednesday, but there were reports of flooding in that area so at the moment, it's unclear where we will be. It is possible that we will be sent to the New Orleans area again, or possibly Baton Rouge or Lafayette, both of which took the brunt of Gustav's wind and rain. Meetings and conference calls are taking place as I speak, as the Denver campus tries to figure out what it will do with the 17 teams slated for Gulf Projects. So at the moment I sit here, unsure of our destination or job assignment. That's the nature of the job, I suppose.