What is waiting for us in New Orleans?

I am pretty emotionally spent. I have spent most of the day either in front of the television, on the net or on my cell phone. Needless to say, the question that has been weighing heavily on my mind is what is waiting for us back in New Orleans?

From what I can piece together, the Westbank is the only major residential area in the entire metropolitan area that has not been hit hard by flooding. I am about 99% certain that our home did not experience any flooding. BUT, it is very possible that we have wind damage. There are two large trees in our yard. If either tree falls on our house...we are in serious trouble.

All of my family, though, does not live on the Westbank. I am pretty certain that my Mom, my Dad, my grandmother and much of my extended family has water in their houses.

I am really worried about my Dad. As I said in a previous post, I am pretty certain that he did not evacuate. In fact, he is the only person that I know personally that didn't evacuate. Anyway, I have tried to contact him to no avail. (It seems that all phone coverage, cell and land lines, are out.) He lives in Gentilly. It is very possible that he has 5+ feet of water in his house. Please keep him in your prayers. I just wanna know that he, his wife and his mother-in-law are safe.

I'm sure that many New Orleanians share my feelings right now. I just wanna go home. I want to find out how bad it is and start to deal with it. It sounds, though, like we won't be allowed to go home until Thursday or Friday at the earliest. Even then, we might not have power for weeks. Those factors make me wanna put my wife and kids on a plane to her parents' in Pennsylvania. We'll see. It is way to early to make any decisions like that.