A few pointers for those of you hundreds of miles away.

1. The weather channel is not your best source of info. Especially, for Louisiana but also for some areas of SE Texas. They can't even pronounce the names of Parishes, towns, rivers, bayous etc Some can't even say Bayou.

2. Get local feeds. Baton Rouge, NOLA, Houston, Dallas all have boots on the ground in those areas. NOLA is also covering Biloxi. NOAA and Local NWS have feeds and emergency sheets.

3. Landfall is expected around 1AM or so might happen a bit later
4. Areas are dealing with storm surge
5. Outer bands are creating tornadoes, water sprouts.
6. Wind will pick up tonight across LA coast
6 Heavy rain east of landfall expected to continue thru Thursday/Friday

Save post mortems for next week. Quit talking about what should or shouldn't be done unless you are in the zone.
Some of what I'm hearing we heard after Katrina.

Texas was busy evacing Galveston and prepping Houston. The models changed. That's what happens. It was supposed to come here 2-3 days ago. Should we have all left?

Louisiana is trying not to set up mass shelters. Both Texas and SW Louisiana have a lot of COVID cases. Texas has had to deal with ICU patients. Criticism without direct solutions isn't helpful.

It pisses people off to hear "didn't you learn from Katrina". I imagine the same for Harvey survivors.

Once again evacuation isn't an easy thing.
Not everyone has a car
Not everyone has gas money
Not everyone can afford to
These are also right to work states. You leave you might not have a job.
It takes HOURS to get anywhere. 12 hours to drive 20 miles with contraflow.

Do you have a place to go?
Can you afford a hotel?
For how long?
Now put a pandemic and mass unemployment on top of that.

A good many of those who are being hit the hardest are shrimpers, crabbers, farmers, oyster/crawfish farmers, and ranchers. They will lose crops, boats, nets, traps, and livestock. No farmer or rancher wants to lose their animals. They don't. It's impossible to get them all out.

So many people are about to lose EVERYTHING.

EVERYTHING

Don't criticize, condescend, belittle with all your commentary.

Do something. Start sending money. Comp a meal. Comp an night somewhere. Offer shelter. Feed people.

If they land near you give them clothes, diapers, menstruation products, school supplies, masks, and sanitizers
Help them find a place to live.

If you can't say something nice. STFU

Finally, I had a loved one in Touro ICU when Katrina hit. Locating them was painful and difficult. That's actually how my blog started.

There's a pandemic. Help them find there people. Help the sick find care.

Looking for patients won't cost you a dime. Locating medical services won't cost you a penny. It will just take up some of your time.

@twimprine
@CEDRdigital
@AltSpaceForce1
@SciMarchNOLA

Rain bands from Laura over the 7th Ward in NOLA around 3:30pm. I have never seen a rain band that big with my own eyes.

No, it's not coming here. It's a couple hundred miles away. That should tell you how massive #Laura is.

#Laura
#NOLATwitter
#LakeCharles
#CameronParish
#HurricaneLaura
#evacuation
#CalcasieuParish
#GulfCoast

It would be helpful to remind people that #NOLA and #Houston did not flood just because of #Katrina and #Harvey.

#NOLA flooded because the Federal Levees failed. That is why it is called the Federal Flood. A major adjacent reason for the inundation of both the Lower 9th Ward and a large part of NO East was the construction of MRGO which has been blocked.

It was actually a pleasant clear morning people cleaning up wind damage, kids playing in some neighborhoods until the Levees collapsed.

In Houston. There were 2 major factors in the flooding.
1) The rain from Harvey just sat over the City not moving. It stalled, dumping inches upon inches per hour.
2) Poor planning in regard to development and drainage. Green space lost to cement. Development with disregard to

Environment including a drainage system meant for a less dense population center and one that had not been updated in some areas (read as economically disadvantaged). It also did not account for the lack of green space which absorbs rainfall created by developers gone wild.