Oh my.

Monday 6p

Dear All,

Apparently a Baton Rouge TV station was showing an old clip of the levees breaching during Katrina. Some national media outlets picked up on this and called it “live footage.” NOLA.com picked up on this and caused further panic. It seemed to us that some in the media were hoping to have something “major” to report. But the levees in New Orleans are holding. Never thought I’d say this but, “Go Corps!” Gustav is proving to be a “wind event.” Lots of tree limbs and power lines down in NOLA. You can check out what’s happening in our neighbourhood at www.broadmoorimprovement.com.

We still haven’t received an assessment from Lafayette which experienced very high winds. A school in Houma is completely gone, probably a tornado. A private levee in Plaquemines is breaching and threatening a subdivision which should be completely evacuated. We’re talking hundreds people (awful for them, yes) not thousands. More sensationalism.

Here on the North Shore we’re getting some gusts and rain but all is well. Eating chips and salsa. Hearing that power will be restored to much of New Orleans by tomorrow morning. School, etc. has been canceled until Monday to allow for a phased re-entry and clean up.

Thank you for all of your prayers, love, support and encouragement. You’ve sustained us mightily for these past three years. Please keep all of us, but especially the folks in the River Parishes and along the Mississippi Coast, in your prayers. We’re going to need to help those folks.

It’s a blessing to have such awesome friends! We’ve heard from people in the past few days whom we haven’t communicated with since Africa days.

Looking forward to a raucous Service of Thanksgiving with my congregation and our neighbourhood when they all drag back into town.

Prayers,

–The Reverend Jerry and Stacy Kramer, Church of the Annuncation, New Orleans

Lashing the southern Bahamas with 75-mph winds, Hanna grew into a Category 1 hurricane Monday afternoon, and with forecasters predicting a turn toward Georgia and South Carolina, Charleston and other coastal counties shifted into storm mode.

Forecasters said Monday that Hanna could make landfall Friday or Saturday somewhere between Florida and North Carolina, with the latest track taking the eye through Savannah.

Right behind Hanna was another storm system that forecasters say could develop into another threatening hurricane by midweek. Its name would be Ike.

“We are now at the height of hurricane season, and for those who have not done so already, it is time to gather supplies and review family emergency plans in order to be prepared,” said Cathy Haynes, Charleston County Emergency Preparedness Director.

Read it all.

Dear All,

We are in the worst of Gustav until about 12p – 1p. Thank you so much for prayers. And God be praised. Much, much better than we had feared. Moving from cautiously optimistic to optimistic. New Orleans will not see hurricane winds. Some 70mph gusts. But sustained 45mph only. Whipping up pretty good here on the North Shore but still have power.

About 100,000 people without power. Concern now tornadoes.

Dry air from Texas kept Gustav from exploding over the Gulf. The eye-wall is breaking up and approaching the coast as only a CAT 2. Sudden turn to the west, hugging the LA coast, good for New Orleans. Storm surge less than anticipated. The parishioner we are staying with insists that angels ripped Gustav apart overnight.

Word is that power workers will be out tonight restoring the downed lines, etc.

2,000,000 people evacuated. Less than 10,000 people left in New Orleans (50,000+ stayed behind during Katrina).NOPD found only 15 people on the streets yesterday. Handicapped/elderly/indigent all moved to safety. No arrests for looting. Pretty good for an area that is still very broken and knee deep in recovery. Biggest problem was slow traffic flow.

Please keep prayers coming. Pray especially for the folks directly on the LA and Mississippi coast where they’re getting hammered. We could possibly be home by tomorrow afternoon or thereabouts if things hold the same. Know of our prayers.

–The Reverend Jerry and Stacy Kramer, Church of the Annunciation, New Orleans

Ugh.

Sunday 5:30p

Dear All,

We had a $7 pork roast in the fridge which we didn’t want to go to waste (my frugal wife still has her first Communion money). So our family is finishing up a nice pre-evacuation dinner at home. It’s actually a lovely evening right now. A little sun, a little breeze with some gusts.

