Cooper, tell us
Why for storms you have gotten so zealous
Put the windscreen on your mike
Cov'ring Gustav and Hanna and Ike

(TTTO "Alma," Tom Lehrer)

...they're out of names. The record-breaking 2005 hurricane season has gone Greek...

Tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day -- so it seems vaguely appropriate, somehow, that we've already reached Tropical Storm R...

(I know the record of 21 storms was set back in the '30s before they started consistently naming storms -- what's the farthest they've gotten down the alphabet since they started naming storms?)

CNN's mobile Hurricane One unit isn't mobile anymore -- a pair of debris hits have totalled the car. Gary Tuchman is reporting by phone from a hotel in, I think, Gulfport, MS...

Earlier the anchor spoke of a report filed by John Zarella from New Orleans. The satellite equipment was down, but, she said, CNN had a marvelous new way to receive the report -- their "new FTP technology"...

"Closed captioning is brought to you by FREEdHEM, the world's first one-application hemorrhoidal cream. FREEdHEM, the world's first one-application hemorrhoidal cream. FREEdHEM, the world's first one-application hemorrhoidal cream. FREEdHEM, the world's first one-application hemorrhoidal cream." (I guess there's just not much else you can say about FREEdHEM, the world's first one-application hemorrhoidal cream....)

spiritdance: "Does anyone else feel like they are watching a slow-motion train wreck as this unfolds?"

saoba: "I think of those streets along the Gulf Coast, lined with live oaks and cypress draped in Spanish moss. I remember lazy afternoons of watching my small children paddling in the still, warm water of the Gulf, nights of kisses and music. I hear a tide of voices; the drawl of Mississippi, the unmistakeable Cajun lilt, the indescribable New Orleans accent.
"I'm thousands of miles away, and my heart is breaking."

lady_pandora, responding to saoba above: "My auntie has a home on First Street that has been standing since the very early 1800s, I wonder if it will make it through this storm?
"It just breaks my heart when I think of what is going to be lost."

insomnia is keeping a running log of entries from LJ users staying in New Orleans. scyllacat reports that Bob Asprin is with her at Fahy's Irish Pub in the Quarter.

I had the chance to go to New Orleans a month ago for Crescent City Con, but decided, especially after the trip to Arkansas for Mom's hospitalization, that I couldn't afford it. I'm wondering now what kind of chance I missed...