They Pit Us Against Each Other

I hate this Gustav b.s.

I worked a day shift at a service industry job uptown and the tension is very in your face. Everyone is discussing this storm and what their evacuation plans.

At more rational moments, everyone agreed that it is too early to tell if this storm truly threatens us.

Yet, at other moments, people came in and reported that Walmart was running out of drinking water and that hotel reservations were becoming scarce.

So though I was content to wait for more accurate hurricane forecasts, given that this thing won't even be in the Gulf until the weekend, I was helplessly compelled to buy my own supply of potable water as soon as I left work. And then I gave my car a full tank of gas.

Everyone understands that our levies are structurally unstable. Everyone understands that our pumping stations are worthless. Nobody has faith in any level of government to provide anything to anyone. You have to go get it yourself and this inherently turns you into a competitor with your neighbor for basic survival necessities: gas, water, canned food, batteries, ice, etc.

It makes me sick to my stomach.

I mean everyone is friendly with each other and it's not like there have been fistfights in the water aisle of the grocery store - but there's a fear in the air and I didn't expect it to be so ubiquitous. Nobody came into the restaurant today. The street was silent.

This sucks.