...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...