The evacuation begins in earnest. There are only 6 roads that you can take to get out of New Orleans. There are two lanes on the Causeway, two on I10 west, two more on I10 east, two on US 61 (with traffic lights), two on US 90 east, two on US90 west. A total of twelve lanes isn't enough to move four hundred thousand cars in just two days. It would be fine if they just sped along but stuff happens.  So contraflow was invented.

Contraflow is the situation in which the incoming lanes of the major highways are reversed to speed the evacuation of the population. The map below shows how New Orleans was evacuated.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin urged residents in low-lying areas to evacuate. This is a fairly routine event when a storm is in the central gulf. Mayor Nagin had a history having called for evacuation of the city the year before when Ivan threated . His call then was one of caution as forecasters were predicting that Ivan would veer to the east. He observed then that for New Orleans to be spared that too many factors were going to have to go just right. Ivan veered and hit Mississippi. So he had cried "Wolf" once and may have lost some credibility.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency and ordered a mandatory evacuation of Hancock Co

We had plans to meet some friends for dinner on the northshore. It was going to be our first visit to Sal & Judy’s. We still haven't been there.

It was a good opportunity to get out of town before the rush, so I got the family in motion, boarded up the house, packed few things, picked up my mother and sealed her house and made plans for us all (6 people, 4 cars and a cat) to spend the night at my sister's house in Slidell. I figured that even though Slidell wouldn't be safe, that it was a better starting point for evacuation than my house on the westbank. I remembered Ivan and wanted to be away from the traffic in the city if an evacuation order was issued Sunday.

It still seemed likely to me that the storm would veer east. I don't use mathematical models to make these judgments I just watch the Weather Channel and try to guess what city the lead crew is being assigned to cover. As we watched Saturday night, Jim Cantore was moved from Panama City west to Gulfport. We decided to leave Slidell at first light and head north to Jackson, Mississippi where we would meet up with other relatives. My sister and her husband took my mother and headed for Houston.