Dana, I was relieved to read that your parents are OK. How are you doing?

Regular unleaded is still a shade under $3 -- $2.97 downtown, $2.91 in the U District, still $2.79 by the house. Up 10-15 cents over Monday.

Word is that the West Coast supplies are great, so the refiners are planning on shipping out the excess to the Gulf States and selling it at a considerable profit. Because, after all, the 437th Rule of Acquisition states that "if you have two coats and your neighbor has none, sell the coat to him for the shirt off his back, then sell that shirt to the shirtless man for a considerable markup."

Well, selling gas cheaply will only exacerbate the problem of inadequate supply. Selling it at a premium may make supplies last longer and force people to conserve unnecessary use.

Yup. Places here in town that are still selling at $2.69 are already running out of gas.

Most places here, it's running $2.99.

I know that a lot of the locals who evacuated into the Grand Marquette Hotel (where my friend's parents were) had their pets with them.

Here it's about $2.79.

Selling it at a premium may make supplies last longer and force people to conserve unnecessary use.

I'm sorry, but consumers in North America do not have a good track record of conserving anything. Premium prices mean that only those who cannot afford the higher prices are forced to conserve, and the rest of us bitch about the price while doing little to change our consumption habits.

I may hug the subway on my commute home. or maybe one of those clean air buses in my hood.

I'm glad to see every post here that friends and family are safe.

The devestation is really incomprehensible.

I'm getting better (and more encouraging) info off the blogs in New Orleans than the official new sources. (Not entirely surprising.) From this morning:

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While Mayor Nagin has said in press conferences that St. Charles Avenue would be under 9 feet of water after all is said and done, this is simply not the case. He might be saying that to scare folks into leaving, which is fine, but for all the people who own property in the uptown area it's simply not true. St. Charles Ave is at sea level, NOT six feet below as Nagin had said. So with waters 3 feet above sea level, there will be 3 feet of water on St. Charles Ave, which seems to be the case in some places. People closer to the river, especially between Magazine and Tchoupitoulas, will face minimal flooding. The same may be true for the Bywater area between St. Claude and the river. That is high ground, it is a natural levee and several feet above sea level.

I live in Mid City and my elevation is about 1.5 feet below sea level, meaning 4-5 feet of water over there, most likely. Bad, yes. But maybe the possessions that I put up on high closet shelves before leaving will still be dry.

Fox News is saying the entire city will be covered in 15 feet of water. That is simply bullshit. Close to the lake that will be the case, but not anywhere else. If you're uptown, downtown, bywater, warehouse district.. don't write off your possessions just yet. It's still going to suck, bad, but don't listen to the sensationalist reports of 12 feet of water over the entire city.

Update: Just heard from a stalwart who rode it out in his Bywater house, on Dauphine St. between Clouet & Louisa. There is NO water on Dauphine right now. Just read an article saying the water might actually rise higher than the 3 feet above sea level originally predicted, due to the Pearl River cresting.