Awfully quiet outside! More than 1 million people have bugged out of the area in ample time. The National Guard are here and in place patrolling. Nice to have a new governor who doesn’t need adult supervision.

Besides the vastly improved government response, our church and Broadmoor neighbourhood have performed brilliantly. A lot of really amazing and talented people working together — with some hard earned experience under their belts — can make all the difference.

None of this would be possible without God’s grace and our many, many friends from all over. The emails and text messages (no calls please, need to keep the lines free) have been most encouraging. We’re especially grateful to all whose prayers and resources have helped us with the gas, supplies, etc. needed to evacuate.

Personally I’ve been near catatonic when it’s come to packing up. And now I’m having a hard time getting in the car and heading out. Neither Max the guinea pig (who still has terrible PTSD) nor I really want to leave.

Feeling a bit better, however, as the latest weather updates show a weaker Gustav staying a bit more west of us. All good news. I’m praying to be back on campus in a couple days or so. Maybe this will just be a good rehearsal and confidence builder. Last time I thought we’d be back in a few days we spent nearly two years in the parking lot! Whatever comes our way, God is good.

Sign-off blessings from New Orleans,

–The Reverend Jerry and Stacy Kramer serve at Church of the Annunciation, New Orleans

Check it out.

As forecasters warned Hurricane Gustav could hit Louisiana on Monday with devastating effect, officials pleaded with Gulf Coast residents to flee and Republicans said they’d abbreviate the opening day of their national convention.

As of 5 p.m. ET, the eye of the Category 3 storm was about 215 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said.

Hurricane-force winds could hit Louisiana’s southern coast by sunrise Monday, and the storm’s center could hit southwest of New Orleans by early Monday afternoon, CNN meteorologists said.

Read it all.

Ugh.

Dear All,

Today, on this third anniversary of Katrina, there was so much i wanted to share about the progress we’ve made thanks to our dear friends, the lessons we’ve learned along the way, and some really exciting plans for continued Kingdom building and renewal here in New Orleans. Instead, we’ve spent the day packing up the office and church, making sure our parishioners have made plans, and checking on the more vulnerable members of our Broadmoor community.

For the most part, folks are doing quite well. We’re miles ahead of where we were in terms of preparation for Katrina. Even the State appears to have its act together. No major news from our city, however, since “Our Mayor” lives in the Dallas area. All things considered, we’re looking really good at this point in the ballgame.

While an official evacuation has yet to be called, the highways going out of town are stacked up with crawling traffic. Our Annunciation/Broadmoor caravan intends to leave for Tennessee on Sunday morning. Stacy and the kids will bug out for Baton Rouge at some point on Saturday.

The Annunciation campus will close officially at 5p today, Friday, and re-open after the storm passes. We have not only Gustav to watch . . . but Hannah as well.
I’m signing off for now…and will begin blogging at http://annunciationbroadmoor.blogspot.com.

Prayers and Blessings from the Big Uneasy,

–(The Rev.) Jerry and Stacy Kramer serve at Church of the Annunciation, New Orleans, LA

National Guard troops stand ready, batteries and water bottles sold briskly, and one small-town mayor spent a sleepless night worrying. The New Orleans area watched as a storm marched across the Caribbean on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s third anniversary.

With forecasters warning that Gustav could strengthen and slam into the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane, a New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina’s devastating hit drew up evacuation plans.

“I’m panicking,” said Evelyn Fuselier of Chalmette, whose home was submerged in 14 feet of floodwater when Katrina hit. Fuselier said she’s been back in her home one year this month, and called watching Gustav swirl toward the Gulf of Mexico indescribable. “I keep thinking, ‘Did the Corps fix the levees?,”Is my house going to flood again?’ … ‘Am I going to have to go through all this again?'”

Taking no chances, city officials began preliminary planning to evacuate and lock down the city in hopes of avoiding the catastrophe that followed the 2005 storm. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to return home for the preparations. Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency to lay the groundwork for federal assistance, and put 3,000 National Guard troops on standby.

Read it all.

ARE YOU GAME?
You don’t play to win.

