Live from Louisiana: A Hurricane Blogger's Personal Journal 8/31/08 4:55 am CT

a quick post before I get some shut eye. I am exhausted. I've been up all night - storm tracking and preparing for landfall.  I heard from Paul Greenberg - he says he's headed to Pensacola. Matthew White and family are going east too - Florida panhandle.  I feel so bad for those guys, and especially Matthew who lost home and all possessions for Katrina. Friend David Murphy who works for Entergy Louisiana is bunkered down in Metairie. He'll be deployed as soon as the storm is over so he's got to stay. He called tonight to tell me about Nagin calling Gustav "the mother of all storms". Admittedly I got a kick out of that one. You'd have to know Ray. Friend Joshua Galasso has midnight to 8:00 am duty this morning in the governor's office. Yeah, I know folks in high places. :) The bear (my husband) and I had the biggest rounder we've had in the thirty years we've been married. I think this time it was about me - I am really stressed out. The kids have a saying about not provoking their dad - "don't poke the bear" -  Well I poked him alright. At any rate, The whole thing with Gustav is just surreal. I still really can't believe this is happening again...I did put out a query via this blog and through twitter for some help in posting critical resource information here and as a result I did hook up with a couple of great people who are immersed in online social networking. Inasmuch as I've been blogging about gulf coast hurricanes since the eve of Katrina's landfall, I am quite  fascinated by the positive impact of social media and networking in context of disaster.  Will say more about all this later  on ---I've got to get some shut eye.