But . . .it's El Paso. :p

Hey Hey Hey, watch it now!

But you're right! lol

El Paso city
 

Well, you do have your very own Marty Robbins song!

Alright, we're moving 300,000,000 people in.. ready?

Giggle. That was my thought.

FWIW- my 94 year old great-aunt has lived in EP her whole life. She has not a single living relative in EP anymore, but no one can convince her to move. She thinks it is the best place on earth and loves the brown mountains!

So.. we all take turns flying in from all corners of the country to check on her and keep her company periodically. Nothing like a nice "vacation" to El Paso! (but the food is good...)

I lived in El Paso from the age of 1 til I was 6! I could speak fluent Spanish, not even kidding. I've also lived in Buffalo, NY...so I've lived in the desert, the snow, AND the beach. It's awesome =)

Excellent suggestion. But shhhh!

Maybe but I don't want to have to navigate a mountain road in an ice storm. How about Southwest Virginia? Roanoke is lovely. Its location in a valley shields you from most of the really bad weather.

I like growing up in Birmingham because I could sit in my bed and night and watch the lightning and thunderstorms roll in (my windows faced west) and we didn't get horrible weather in the winter. You would get the yucky winter rain and maybe an occasional freezing rain storm but once it got into the Carolinas it was a few inches of ice. No thank you. I'll take a light freezing rain and power to ice on the trees and power lines and no power for a few days.

maybe we'll finally get a Six Flags!! lol


As much as I want to move away, El Paso has a certain charm about it. It's like our own little bubble in the desert.

A friend of mine is in law school in New Orleans, and she just sent a myspace bulletin that said that the school was going to be closed for tomorrow (and maybe longer) and that there is a mandatory evacuation.

I'm not sure if the whole city is evacuating, or if it was just the school.

New Orleans is ready to evacuate and they are doing a lot more than they did with Katrina. They have said there will be NO shelters within the city and they have a whole program to get people out who need assistance, don't have transportation, etc. They have moved food and water into Louisiana already. Seems like they did, indeed, learn from their mistakes so hopefully, even if the levees don't hold, there won't be loss of life. I read an article trying to analyze whether the levees are ready for this and the gist of was that they are NOT ready.

ETA: Some evacuations are actually beginning. This website has details: http://www.nola.com/

I'm in the process of evacuating as we speak, I live in Southwest Louisiana less than 50 miles from the gulf. I'm headed out to Austin, Texas bright and early, well actually it'll be dark, but ya know.

Good luck!! Being to the east, I am extremely concerned with tornadoes and such. Our home is about 100 feet from the water, and we are building right next door. Luckily all that is finished is the foundation and first floor concrete.

Good luck - hope you escape it all in Austin (sometimes they get rain and/or tornadoes. Yikes!)

My father is going to be grand-pooba in charge of the Elks special needs camp if it looks like it will once again serve as a shelter - so he will certainly be going there. I'm not as keen to leave quite yet - we'll see.

ive been through one, it was quite a living hell, an experience i do not wish upon anyone, certainly not one im trying again.

You'll be in our thoughts! Let us know how things turn out when you can.

Oh yes - this isn't my first rodeo. If it is a category 3 or above, and coming in at Galveston, it might be in my best interest to head north. Category 1 or 2 - I should be okay. I'm northwest of the coast, and we usually don't get more than a bunch of rain and some rough winds. Again, I'm tracking the storm - you are right, Nate - it's no fun.:(

I'm heading down to the bay in the morning with my 16 year old in tow to put up the ply-wood at my dad's house. He'll make the decision whether to evac yet or not. Hopefully it won't be needed if the thing goes east of him, which, right now, looks to be the case.

I hate hoping it hits somewhere else, it makes me feel guilty!! Prayers for all...

After reading all these posts, I may just decide to stay in Chicago instead of moving somewhere south for the warmer weather (North or South Carolina probably, we have also considered West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee). A couple of years ago we almost bought a home in San Antonio which is my very favorite city. I think I'd like El Paso too because I just love Texas.

Anyhow, Chicago is not too bad, weather-wise. The fall and spring is fine. The summers have been hot & nasty. As long as we don't get too much snow, its ok in the winter. But we don't have floods or hurricanes, and tornadoes visit but don't touch down around here. You guys are scaring me. I can't imagine having to evacuate. I hope nobody has to.

