Thankfully for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area, Hurricane Gustav was not another Katrina, and the area seems to have come out of the wind and rain mostly intact. Now we turn our sights to the next storm in line, Tropical Storm Hanna, whose projected track hugs the east coast pretty closely, bringing the eye close to, if not directly over, Washington, DC.

The Capital Weather Gang is keeping watch on Hanna as it trends this way, and it looks like we’ll have an especially rainy Saturday on our hands this weekend. Depending on how the projected route changes, there could be anywhere from scattered thunderstorms if it goes east, to full-blown tropical storm-force winds and torrential rains if it goes west. Last time we had a tropical storm affect the area so strongly was with Hurricane Isabel.

(One can hope that the storm tracks even further west and gives us weather headlines like “HANNA IN MONTANA.”)

Paulo Ordoveza

Roving Asian mendicant, can occasionally be seen wandering the streets of downtown Washington, muttering unintelligible gibberish to passers-by while pushing a “bag lady” shopping cart full of old blankets, American flags, soda cans, and healthy secondhand snacks from organic food shop dumpsters. Used to live in a cardboard box at 16th and K but the rent was too expensive.