An evening of hot dogs, beer and howling winds

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Jack Woynowski was sitting in a deckchair eating hot dogs from thebarbecue and drinking beer, when towering black clouds firstappeared on the horizon south-west of his home in Lakeview, NewOrleans.
Ten minutes later, the menacing cloud was directly overhead. Thenthe rain set in: a wall of water that drenched us to the skin. Abalmy summer's evening, with temperatures in the nineties, quicklygave way to the opening salvo of what politicians had billed the"storm of the century".
Hurricane Gustav reached the city yesterday afternoon. But thestorm began on Sunday night and, within minutes, Mr Woynowski wassheltering indoors. To many in his shoes, the proper reaction tothis reminder of the fearsome power of nature would have been toflee. But in a city of 239,000, at the heart of an evacuation oftwo million people, he was getting ready to sit Gustav out.
"I've done all the right preparations. I've got a lot of water,plenty of food, propane for my grill, a generator, gas for thatgenerator, and an offshore survival raft tied to the third floor ofmy home near an upstairs window," said the 60-year-old former USMarine. "Everything that needs to be done has been done."
Estimates suggest that anything from 5 to 10 per cent of NewOrleans residents have chosen to ignore official warnings to getout of town. For Mr Woynowski, the decision to join them was acalculated gamble.
"We may very well get floods on the street level but my house israised three feet, and it has three floors," he said. "It'sprotected from both sides by three-storey buildings. In someplaces, yes, people will have their homes destroyed. But I think myarea should be OK."
It was a bold call. During Katrina, Lakeview – a middle-classneighbourhood, built on drained swampland – was submergedunder 8ft feet of water when the 17th Street Canal burst its banks.
One in three local houses is still derelict and the tide mark fromthe high point of that flood remains visible halfway up theirground floor windows.
Mr Woynowski, who only recently moved back into his ruined propertyafter two years living in a caravan, has learnt from the previousdisaster.
"I do have a weapon, a .45 calibre automatic pistol, and I know howto use it. If looters come round and I have to shoot, I will shootonce, and I will hit someone. I would expect the others to run andscatter."
"To be honest I think it's unlikely to come to that. There areplenty of police and soldiers to stop looters. In fact, I've got abig crate of beer ready for when those National Guard troops arriveat my house."
Mr Woynowski was spending Gustav in his top floor study, sortingout a mountain of paperwork related to his insurance claim fromKatrina.
His neighbours Michael and Ellen Meyers, a young professionalcouple who live over the road with their rescue dogs, Floppy andGaby, were also intending sit out the storm.
They took the final decision to stay at 1pm on Sunday, when itemerged that the storm's direction had shifted, and that its worsteffects would be felt to about a hundred miles west of New Orleans.
"When you live here, and you study the maps and charts, you get toknow when a storm is going to hurt. And this is no Katrina," saidMr Meyers.
"Before Katrina, the charts showed clouds covering the entire Gulf.Here, by comparison, it's tiny. It's fast moving, so should passrelatively quickly, and the high pressure points over the land willhelp."
Mr and Mrs Meyers are emboldened by the post-Katrina constructionwork plus the robustness of their new property.
It was built on 6ft high concrete piers with the insurance payoutfrom the previous disaster, which washed away their former awaytheir former home.
Mrs Meyers said: "We got out for Katrina, were on the road for twomonths, and the dogs didn't like that. So when this one came, theysaid 'Momo, we ain't going'.
"Everyone has their own reasons for doing what they've done. If I'dhad young children, I would have got out too."
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