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The long haul
August 30, 2008The streets are getting emptier by the minute. The streetcars stopped running at noon. Coffee shops, restaurants and other businesses have shuttered their windows and locked the doors. The National Guard has set up camp at the Winn-Dixie supermarket just a few blocks from my apartment.
But many New Orleanians are determined to stay. The lines at one of the only open grocery stores were packed with people buying case after case of beer and bottles of liquor. And another neighbor at this ritzy swanky house has a port-a-potty sitting in his driveway, I'm assuming for use if all the utilities and water are cut off.
There's literally no place to buy gas anymore in the city. The pumps all have bags on them. Luckily, I filled my tank up two days ago, in preparation for potentially leaving.
Two of my neighbors have declared they're in it for the long haul. The guy across the street lives in a two story house and has two generators, so he thinks he'll be fine. My next door neighbor also says she's not going anywhere unless it reaches Katrina-like proportions. She stayed up until the very last minute three years ago, so she knows exactly what to do if she has to quickly evacuate.
I asked her if she had a gun. It's not normally a question I'd ask someone I'd only known through two very brief "howdy, neighbor" conversations since I moved in a week ago.
No gun, she said, but her football-playing high school senior son has a baseball bat.
"I just hate to leave because that'd mean no one was left on our block," she said, telling me about all the other neighbors that had packed and left town. "Someone's gotta watch out for us."
There is an eerie sense that a wave of lawlessness is about to wash over the city in addition to Gustav. News reports say that the city has amped up police presence in anticipation for any looting that may take place before and after the hurricane hits. And of course, there's the National Guard here as well. But already there's just so many vacant houses just begging to be broken into.
Which brings me to my decision. I think I'm leaving. And I don't feel like a chicken one bit for doing it. I just realized that it's not just the hurricane that could cause damage here.
And, as my Papa pointed out on the phone just a little while ago, I left my gun in Texas.
Posted by Lara Richards at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
