Tomorrow,
Hurricane Lili will come to
Cincinnati, much as Isidore came last week. That translates into about twenty-four hours of rain—a good thing, since, of late, we have been in
drought conditions here in the Queen of Cities.
A thousand miles away, in the state I grew up in, Lili hit shore as a Category 3 Hurricane. In fact, until yesterday, it looked as though it would hit my Lake Charles, old home town. So, this week was mildy nervous for me, but, so far, has proven to be not quite as big a thing.
My Mom was up here anyway to attend a Celtic festival that my wife and I were dancing in. She managed to bypass Isidore, and it really wasn’t until Monday that it seemed as though Lili would be a threat to Lake Charles. She spent a lot of time on her cell phone, coordinating some of the preparations (boarding the windows, what to put in the car, etc.). She even suggested my sister and her kids fly up here. I mused about applying for a grant as a refuge center.
My father and brother-in-law were thinking they’d wait out the storm. My sisters seemed to be wiser on that count, but, by Tuesday night, they really didn’t seem to have a plan.
Yesterday morning, my Mom left Cincy, heading to look at furniture in North Carolina—driving away from the storm. She dropped me at my office on her way out of town, and I came and went about my business. At one point, I hit CNN, and saw that they were evacuating the parish south of the one containing Lake Charles. Schools were closed. It didn’t look good.
Finally, about seven in the evening, my sister calls me from her cell—they were heading to Houston, about three hours to the west. Most predictions showed that they would be OK there, so I breathed a sigh of relief. The house might get seriously messed up, but it can be replaced. My loved ones were out of harm’s way.
Lili hit the Louisiana coast this morning just as I was getting to work, east of Lake Charles. The city still got hit, but they were in the north-west quadrant of the storm—if you have to be in a hurricane, that is the better location. I’ve had voicemail from both parents indicating they are OK. Tomorrow, Cincinnati gets a slow, soaking rain, and all it means is that I have to take the bus.