Hurricane Gustav

This blog post will be contantly updated as Hurricane Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast. Shelters and other pertinent information will be posted as radio coverage continues on WHJT 93.5 FM in the Jackson, Miss., area. Comments regarding conditions in the affected areas are welcome, and much appreciated as we try to provide information both online and on-air.

Sunday, 8/31/08 – 8:05pm

Today, I spoke to one of my good friends. She lives in Algiers, one of the Westbank communities that was spared the wrath of Katrina. She is in Houston tonight, praying for her home and her friends still in harm’s way. The phone conversation was emotion-filled. She said she wasn’t so much concerned about losing her property, she has most of her important items with her. She was concerned that Gustav would destroy New Orleans again… and for good. How many people would return to a city devestated twice in the past three years? Not many, she believes. Her family, her friends, her life is New Orleans. The thought of those people being dispersed all over the country, never to return to the city they once all called home… it is a lot to bear.

The future of one of America’s greatest cities will be decided tomorrow. For anyone who doesn’t call New Orleans home, you can’t grasp the magnitude. For me, New Orleans is Mardi Gras, gumbo, beignets, the most confusing streets in the world, music, and family. I can’t imagine somewhere so vast becoming a deserted ruin. Now, think of how the people who live there feel. Or, as of tomorrow, perhaps it will be, lived there. Home, gone. Again. The rebuilding, the rejuvination of the spirit that is New Orleans, battered by another deadly hurricane. How could it ever return?

As I reported all day on the air, I believe Gustav will restrengthen overnight. Strong hurricanes fluctuate in intensity, and the symmetry of the storm combined with ripe conditions means a upward trend. Katrina fluctuated downward, weakening upon landfall. Due to Gustav’s increased speed, this intensification I am predicting may be the last fluctuation before it hits the Gulf Coast. The path continues to show landfall near Houma, Louisiana, meaning the northeastern quadrant would strike New Orleans.

Here in Jackson, the forecast is for 40-60mph sustained winds, 3-5″ rain with locally heavier totals, and a high risk of tornadoes, again, due to being in the northeastern quadrant of the storm. The worst weather in Jackson should hold off until Monday night into Tuesday, and the severity will largely depend on how far west the storm travels.

Now, I’m about to pack my bags, preparing to call Clinton home for at least the next two days. That’s it for today. On-air coverage and live blogging resumes tomorrow morning.

Sunday, 8/31/08 – 1:56pm

Emergency Contacts

Mississippi Disaster Hotline (or to volunteer) – 211
Red Cross – 800-RED-CROSS
MDOT Evacuation Information – 866-521-6368

News

- President Bush has declared State of Emergency for Mississippi
- Contraflow in effect on I-55 to Brookhaven; I-59 to Poplarville
- President Bush and VP Cheney to skip Republican National Convention

NWS Watches/Warnings

- HURRICANE WARNING: Greater NOLA, including Slidell, Mandeville; Harrison, Hancock, Jackson Cos.; greater Mobile, Ala.

- INLAND HURRICANE WARNING: McComb, S Natchez

- INLAND TROPICAL STORM WATCH: Central MS, Jackson, Vicksburg

Shelters

- Mississippi Coliseum (State Buses Only)

- FBC Jackson, Downtown Campus

- Morrison Heights Baptist Church, Clinton

- Richland High School

- First Pentecostal Church, Jackson

- Broadmoor Baptist Church, Madison

- Highland Baptist Church, Crystal Springs

- Antioch MBC, Hazlehurst

- FBC Hazlehurst

- FBC Star

Special Needs Shelters

- FBC Jackson – Madison Campus

- Hudspeth Regional Center in Whitfield

- Hinds Community College, Raymond

Pet Friendly Shelters

- FBC Batesville

- Ridgeland High School

Supplies

- Home Depot in Clinton open 24 hours

Sunday, 8/31/08 – 1:29am

This story on www.wdsu.com, New Orleans’ Hearst affiliate, offers some quotes from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin as he faces the second deadly hurricane of his tenure. Highlights follow:

http://www.wdsu.com/news/17348786/detail.html

Nagin: “You need to be scared. You need to be concerned. You need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century. [...] Riding it out would be the biggest mistake you could make in your life.”

“Nagin warned that no emergency services will be available to residents who choose not to leave. He told residents who want to stay to make sure they have an ax, as they will be cutting through their roofs to get out of their flooded homes.”

“On Saturday, Gustav stretched 900 miles and continued to grow. In contrast, the footprint of Katrina was about 400 miles in diameter when it hit.”

Sunday, 8/31/08 – 12:59am

Three years ago, almost on the dot, I hopped between Pearl and Clinton, blogging about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. I guess I thought more time would pass before I’d be doing it again. Tonight, the images of 2005 returned. As I drove home from a great night with friends, I saw I-20 westbound toward Clinton and Vicksburg filled with cars, trucks, and trailers leaving their homes. A midnight rush hour that is likely only to get worse until landfall.

Hurricane Gustav has returned to the open waters, after cutting across the western end of Cuba as a strong Category 4 storm with winds of 150mph. It is now slightly weaker, with maximum sustained winds of 135mph, but should re-intensify over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters. Hurricane Watches are up from just east of Houston, Texas, to the Alabama/Florida line. Landfall is predicted to occur in the late afternoon or early evening on Monday.

Evacuations are underway along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. Mandantory evacuations kick in as the sun rises Sunday. Contraflow on the interstates will also begin at that time.

Tomorrow after church, I will be at Star 93.5 along with Traci Lee for special coverage of Hurricane Gustav. We will be tracking the storm path, and passing along pertinent information to evacuees looking for shelter. This blog will be updated throughout the day tomorrow as we continue to track the storm. Check back in frequently for updates. Just as with my Hurricane Katrina coverage in 2005, I encourage comments from people in the cities being affected to report on conditions. Of course, anyone is welcome to add to the discussion, whether in the path of the storm or not.

Here we go again. We can only pray for a better outcome this time around.

I Have a Dream…

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day across America. It seems to me that Americans have a hard time figuring out how to celebrate. Every year, ESPN televises two historically black colleges playing basketball, for example. It seems to me Dr. King’s dream had far more to do with your average everyday college basketball game: whites and blacks on the same team; whites and blacks cheering together in the stands; whites and blacks on the benches coaching. Too often, it seems, MLK Day is celebrated as an exclusively African American holiday. In truth, Dr. King’s dream is meant to be celebrated by all of us… together.

Last week on my radio show, I took a break from handing out funny, irrelvant Heroes of the Day, in order to honor Dr. King. I will repeat now what I said then. Most people know the title of the “I Have a Dream” speech, and nothing more. This is a shame. I would rather our nation’s schools meet on this Monday and read, watch, and discuss the speech (and of course, the banks would still be closed). It is one of the greatest speeches in American history. If you have never read the entire work, here it is below, as taken from http://www.mlkonline.net:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [Applause]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”