We are safe and out of Mobile, Alabama, and away from Hurricane Katrina. We left early Sunday morning and are now in Atlanta, Georgia. Right now, we have a WIFI connection but we’re not sure how long it will last.

Friends of ours and their families have evacuated from New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, but the news is not good. Many of them may be unable to return for weeks or months. We’re hoping that Mobile will be spared, though it’s encompassed in the hurricane at the east side, so we’re not sure when we will also return.

Winds have been measured with gusts over 200 mph and the storm surge (waves) are expected to exceed 20 feet. New Orleans and the rest of the area are ready to handle much less of an impact, so flooding, sand, mud, and massive damage is expected.

According to a CNN Article on Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans, the damage is expected to be so severe that many people will not be able to return home for weeks, maybe months. All windows are expected to be broken out, wood buildings possibly severely damaged or destroyed, with cement buildings also threatened by blowing debris and flooding – the damage is expected to be very severe, possibly the worst ever in recorded hurricane history.

We heard on NPR that many of the beautiful balconies in the French Quarter and Bourbon Street area are expected to be seriously damaged with flooding possibly even reaching the second floor or more from the storm surges. The anticipated results of Hurricane Katrina just don’t get better.

As for us, we got up at 4:30 in the morning today and finished the final preparations for leaving. The wood and a few patio furniture items are still covered with plastic and tied down securely from Hurricane Dennis. My vegetable and herb garden was pruned back and all the pots were tied down between a power pole and a huge three with a lattice work of rope hopefully keeping the heavy pots from blowing around. I cut an armful of basil and it is hanging in the bathroom to dry, filling the trailer with the smell of Italian cooking.

The roads out of Mobile were busier than usual for a Sunday early morning, but not heavy. We saw a lot of license plates and other RVs from Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, but this is normal on Interstate 10 and 65. As we drove through the rising heat of the day, we noticed the traffic getting lighter and lighter on the highway going in the opposite direction. So the huge convoy of military vehicles and another of electrical and utility repair crews heading south were easily spotted.

These are the people going into the storm to help protect the area and people as well as to immediately begin the repairs and restoration of the damaged area. They will wait at the very edge of the worst of the store, risking being a potential target if the storm twists their way, and then rush in within minutes of getting the all clear signal to assess the damage and begin the work.

We couldn’t pick up the Mobile NPR station, a normal event since the signal isn’t very powerful, but we could pick up the NPR station out of Mississippi and they were reporting that the early morning evacuation of the coastal areas was going fine – no traffic jams, though traffic was heavier than usual. They urged people to get out now while the traffic was light. Many complied. All the highways leading out of New Orleans were reverse flowed, so all lanes of traffic were heading out.

We had debated about heading towards Texas, wanting to stay on the west side of the storm, but Brent’s meeting Tuesday in Atlanta, and the predictions that the storm would wrap around Atlanta, urged us to choose there. I’m glad we did as Sunday morning, as all traffic out of New Orleans was forced north, east, and west, with Interstate 10 being all lanes east or west out of New Orleans. For one of the most traveled highways in the US – this is an amazing achievement as well as action. We couldn’t have crossed the state of Louisiana without driving way north if we wanted to, being forced to reverse our direction if we crossed Mississippi towards New Orleans. Atlanta became the confirmed destination.

A friend had loaned Brent Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October on CD. When there was no new news on the slow moving storm, we got lost in the military spy novel of the ruin of Communist Russia. I wish we’d had something more light hearted, but this is what we had with us. Teaches us to prepare better for the next hurricane. Did I just say that!!

Late last night, I told some friends from WordPress online that I was heading out in the morning. They kept telling me to get out now. I told them that we had to finish packing and cleaning things up. One young man said, “If it were my house, I’d leave it messy and go.”

I laughed and a few others who knew me better also laughed. He didn’t realize that we take our house with us when we go. My mother calls us turtles, “house on your back”, as our house goes with us when we travel. When we arrived at a campground in Atlanta, Brent phoned his brother-in-law to tell the family that we were safe and sound.

“I’m going to have some dinner then sit down and play some guitar. After all, I’m home.”

There is something to be said about taking your home with you when you go.

There is a lot I could say about the tension and stress we are under, debating to stay or evacuate from Mobile and Hurricane Katrina. And then I saw this from weather.com. They say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, this one is worth a single decision.

As we are preparing to evacuate Mobile, Alabama, we’re packing up and constantly pausing to check the news and we found an an article discussing a new Mobile County Emergency Management Agency evacuation map. It’s announcement came Friday, just before the National Hurricane Center announced the predicted path of Hurricane Katrina towards Mobile and the Gulf Coast.

The map divides the county into four zones, based on major highways, hoping it would make it easier for limiting evacuations for only those areas which need it. For instance, if there is a Category 1 or 2 storm, everyone in mobile homes and trailers, and everyone south of “Deakle Road; east of Bellingrath Road and south of Interstate 10; and north of Interstate 10 and east of U.S. 43″ must evacuate. Storm surges can bring high water and flooding inland and these areas are most at risk from high water.

On the old system, “In a Category 3 or higher storm…everyone north of I-10 and east of I-65, as well as people east of the Irvington-Bayou La Batre Highway and south of Half Mile Road, and south of I-10 and west of Potter Tract Road” would also be required to evaculate.

Two more zones in the country are added to the new map. These areas are divided on the east and west of Interstate 65 heading north.

Unfortunately, it may be next week before the new map is released. Oh, well.

While we will be watching closely, I spent long hours last night packing up the inside of the trailer and this morning we’re attacking the outside, replacing the hot water heater that is leaking and packing up to head out. Where? Where else?

Away from the hurricane.

Hurricane Katrina is now pretty much confirmed to be heading our way. It still might push over a little further to the east, which would be good, but the odds are that the push will push it over Mobile, Alabama, even more.

So we are getting ready to hook up our house and head out again. I’m voting for due west – Texas. Brent has other ideas. His other ideas took us right into the path of the storm when it followed us north to Memphis with Hurricane Dennis, so maybe I can convince him to move straight west this time.

Unfortunately, he was supposed to be in Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday for a conference meeting, but I think that’s now going to be postphoned.

So we’re debating but the odds look like we’re hitting the road again.

Yes, another hurricane is on its way. And wow, it’s almost the end of August and we are already into the “k” for hurricane names. Hurricane Katrina. That’s a lot of hurricane names used up this year.

Brent said, in that authoritative way he has, that they just keep going with the names at the end of the year, so if it was already December 31, “L” would be next. I corrected him, gently of course – you know how men are – that the names start alphabetically at the beginning of the hurricane season each year. It’s the weather experts way of providing a “count” by alphabet of each hurricane during the year.

“So we won’t have one named Zelda?”

“This year….with our luck, maybe.”

So Hurricane Katrina is now off the tip of Florida and heading “towards” us. The projects are that it will pass to the east, which is a good thing as the worst of the winds and weather are on the north and east. Unfortunately, the panhandle of Florida has been seriously smacked recently, so this is not a good thing for them. We’re just watching and waiting and wondering.

Right now, our plans are to stay here, but we are still ready to move with only a couple hours notice. We’ve been living packed up since the hurricane names hit “B” and it won’t take long to haul our home down the road. Again.