Aunt in Port Arthur is evacuating to Georgetown tomorrow. They were hit hard by Rita and out of their house for about one month. Katrina did some damage too, so they are not taking any chances.

In my completely unscientific opinion;) it's probably going to hit around the "Golden Triangle" area - Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange. If so, your Aunt is wise to evac. I've been watching the weather channels, and the determining factor may be what's left of the high that is over the great lake area now. If it moves south, it will push it into Texas, if not, it will probably bend toward the LA, Miss, maybe Fla panhandle area.

Like I said, prayers to all. That's the crapshoot of Gulf hurricanes, once they get into the Gulf, they can get shoved anywhere and it's hard to predict where, so everybody has to prepare for it, which can be a huge pain in the butt!!! It gets like the story of the boy who cried wolf. Eventually, you kind of get numb to it...

it can come here...as long as it downgrades itself to a cat 2 =). i'll take one for the team.

Better here than New Orleans and Mississippi . . . those people have been through enough. But I'd like it to drop to category 2, please.

I am so glad they are allowing pets to accompany their owners this time. I know there is no way in hell I would leave my cats behind.

I have to say growing up in San Antonio I felt pretty safe, there were a couple of tornado threats but they never touched down. I feel the same way living here in Austin. I can't imagine living on the coast and fearing hurricane season every year. But I am most terrified of earthquakes and would never think about living in California.

and the people in southwest la haven't? no offense to anyone in new orleans but we've been through hell too.

Are you outta there now?

we are under a tropical storm warning and a lot of heavy thunderstorm cells are starting to roll in...i think i'm about to high tail it back to tally soon...

I'm sorry - didn't mean to leave you out. ALL the Gulf Coast residents hit by Katrina and Rita - which also includes part of Texas - deserve a break.

Relatives are safe and out of harm's way, but I'm still following the path
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphi...143912W_sm.gif

Yes, I just rolled into Austin within the hour.

Thank you.

Nate, I'm glad you're safe.

I topped off my gas tank tonight while it was still at $3.58. I wanted to make sure that I won't need to buy gas again until the weekend.

My sister just made it back to college after the end of Fay...now she's in the line of Gustav in TX :( Poor thing.

I'm concerned for anyone in its path, and hope I don't land in it's wake.
I am supposed to land in Houston mid week, of all times to get scheduled for a job interview. I may miss a hurricane, but know there may be heavy rains to follow, and have been obsessively watching CNN, Weather channel, tracking the storm. I turned to the Law and Order marathon, just hoping the hurrixane will just head out to sea and stay there, knowing that isn't going to happen.

I just missed the last big hurricane to hit Hawaii, being on one of the last flights allowed out, got home, took a nap, woke up to see news reports of the damage and just thought OMG.

You just missed 'Iniki? That was a horrible time. Our house had some damage, but nothing like what those on Kauai went through. :(

We've been lucky to dodge some bullets since.

Mandatory evacuations for Port Arthur and Beaumont Texas. Luckily Gustav was downgraded to a Catagory 2 earlier this morning, as it lost steam as it headed to NOLA

Water is topping the levies in NOLA because of the storm surge. NO breaks in the levies, but there are loose vessels and tanks in the water that are hitting the levies, they are worried that these might cause the levies to break. The coast guard is going to try to round them up. Geesh!

Please don't let it happen again!!

My husband still shudders when he talks about 'Iniki.

Lots of love to my friend who's a Coastie in NOLA. He's on a maintenance crew for S&R helicopters. They worked something like three straight weeks after Katrina. I hope his services are not needed this time around.

yes, it was Inki...
friends and I had been to Maui, then Kauai. missed 1 flight, I sat in Honolulu airport in a sundress, with a sunburn, for hours. caught a cold, got home and then woke up to what we missed.

Today, I am tracking the hurricane between Closer episodes. Airline still doesn't know what's up with the flight, as it's mid-week, and stateside people are off. I heard a report they were evacuating cows in Texas to higher ground, but I can't get a coherent person on the phone. I am supposed to go to a bar-b-que, but have become glued to the TV. I need to go, and get out of the house.

Here in Houston we have lots of LA plates - seen a couple of Beaumont/Port Arthur dealership license frames.

Winds are picking up, but no rain. I'm worried about my aunt in Lafayette - we thought we had her cell #, but it doesn't work. I hope she is in Memphis with her son-in-law - and that there are no tornadoes.

Hannah looks like she is going to go up the Atlantic coast - whew.