We keep losing power here - and it isn’t even raining yet!! I think they’re practicing or something. Grrrrrrr.
Last radar shows it edging ever closer to New Orleans. Not good.
I don’t have much to add, but what is the deal with the computer models? Makes those things pretty unreliable, IMO.
The weather is THE classic “chaotic” system, so it’s essentially impossible to model it to an accurate degree. Look up chaos theory if you are interested. If I try to explain it, I’ll get it wrong.
umm… check the latest weather. Doesn’t look good for people in Mobile, Montgomery and points northeast…
Dang!
For those in the lower parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the western Florida panhandle it doesn’t look like this is going to be a good week. Please get someplace as safe as you can, take good care of yourselves, and report back in when everything’s back in working order so we don’t worry about you all too long!
Please be safe!
While googling around, I found this:
http://www.al.com/wpmi/ (RealVideo feed)
A Mobile, Alabama TV station with a web feed.
I’m from Toronto. We don’t get this kind of storm, and it’s awesome and scary to see…
Good luck.
ivan is moving on in now. once again i am facinated by the weatherpeople who don’t know how to come inout of the storm. anderson cooper (not a weather guy) is rather cute getting toss around a roof top in mobile.
jeanne is moving right along. she really strengthened this morning going from 40 mph winds to 70 mph in 3 hours. she is heading to pr and dr.
there is an interesting wave coming off of africa.
the atlantic ocean is starting to look like an airport for landing hurricanes. i can’t remember seeing systems coming in like this.
we are in for a september to remember people.
Last heard from my sister in New Orleans around 7 pm; they’ve got a lot of wind but very little rain - fortunately for them, they are a little to the west of the rain bands.
Here in Jackson Miss, the wind is picking up, but no rain either - we probably will not see much except perhaps the odd tornado or too.
Tonight we went to a function at the Hilton on the 12th floor. The wind was evident as it squealed around the eaves :eek:
It was truly eerie to watch I-55 from yesterday thru today, slowly filling up with the vehicles of the fleeing Coast population. My brother ran into two ASPCA trucks in North Miss. today - they had two loads of shelter dogs and were taking them from Louisiana to a shelter in Miss. Tonight I saw a pickup from Harrison County with a huge Harley stuffed in the bed… anyway, y’all get the picture.
I hope all y’all in Alabama are ok thru tonight and tomorrow!
Let’s see: “Chaos theory” states that no matter how well you plan, the dinosaurs will get loose and wreak havoc, right? 
9 p.m report from N.O.:
"Thus far, some gusty winds are about it. From watching the radar images, it seems this thing is just barely missing NO. It’s almost like there is a line that it won’t cross; it is right up to the eastern edge of us, but doesn’t seem to want to move any further west. NO East has seen a few showers but that is all, in the metro area, so far.
About 7:00, the light got weird outside. You know, that kind of yellowish light. Th e new concrete sidewalk and driveway next door were practically glowing.
We got lucky. This storm seemed to do a little jig here and there, to the left, to the right -just enough to make everybody nervous.
Things don’t look so hot for the Mobile area at all. Hope everyone got out of there safely.
Some of the media coverage on this has been, er, perhaps overblown. (Bwa ha ha!!) I keep wondering why the top headline online says “New Orleanians asked to take shelter” etc. even though it is now known that it is Mobile that’s really going to get it. Why does NO keep getting the press.
The nice janitor from the school across the street is holed up in there with a number of family members. I spotted him earlier and went out and gave him our phone numbers although it looks like things just won’t get bad. But, I told him, if they do, we have plenty of food. <g> Finally got to meet his wife, who is just as sweet and kind as he is.
I probably won’t e-mail again tonight, but will check in with folks tomorrow. Well, I might e-mail again if I can get the computer to “talk” to the camera, to send out a few pix. <g>
Thanks to everybody for their concern about us. "
Again, hope folks in Alabama take care. Inland Al is poised for some HEAVY flooding. DO NOT DRIVE CARS THRU FLOODED AREAS. Just because you think you know where the bridge is; it may not BE THERE.
This seems to have gone ashore somewhere near Gulf Acres and missed Mobile Bay. Not sure how Pensacola is doing but New Orleans got on the right side of it. At this point we want him to move on through and fizzle out quickly to minimize rainfall and storm surge damage.
Sending prayers, thoughts and good Doper vibes to the Alabama, Florida, Mississippi Gulf Coast, NO, and LA. This thing is nasty!
I am at work and in the 40 minutes I’ve been here there’s been a tornado and severe thunderstorm warning. Got a feeling I’m gonna spend a lot of today hiding in the janitorial closet/tornado shelter. :eek:
Still, it ain’t nowhere near as bad as folks along the Gulf Coast and LA are dealing with.
Stay safe y’all!
Please come back out of the closet as soon as you can, Swampy!
I just knew you’d get a kick outta me being in the closet Shibb. 
I wish all our Gulf Coast Dopers the best of luck. Please check in after the storm if you can.
You know, a few months ago I was listening to NPR news and they reported that climatoligists were expecting this year to have an especially busy hurricane season. They said that there would be more storms and they would be more powerful. I remember thinking, “Whatever. Where’s my blue tie?” Now that I’ve dealt with three big storms in one month, I think i’ll pay a little more attention to those folks the next time.
7 dead so far. 200,000 in Mobile without power. Still hurricane strength as it approaches Montgomery.
And where I am, we may top out at 15-20 inches rainfall. If that happens, my house will be under water.
Yay.
Fox News is now reporting at least 12 dead. 
600,000 or so in the four states are without power.
Here in Montgomery we have a lot of trees down, so about half the town is without power. And the brunt of the storm missed us. Our power has been on more than off today, but we’re the exception. We lost a tree and a lot of shingles but everything else seems fine here. A hotel collapsed north of us in Prattville but no one was hurt. All in all we were amazingly lucky.
From what I hear, Orange Beach is gone. One of our friends is from there; 5 of his relatives have lost their homes. 5 homes and there is nothing left at all.
And the FloraBama Bar is gone. This bar is a legend down here - built half in Florida, half in Alabama. They found the majority of the structure in the middle of an intersection about 5 miles north.
Dusk to Dawn curfews in effect for most of the southern part of the state. I haven’t been able to reach my parents for a while now. They live about 50 miles north of us, and were without power this morning. They got hit with the main storm about noon and I haven’t heard from them since.