"The storm of the century: this is the real deal, not a test" - Ray Nagin

"Jindal said the state planned to begin "contraflow" procedures, opening both sides of interstates to outgoing traffic only, at 4 a.m. Sunday."

Staring down the barrel of a cataclysmic event that has clearly been building since Friday, it is not clear to me when the official mandatory evacuation order was given for Louisiana.

Some articles seem to indicate that the mandatory evacuation order is scheduled to go into effect today at 8:00 AM, but again, that's unclear to me. There are quite a number of statements relating to evacuation orders in this CNN report.

It seems that Governor Jindal has still not ordered a statewide mandatory evacuation, although he's told all those in the path of the storm to evacuate. But again, I am just not clear on the evacuation orders, which also seem to vary from parish to parish.

This AP report indicates that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin showed belated sense and issued what seems to be mandatory evacuation order for Nola residents sometime on Saturday night.

But frankly I don't see how a complete evacuation of Nola can be carried out in the time left. There have already been several mix-ups and delays.

I have the bad feeling that the evacuation should have been high gear by Friday night, not Sunday morning.

We'll see. And hope and pray.

See Drudge's site for the latest breaking news, weather maps, satellite images, etc.