Flying from Gustav - MSY
 

Mods, please move this if there is a better place to put it, but it seems this is useful info for folks trying to leave New Orleans

The airport will stay open until 6:00 pm today and is probably a pretty good place to get stranded, if that will happen. As the storm is coming in sooner, it may close sooner.

If trying to get to MSY from downtown, the Earhart expressway usually moves freely, even when I-10 is at a crawl. Google traffic is showing traffic moving, tho slow, at 10:00 a.m. NOLA time, in the city, but Earhart is always open.

If trying to reach someone in New Orleans, send text messages - cell phone voice comm. works sporadically, while text usually gets through.

If trying to call, usually it's not possible to call from an area (504) # to another, as circuits are overloaded - cell phones can call out, but usually not reach one another, so use a cell phone to call a land line.

We left Friday at 5:45 a.m. and at the Alex. rest area, we were told there weren't any rooms left in motels/hotels in LA. So if you leave, plan on a long trip.

Not a well thought out post, but there's not much time for more. If anyone has better tips please post.

I just flew my dad over from SHV on G4 to avoid the hurricane. Last time, I nearly escaped Katrina in MSY - we were not going to make that mistake again.