California-based artist and video-game designer John O’Neill has gone back to basics with an old-fashioned board game with a twist: It’s meant to shake up the preconceived notions of “winning” and “losing.” Paradice combines the strategic challenge of checkers or chess with a thoughtful new approach to competition. A favorite at eco-conscious festivals, Paradice is a game for two to four players who switch roles between Giver and Taker as the game progresses. In the end, the Giver wins by bringing all the “humans” on the board eye to eye. The game embodies the philosophy it teaches: The set is constructed of sustainably harvested wood and nontoxic dyes. Paradice also comes in an elegant version made from hand-poured resin.

— Liz Seymour, USAirways Magazine August 2008

Gustav swirled toward Cuba on Wednesday after triggering flooding and landslides that killed at least 22 people in the Caribbean. Its track pointed toward the U.S. Gulf coast, including Louisiana where Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc three years ago.

Oil prices jumped above US$119 a barrel as workers began to evacuate from the offshore rigs responsible for a quarter of U.S. crude production and much of America’s natural gas.

“We know it’s going to head into the Gulf. After that, we’re not sure where it’s heading,” said Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. “For that reason, everyone in Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm. At that point, we’re expecting it to be a Category 3 hurricane.”

Read it all.

Bungling engineers have been left red-faced after building a railway tunnel that’s too small for trains to actually fit through.

The costly mistake was only discovered when inspectors measured the finished tunnel in the Polish capital, Warsaw, and realised the roof was so low that no trains would get under it.

Rail bosses claim the mix-up happened because workers who were laying new tracks didn’t talk to the team that was building the tunnel.

Read it all.

One crazy day in our pediatric clinic saw me hand a young patient a urine sample container and tell im to fill it up in the bathroom. A few minutes later, he returned to my nurse’s station with an empty cup.

“I didn’t need that after all,” he said. “There was a toilet in there.”

–Linda Felkie in the September 2008 Reader’s Digest, page 84

“Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even when everyone is for it.”

–William Penn (1644-1718), also quoted by yours truly in this past Sunday’s sermon

Trying to do my share to help the environment, I set up a trash basket at my church and posted above it this suggestion: “Empty water bottles here.”

I should have been a little more specific, because when I went to check it out later, I didn’t find any bottles in it. It was full of water.

–Mahood Jawald of Dunbar, West Virginia in the July 2008 Reader’s Digest, page 194

Good heavens.

“The Church is not something made by men. It is the instrument of the living God for the setting-forward of His reign on earth . . . This is an hour of testing and peril for the Church, no less than for the world. But it is the hour of God’s call to the Church . . . For those who have eyes to see, there are signs that the tide of faith is beginning to come in.”

—Said about what gathering of what Christian group when–guess first and then please read it all.

I live for baseball. But I had to go to work during an important game, so I asked my wife to tape it for me. After I left the office, I flew through our front door, bursting with anticipation.

“Dont tell me the score!” I yelled to her.

“I don’t know the score,” she assured me. “All I know is your team lost.”

–Michael Bogess in the June 2008 Reader’s Digest, page 61

It is such a shame that flying has too often become such an ordeal.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace

–Alexander Pope (1688”“1744)

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

–William James (1842-1910)

Ugh.

Maybe he was trying to beat the heat. A Brooklyn restaurant cook is accused of stealing frozen lobster tails by stuffing them down his pants.

Watch the whole encouraging reporrt on some seeking to help those in the flooding’s path.

United Methodist disaster response teams from Illinois were assessing needs after major flooding in the state’s southeastern counties.

The June 10 flooding led to more problems as the water system for the town of Lawrenceville, with 4,600 residents, stopped working the next day, according to The Associated Press. Some 200 residents evacuated after levee breaks and could not return home because of flooded roads.

The latest heavy rains arrived after two floods hit the Pontiac and Watseka area in February, while two March floods hit the southern part of the United Methodist Illinois Great Rivers Annual (regional) Conference. Both regions received a $10,000 grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief at the request of Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher.

Read it all.

One of our readers emailed me this this morning. Check it out–and make sure to watch it for a minute or two as many displays rotate through the clock.