prytaniawaterline.com Blog

I got off the streetcar after work and decided I was going to have a beer. After the first beer I told myself I needed to get some exercise. I should have stayed in the bar drinking beer, the workout was a little on the warm side today. There were not very many people in the park around 5, I started lapping. I don;t ride my bike for distance it is the amount of time I spend on it that I keep track of. Today after my normal hour and a half I had lapped the park four times, normally I would do six or seven in that amount of time. It was just too damn hot to push it very hard. I will get an early start tomorrow and see if I can beat the heat.

This morning the rain is really coming down and it has been coming down for a couple of hours now. Lots of lightning, I can’t get the dog to come out from under the bed. The riverside of Prytania street is filling up with water. I just saw a number of my neighbors moving their cars from that side of the street to prevent them from taking on water. It has started to lighten up a bit I think the lakeside of the street should be ok. This area is not prone to flooding, if the water is high in this neighborhood you can bet that there is some major street flooding in other parts of town.

Update 9:32 am: Flash flood warnings have just been issued for Orleans and Jefferson parishes.

It is that time of year when New Orleanians start spending more time inside in air conditioning. Yesterday as I cycled on the levee there were very few others getting fit. It was hot but the partly cloudy sky kept the heat down a little. Having grown up in New Orleans without air conditioning I wondered how we survived the heat. Some will claim that it is hotter now than it used to be. Maybe it is, the one thing I notice is that we don’t get as many afternoon showers as we used to. I think it has more to do with conditioning yourself for the heat. Since I have been spending more time in the heat I find that it bothers me less. The A/C in the house set on 78 used to feel a little warm to me, now it feels cool to comfortable. As we get into the really hot part of the summer I think we will find that there are less and less people on the streets. There is a cultural effect to air conditioning in New Orleans, stoop and porch sitting in the evening seem to be a thing of the past.

Hurricane season is almost upon us, there is already a disturbance that the weather folks are watching. The city has announced that they will not be opening any shelters for hurricanes that are cat 3 or above.

The Corpse of Engineers seems to think that they have done a great job repairing our hurricane protection but some have doubts. A letter from Matt McBride posted at Humid City talks about a rusty pipe issue, plus we have the leaky levees that we are told not to worry about from People Get Ready, and flood walls being
stuffed with newpapers from First Draft. Put it all together and you can say that hurricane protection in this city is a crap shoot.
Having stayed for Katrina, and never having evacuated for a hurricane prior to that, I will tell you that I will be leaving town if a Cat 3 or higher comes this way. I would highly recommend this strategy to others.

I was in Mobile yesterday and it was dry there yesterday. I caught some rain on the drive home last night but nothing too serious. This morning at work all the talk is about how did you get home yesterday. I am glad I missed it, it is such a pain when it rains like that, and it is very easy to ruin your car. I wonder if it is solely a matter of the amount of rain in a short period of time or is the drainage infrastructure still not working at Pre Katrina levels. Anyway I am hearing lots of war stories this morning about yesterdays flooding.

I got my morning wake up call from the garbage men today, they were running a little late, they did not get here until 4:45 am. About the same time the rain started. I am sitting with the door open wathching the rain pour, at the same time I am being treated to an incredible light show from the lightning that is striking every couple of seconds. WDSU is reporting that there is some street flooding and that the rain is coming down at a rate of 7 to 9 inches an hour in some areas. WOW. Water is starting to accumulate on Prytania Street, if it keeps up I will move my car to higher ground but I think this is going to move through here within the next hour or so. This type of rain event is not unusual for the Big Easy at this time of year. I love a good light show.

Looks like my lunchtime walk will be put on hold until the summer is over. I was drenched in sweat by the time I got back to the office. I don’t mind sweating I just don’t like returning to work looking like I showered with my clothes on.