Gustav, Hanna and ER Baby!

I've been seating for the last couple of days at the restaurant. I really enjoy seating, you get to talk to the guests and it's not exactly a difficult job. I've been working six hour shifts but today I got ER'd at 4pm! ER stands for Early Release and when there's too many staff on, the managers go round and ask if you want to go home. I only had a couple of hours left but I jumped at the chance anyway. It was great! I like being ER'ed. As I left I kept saying, "ER, Baby!"

The big news at the moment is Gustav and Hanna. Hurricane Gustav is an extremely dangerous hurricane. He is currently a category three storm but looks like he may become a five. Five is the worst you can get. I feel really fortunate in a guilty kind of way because it looks like it will miss us and come barrelling up through New Orleans who are only just getting back on their feet from Katrina who hit three years ago. Katrina was a category three storm so a five is really getting attention. Everyone is watching Gustav like a hawk, just in case he swings to the east but it's unlikely. I feel so sorry for New Orleans. They are very badly situated to deal with hurricanes of any strength, let alone one with winds up to 155mph! They are strongly suggesting the evacuation of New Orleans and that will become mandatory tomorrow morning at 8am. These photos above show Gustav at the moment. It hasn't even hit yet. I really feel for Louisiana and I hope everyone gets through it unscathed up there.

The second storm is TS (Tropical Storm) Hanna. She's quite a way off at the moment and all that's happened is she's made a rather dangerous undercurrent rip off the coast. At the moment, it looks like she will hit the Bahamas and run out of energy before she reaches Florida but once again, we're keeping a weather eye on her, no pun intended. It really looks like this year will be a very active season. It's only August, the middle of hurricane season isn't until September and already we've had eight storms (Arthur, Bertha, Cristobel, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav and Hanna). The next one will be Ike, followed by Josephine and Kyle. If it's just tropical storms, it won't be too bad but surely one of them will be a hurricane? Still, I'm not too worried. Obviously, I'm slightly nervous but I honestly believe that Disney is one of the safest places to be when a hurricane hits. The people of Florida are so used to hurricanes, they know what to expect and when. They take all of them very seriously, even "diva storms" like Fay (that come, make alot of noise, promise alot worse and then fizzle out). One thing that made me smile is the name for the 20th storm of this year. That will be Hurricane Vicky. My roommate is called Vikki and back home, my mum and little niece both call me Vicky. I can imagine the headlines! "Vicky threatens Florida!", "Bush declares state of emergency from Vicky", "Florida is unprepared for Vicky".....

I'm assigning again tomorrow. I'm hoping I'm only training as I have asked for extra training but it looks like I may be flying solo. I don't like that idea but I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing before I go, we've finally got a TV here at 1615! Yay! I got a DVD player at one of the throwouts so I'll set that up in a minute. I cannot believe how long we've gone without TV. When no one's home, the apartment feels so quiet. I turned it on today but I forgot how dire Amercan TV really is. They make an episode of Friends (22 minutes), last an hour due to adverts. I think I'll be using the DVD player most.