It just sounds worse and worse: [link]

Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category 5 storm.

That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With top winds of 165 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28 feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people homeless.

"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday, vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.

Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.

"We're talking about in essence having -- in the continental United States -- having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden said.

...really crossing my fingers that it won't be this bad....

I learned today that cheetahs have notoriously low spermcounts.

I hope to god that never becomes relevant information for any of us.

Obviously the cheetah's lack of masculinity is what makes them vulnerable to Nutty's wee fists of squash court madness.

Ok, any of us except Nutty.

ION, I'm making someone's cookbook recipe for dinner and it smells fucking delicious.

Has Dana checked in with any more news about her folks? Is -t evacuating? I'm terribly behind, everywhere on the board.

-t was evacuating late last night, I think. I don't know that we've heard any updates, though.

Cheetahs will forever figure in my future biography, won't they?

Had a call with Casper the Amazing Wonder Niece just now, and some day she will actually talk back when people talk to her on the phone. (So far, I have seen that she only listens and grins.) Mommy sounded tired, and very eager for Casper to go to bed.

Have nothing to say about New Orleans, except, I am a big fan of hills. Not living at the tops of them, nor yet at the bottom, but someplace in-between where any water through my living room is on its way someplace else, and quickly.

This would be similar to the reason I don't live downhill from active volcanoes. I am disaster-movie averse that way.

Now, now. Let's not conflate masculinity and sperm count. Procreation does not a good example of a gender make.

I've had rotating "Feels Like Rain" and "When the Levee Breaks" earworms all day. Also "Hurricane Party" Dunno what that says about me.