Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@Momentrabbit That actually is the 2nd biggest relief I've heard all day. I felt HORRIBLE leaving everyone behind, but there was no time to pack Her properly. At the time the forecast was relatively good and we were leaving out of an abundance of caution. It looked like it was better to bag Her and put Her on high ground rather than risk Her losing a couple antler points from unworthy transport... Believe me, it was one of the toughest decisions of my adult life. <3 <3 <3

Heh. The Reddit Floodsnark Brigade hasn't even caught onto this news yet. They're still too busy grousing about how a trained labrador could supposedly do the Sewer and Water Board's job*. They've been freaking useless through this whole ordeal. It's like getting a lecture of hydrology from Dale Gribble.

(*This is impossible. Labs aren't nearly good enough at lying, and their sleeping-on-the-job skills are subpar. :p Now, a _cat_ could do their work just fine. Maybe if this all does work out and there's a NOLA to return to, I'll send in a resume. :p )

The National Weather Service's hydrological prediction service has reduced the anticipated river height by a full foot. This graph was updated just an hour ago:

https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=lix&gage=norl1

This does give us a better fighting chance. Also, there's apparently some controversy over which set of data coming from the Army Corps is accurate, so that might even give us another foot or so of breathing room (not-drowning-room?).

You magickal types, keep casting on our behalf. Subgenii, keep frobbing the Luck Plane for us. I swear to Antler Mom* if we get through this with Peggy's full hoard intact, I will make something wonderful, and if at all possible, a little world-changing for you all.

* (whose idol waits snug and secure in a bag 10' above the floor, because she adamantly refused to leave our plush friends behind—and even if I do lose this incarnation of her, is waterproof and will live again, perhaps to be unearthed and revered by the raccoons who take our place)

Just as I was writing that last bit up, one of the front desk clerks came up to us and said their general manager heard about our situation and is lowering our rate to $99/night.

@hystericempress, you were right about this town. <3

Yeah.

We're safe in Atlanta, but shellshocked as hell. Turns out we blundered into town right during ComicCon, and while were very lucky to find a room at all, it's a lot more than we expected and Peg's understandably stressed about it.

The forecasts are not looking good. Even if somehow the levees do hold, despite the low spots and the notorious ineptitude of the local water board and Army Corps, there's still a real good chance the rains will hit our porch level.

We stand a very real chance of losing absolutely everything. That includes books that belongs to Peg's mom, most of my plushies, years of my correspondence with lost friends, what little of my game collection was ever returned from Transliminal...

I dunno. I got nothin'. All I can see in my mind's eye is walking home and Peg breaking down as we confirm that it's all been inundated.

Supposedly heading out in 30-45 minutes. This is Greyhound, so I will not trust that estimate until we're on a moving bus, and then I will still not trust it. I'm still half-braced to get to Atlanta and then get killed by some asshole mugger, because my "faith" in Murphy's law has never been higher.

Still. I'm glad we're getting out of here and have some hope there will be a here to come back to on Tuesdayish.

Love y'all. I can't promise everything will be okay, but I promise I'm willing to do goddamn near anything, some real Breaking Bad shit, in order to keep Peggy safe. The rest is basically up to the weather gods—who I am not unwilling to bribe, flatter, and/or threaten at this point. >_<

@kelseyhusky @anthracite You're the best, huskers. 😻​😽​

Respected local meteorologist is hopeful...

http://bobbreck.blogspot.com/2019/07/recon-found-center.html?m=1

This the first good news we've seen in a while. Maybe all your assorted orbital interventions are doing some good. Damn, it's good to know transcendi got your back. 😻​

The PA system at the Amtrak station is playing a dreadful easy-listening version of "Didn't We Almost Have It All."

On behalf of Peggy and me: fuuuuuuuuck you.

@acetone_kitten It's been real. <3

Nah, seriously, our odds of survival are currently... probably no worse than they are in any other day. Assuming we get rolling OK in 2.5 hours, our biggest risk is being on a Greyhound and/or Atlanta. :p

Our stuff, on the other hand, well, we'll see.

@001zlnv @anthracite Ooh, I missed that one! I think I was too young for that to have any "special" meaning when it was originally airing...

@Austin_Dern @jakebe "It's a trick question. I've never worked with a person named Jerry."</April>

@001zlnv @anthracite Yeah, fuck that guy. >_<

"Hey, kids, you know what's really behind all that global ecological collapse?"

"Um... is it rapacious corporations like yours, and the mandate of capitalism to ignore every factor except for economic growth, Uncle Ted?"

"Haha, no, of course not! IT'S COLORFUL SUPERVILLAINS. Now come here and let me tell you a wonderful story of calculated neo-liberal diversity..."

"Neat-o! Will there be easy answers and zero character development?"

"You bet!"

@Austin_Dern In the moral sense, I intend to be as wet as possible. :) Decent bar will be one of my main criteria for picking a hotel, I think. :)

@Austin_Dern @jakebe (HINT: The answer is always Li'l Sebastian.)

Heh. One of the minor pissers about all this... dammit, Barry was one of my favorite TV shows. It's gonna be all WEIRD after this. It'd be like going through your Katrina and the Waves CDs in 2006. :p

@kelseyhusky @anthracite Yeah, if you could pick Barry up and shake the bastard around a bit until it lets go of us, we'd be ever so grateful. ;) <3

@001zlnv @anthracite I mean, personally, I'm perfectly content to just hole up in a hotel and stress-eat Chinese food until things blow over, but I... kinda understand if that does not suit Peg's plans. :)

My desire to see all our stuff survive still tops out my desire to see every swaggering toxic asshole making light of this on r/NewOrleans drown, but the gap is closing even faster than that between the river height forecast and the levees.

Eeyup, we're bailing.

It's been an adventure already. I packed up the plushie family in plastic bags, gave them a tearful farewell, and put them on top of the closet a good 9' off the ground. (Except for my "kids" Measle, Poori, Solace, Stevie, and Zoya. who you'd better believe are coming with me.)

Then we asked around to see if any of Peg's friends are leaving. Nope, they're all battening down. Then we called the car rental places. Nothing left. Then we headed to the Amtrak station. Nothing until tomorrow, NOT EXACTLY HELPFUL.

Luckily, the Greyhound station is in the same building, and they had ONE scheduled bus that wasn't heading right into the storm path. So I guess in about five hours, we're on our way to a non-consensual vacation in Atlanta. Probably 4–5 days if all goes well...

We're going because the worst-case scenarios are REAL BAD and I don't wanna put Peg through that, not even a tiny risk. Like I said, nobody else is evacuating, and this is an overabundance of caution. And it turns out the levees are at least a little taller in our neighborhood than the Doom Prophets on Reddit were claiming.

Still. There's a non-zero chance we're gonna pretty much lose everything, if the levees fail and the city floods. I'm dealing with it better than I expected, but... yeah. It's a thing. I'll stay in touch as best I can, and I'm glad that if all goes well it looks like we won't have to be here if/when it happens.