Houston’s a good 6 hours West of NOLA (6 hours if you’re driving the speed limit, 4.5-5.0 hours if you drive like me) so we (thankfully) didn’t get anything from Katrina. Apparently, it rained pretty hard on Saturday night, but I don’t remember that at all. In fact, on Monday, the weather here was sunny, bright, and warm.

Yesterday, some colleagues from our sister office in New Orleans stopped by. They’d driven in on Saturday - three people with three cats - and have been camped out at a Motel 6 up in Spring.

One of the three was supposed to move to Philly on Thursday to be with his very, very sick mother. Now, no one’s allowed back in New Orleans….and even if they could get back in, there’s no gasoline in the city to fuel any moving vehicles.

Another of the three is an International student from Thailand, who had literally just moved into his ground-floor apartment in New Orleans when he was forced to evacuate. He had to leave all his belongings on the floor, still in boxes, which are now probably floating up Bourbon Street towards the Gulf of Mexico.

The third person arrived with her three cats, but had to leave her turtles behind.

• According to the NOLA 3, traffic on I-10 was bumper to bumper on Saturday, but it was worse on Sunday. The girl with the cats said a friend of hers left New Orleans at 9am….and arrived in Houston at MIDNIGHT. A 6 hour drive took 15 hours.
• Apparently, the Galleria Mall was crazy packed full of displaced New Orleans residents. One of the NOLA 3 described it as “shoulder to shoulder” crowds. (For those of you who’ve never been in the Houston Galleria, the place is literally bigger than most small towns). There were lots of Tulane University t-shirts, and they kept running into people they knew.
• Driving around town, I’m definitely noticing the sudden increase in Louisiana license plates. On my way to work, I drove next to a car from La - the windows were rolled down, and the car contained two parents and 3 kids. All were completely quiet, staring straight ahead, looking really, really grim. Can’t blame them.
• The hotels are overbooked. Everywhere. I heard on the radio some guy that owns a Matress Store up in Spring is offering his store to New Orleans residents who can’t find housing. He’s inviting people to sleep on his beds, and use his dining sets. No charge. That’s pretty cool.
• The Houston Comets is offering free admission to any LA/MI/AL residents for tonight’s game. Just show up at the Toyota Center, show a valid driver’s license from one of those states, and you’re in.
• The pictures on CNN/MSNBC/etc are horrifying. So are the ones at the Houston Chronicle.
• I’ve been following some New Orleans blogs, in particular http://www.dancingwithkatrina.blogspot.com/ . It’s maintained by two news reporters from LA and FL (I think) who have been holed up in a news building since Saturday.