As we reported earlier, something seems to have gone seriously wrong with the evac plan on Interstate 59 in Mississippi. A member of the New Orleans Livejournal group is furious:

I-59 is seriously phucked. We’re at a sickening crawl, major stop-and-go.

Now passing through Carriere, MS. Had to tend to my cat. She was overheating, since we had to turn off the a/c. We were at a complete stop for 20 minutes. My partner got out to talk to some people and it seems that contraflow had not officially started yet. We’re in the South-bound lane, now going faster than the “correct” side of I-59. Five minutes later and we’re traveling at about the same speed, 10-15 MPH, with plenty of stopping.

If you are leaving and know of backroads that are not closed, take them. We’ve been driving for 3.5 hours.

On Twitter, “reliefsparknola” testifies:

Still on I-59 trying to get to Birmingham. 17 + hours. According to nola.com over 200,000 pp on this hwy now.

I’ve been listening to similar stories on WWL-AM with furious evac-ers calling in to host Deke Bellavia. Just heard someone tell Deke another tale of freeway offramps being closed to traffic.

Nola.com’s on it, too. A commenter notes:

The Gov. of Miss. violated the interstate commerce clause by shutting down I-10 Est at 10 pm on Saturday night.

This was done so Louisiana people weren’t clogging the interstate for Miss. residents.

THis is wring, and caused me to sit in traffic for 12 hrs.

I don’t know anything about interstate law, but the sheer number of stories coming through email, Web sites, and Twitter indicate that something ain’t right on the I-59. Whatever the case, people did what they were told to do by state and national officials, were well-prepared for unpleasant but not intolerable conditions, and were met with an automotive nightmare instead.

Well, we were wondering why our evacuation drive up to New Roads, north/northwest of Baton Rouge on False River, went so smoothly. Turns out we just placed ourselves a good distance from the main event, but still directly in Gustav Mauler’s projected path. Oops. At least he’s moving quickly and will be a weakened player by the time he enters Tiger country. Godspeed y’all. With some good fortune, I’ll see you in the Dome on Sunday.

Credit Google Maps

“The city of Houma is a ghost town right now.” — Houma city official on WWL radio

People are focused on New Orleans, but New Orleans is inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Latest projections for Gustav’s landfall is Lafourche or Terrebonne Parish (a parish, in Louisiana, is like a county elsewhere), and the largest city in the area is Houma, Louisiana, in Terrebonne Parish.

Houma has a population of roughly 32,000; it’s fairly rural and surrounded by the vanishing wetlands you may be hearing about lately. Its newspaper is Houma Today (Web site may be overwhelmed at the moment). This afternoon, staff writer Ben Lundin analyzed the impact that Gustav may have on Houma and environs:

The levee, widely hailed for protecting vulnerable communities like Golden Meadow and Galliano during past storms, is not capable of handling Gustav’s expected 18-foot storm surge, said Windell Curole, levee director for both parishes.

The levee, which rings the parish’s southern reaches, is about 13 feet at its highest point just north of Leeville. But officials have long said that the levee, like much of coastal Louisiana, has been sinking for years, and some spots once built to 13 feet are now at 10 feet. At its lowest points, the levee is anywhere from 8 to 10 feet high….

If south Lafourche’s levee overtops, there is a high likelihood the south Lafourche flooding could push massive flodding as far north as central Lafourche that likely would take four or five days to subside, Curole said.

If Gustav is reduced to a Category 2 storm, but it moves slowly and churns water throughout south Lafourche, the same level of flooding could occur, he added.

Curole predicts the levee will not fail unless it’s overtopped.

The expected storm surge, while still posing massive flooding for much of Terrebonne and Lafourche, is less than predicted late Saturday night.

Then, based Gustav’s strength and projected track at the time, meteorologists said both parishes could expect 20- to 25-foot wall of water to slam their coasts.

But even 16 to 18 feet now predicted would likely flood much of Houma, as Terrebonne Parish lacks any hurricane-protection levees to blunt the surge’s thrust north from the Gulf.

Experts say parts of both parishes unaccustomed to flooding could see homes and businesses inundated under the the latest projections.

People elsewhere in Louisiana and Mississippi often (rightly, in my opinion) feel that New Orleans gets all the attention when a hurricane approaches south Louisiana; Plaquemines Parish was inundated during Katrina, and got nary a mention in national media.

Let’s hope Houma doesn’t become a national name any time soon.

I’m hearing terrible things about the evacuation on I-59 around Hattiesburg, Miss., where it sounds like things are falling apart completely:

Huck:

I am livid with the information we are receiving from the authorities and the media about traffic on I-59. We left our home at 3:45am and didn’t get to Hattiesburg until 1:00pm. The contraflow, which we took, was a joke. It only lasted about 10 miles or so, and was bumper-to-bumper from start to finish.

And authorities and media keep saying how wonderful contraflow is and keep downplaying the reports by drivers that there is serious traffic problems on I-59. It is irresponsible and potentially fatal to families to continue to tell them to evacuate at this time and to tell them that it is safe to go down I-59. People will run out of gas. People will not even be able to outrun the storm at this point.

It is a travesty. They are lying. And I’m tired and angry.

GreenKangaroo:

- Contraflow on 59 is the superdome of gustav.

- Ends around hattiesburg. Pointless. Slowing us down.

- Bottlenecking 5 lanes into 2

- Finally hit hattiesburg. 13 hrs on road. Cant go more.

- Looking 4 a hotel. Need miracle.

And most worrisome, Humid City Loki, over a 4-hour period stuck in traffic:

- Contraflow east is gustavs superdome

- Cell dying turning off

- Need help in hattiesberg dm me

- Need help in hattiesburg, dm me

- Need

- Phone dying need temp ac 4 animals

What’s going on in Hattiesburg? Where is the help?