Here's the midnight update from our Houston Bureau:

The above graphic demonstrates the threat to Gulf of Mexico oil and gas interests is accentuated as Ivan's track deviates westward from present estimates. The black dots represent one drilling rig or production platform each. The red, blue and green lines are oil, gas and condensate pipelines respectively. The map shows approximately the region from Intercoastal City, LA to Pensacola, FL..

One group of evacuees from New Orleans left the city by car at 9 am (cdt). By 7 pm, they had only reached Lafayette. Traffic was bumper to bumper even with both sides of I-10 open to westbound traffic up to the Texas border (Vidor). Evacuees reported that all the license plates were Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

The individual who left by air arrived in Houston at 4:30 pm despite having a ticket for a 6:30 pm flight. She reports that New Orleans airport was shutting down and that the airlines were filling every available seat with standbys, even though every flight was booked solid. In other words, about 10% of bookings were not making flights. If the airport is open tomorrow, it will be minimal staff: no restaurants, newsstands, bars, etc. All aircraft are being flown out of the region and there are no arriving flights.

At this point, travel time by road to Houston from New Orleans is estimated at 15 hours, based on current point-to-point actual drive time. Under normal circumstances, travel between the two cities is right at 6 hours.

All shipping in the Gulf is at a halt. All commercial ships, barges and boats have been docked and emptied, or anchored in the western Gulf. All personnel in the Gulf east of Intercoastal City, LA have been evacuated by air rather than crew boat (difference of 6-8 hours). This demonstrates that cost is no object to clear water-based assets. Crew boats are roughly $190/hour versus helicopter at $1,500/hour, and 25 people per run versus 6.

Talk on the street is that Biloxi is dead center for landfall. This has no basis in science, but rather is the general estimate of dozens of people who have been through many of these storms here. ....... MAP of IVAN on Coast Through the Oil Rigs

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