You can head back to N.O. tomorrow ... Ivan has hooked Mobile Bay or Pensacola http://hurricane.terrapin.com/ATL-09A/track.html Have a look
To get across the causway it took over 3 hours for some people. 9 hour trip from New Orleans to dallas I heard. I thought they were fixing the hurricane route so problems like this didnt happen? This is just a mess.
Not sure how you solve it. Most people from NO are heading north or west. Add all the people from Florida, Alabama and Mississippi who chose to head west, and you have major traffic jams all over the place, especially heading west on 1-12 and 1-10. Most of the traffic routes out of NO have all 4 lanes heading out of the city. I'm sure they'll be lots of discussion about this after Ivan is long gone...
Thankfully I live in Zachary and work downtown on the north end of town so that I do not have to deal with all the traffic around the bridge and the southern half of town.
After seeingthe gridlock Tuesday afternoon, we decided to wait until midnight to leave, thinking the rush might be down, and at night it would not be so hot. It took us 2.5 hours to cross the spillway bridge to the LaPlace exits. The radio was full of reports of evacuees stating it was 7 hours from NOLA to BR. My wife is 2.5 weeks from having a baby and couldn't sit through that all the way to BR, so we turned around and came back home.
Ellis, you might try leaving at the last minute. We had a similar experience trying to drive from Orlando to BR for the OSU game while all of south florida was evacuating because of Frances. the highways were clogged for 300 miles for a solid day and night, and then it cleared. And I mean nobody was on the road. my only other advice: don't drive home with 2 dogs (no hotels!) straight through the storm because you want to beat traffic. that was a bad idea. :lsug: :champs: lefire:
Ellis- I just went home for lunch... I-12 in BR is empty! It looks like Sunday morning right now. Just wanted to keep you up to date.
Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll sit tight now. I've got my wife in a safe place now - a friend runs the Loyola University food service and took in a few friends. They have plenty of food and generators if the power goes. Now that she is secure I feel better about staying home. I'd rather be here to protect my house. Now that the track of Ivan is more eastern I feel safe here. Thanks again for the tips.
Good to hear that you got her to a safe place and you feel secure. We'll be saying our prayers for all you guys anyway. Stay safe, and let us know how it goes. :lsug: :champs: lefire:
