After a restless night we are up to hear the wind whipping around outside. The lights flickered once but stayed on so far.

According to the Weather Channel, Katrina is going to make landfall in about one hour just southeast of New Orleans. It will cross across the portion of Louisiana that juts out into the Gulf, then cross over and hit the Mississippi coastline.

Wind conditions here will deteroriate the next six hours. We continue to wonder about the surge. Much of coastal Alabama was evacuated yesterday when officials warned that Katrina could bring record flood levels to Mobile’s downtown riverfront and leave some city roads under water. Mobile’s mayor Dow said the possible flooding could be worse than the 9-foot surge that soaked downtown and turned a key interstate connector into a lake during Hurricane Georges in 1998. That was the hurricane that put 47 inches of water into our basement. Meanwhile we share our living room with the equipment that normally is in the basement, like the lawnmowers in the photo. The photo is for Jesmina’s benefit, who might be concerned about the effect Katrina will have on my grass-cutting activities.