No me Gustav: My first evacuation

It's been a pretty eventful week since I last posted. The potential evacuation for Hurricane Gustav that we were all talking about on Friday morning became a definite evacuation by Friday afternoon. As I was posting last time, I thought I may head out to Houston sometime on Sunday if it became necessary. After having lunch with some friends, we decided that leaving Saturday might be a better idea, and decided that we'd head to Tampa (a ten hour drive at least) sometime Saturday afternoon. As the evening wore on and I talked to more people, I found out that some of my friends were getting a beach house in Destin for a few days to wait out the storm. Destin is only four hours from here, and the thought of spending a couple of nights at the beach sounded like the best possible way to face a potential disaster. So, in the end, I left Saturday morning to head east. The drive wasn't bad, there was some traffic getting over the bridge to Slidell, but the trip only ended up taking about 6 hours. Leaving early was a good choice,some in our group who left in the afternoon took 11 hours!
The next few days were kind of a blur. There were 16 of us staying in a house on the beach, drinking, sunbathing, and cooking up all the food that we had salvaged from our refrigerators. As much as we all wanted it to be a stress-free last minute vacation, there was definitely an undercurrent of anxiety as we kept our eye on Gustav. As of Sunday, the forecasts were looking pretty catastrophic, so we tried to keep it a pretty media-free day.
Monday was the anticipated day of landfall, and we all watched with relief as the storm that was potentially a category 5 swept slightly west of New Orleans as a cat 2. The levees that were still very questionable held, and the city was spared too much damage. It looked like we would have a home to come back to.
We were able to relax more the next few days, as we waited to here when we would be allowed back in the city. We only had the house until Wednesday, but since it wasn't clear if the city was open yet (and it was pretty clear that no one would have power), we stayed a night up in Pensacola at a classmate's condo. On Thursday, after everyone had the all clear to come back, we all took of, eager to finally be home. Traffic was surprisingly light, and the city was in relatively good shape. My apartment, along with others, still didn't have power, so we dispersed to stay with those who did. My power came back on yesterday, and things are starting to get back to normal. Restaurants are open (as are bars, of course) and the grocery stores are crazy. The Saints are playing their opening game at the Dome tomorrow, as scheduled. We start back to school on Monday.
With everything that happened in the last week, I think I may love my class even more, if that's possible. The way everyone came together, and found the best in what could have been a horrible situation really showed how much of a family we've become in the last 2 years. Hopefully we'll all have an uneventful rest of the hurricane season, the city definitely needs it. We're all keeping a watchful eye on Ike, as it starts to head toward the gulf. As for now, though, we'll sit back, relax, and cheer for the Saints tomorrow!