OT - our friends down south

I too have been riveted to the news of the two storms, Gustav and Hanna. I have family in Ocala and Tallahassee, Florida as well as Houston, Texas. But I have friends (my other family) in those states as well as Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who will be impacted by these storms, whatever the degree. I hope you are safe and sound by now or safely on your way out of the destructive paths.

Several people from the yahoo! group I belong to for Knifty Knitters have evacuated.

G> I've just been reading about Hurricane Gustav. =A0This bad boy is going t= o be

We're watching over here, too. They started regular broadcasts about Gustav yesterday. Just hoping it won't be as bad as they are fearing. . In message , "Karen, Queen of Squishies" writes

Amen, Karen.

I just can't believe that the people that live in the potentially affected area could possibly have to deal with another devastating hurricane. I saw in the paper today that hundreds of thousands are evacuating the area. How heartbreaking! Imagine if you had just gotten back on your feet after Katrina! I hope it dies out before it hits.

Pauline Northern California

Me too.....I just want it to fizzle like a balloon with the air all let out. Pffffffttttt....all gone! There has been too much misery for some of those people in that area to bear.

Gustav is making the news here in Australia too. We are thinking of everyone who has to go through this all over again. Hugs and Rainbows to you all

Heather in West Oz

Prayers for all to be safe. Michele from Ohio

mxuk.321918$yE1.234136@attbi_s21...

Ditto from me too! Hugs Bronnie

Howdy!

We're ready, in Texas, for the evacuees.

Best wishes, all of you. And when the govt. says, Get out!, please, do.

R/Sandy

We are hearing about this storm in Canada also ,My daughter was in Texas on vacation and high tailed it home two days ago .My prayers are with you ,hopefully everyone evacuated , Hazel

Happy, happy morning to you all. Mississippi's still getting some powerful winds and rain but we have been spared any damage. Thank you so very much for your prayers and concern. Now we have our friends over on the east coast to hold close, Hurricane Hannah is not far away from them. Polly

We are hearing about this storm in Canada also ,My daughter was in Texas on vacation and high tailed it home two days ago .My prayers are with you ,hopefully everyone evacuated , Hazel

Can we count all this extra worry as aerobic activity in our exercise diaries? I'm getting a workout! Seems to be working so for....for my friends...not for my figure. Is O a figure???

I have been tracking the storm using the web. This is one of the best storm tracking tools I've seen so far. If you google "global storm tracker" it should come up as the first search result. You can zoom in to see one storm or zoom out to see both Gustav and Hanna. There are buttons at the top left that you can click to get to all the active storms.

AliceW in NJ

My daughter was in Jamaica for a wedding when Gustav hit there. Her hotel was one of those built to withstand strong winds so many others were evacuted there. She said that it was so crowded and they were so bored that they had taken to drinking hurricanes and betting on kids playing musical chairs.

Ironic, but I was in south Florida when Katrina hit there before New Orleans.

Linda PATCHogue, NY

That's quite a mental picture Linda! A bunch of "potted" evacuees betting on chairs....hehehehe. Love it!

It's good to hear that you're okay, Polly -- the news reports have been frightening. I hope Hannah decides to peter out before she hits the coast.

Thanks for the update Polly - so glad to hear you're wet, but safe. I'm still waiting to hear from our friends near Bay St. Louis, and am keeping all those who might be affected in my prayers.