Panic in the Aisles

I just got back from the grocerey store-- goodness! Apocalypse redux! People are full on freaking out here. After the devestation in New Orleans, and the pathetic mishandling by our civil authorities, I can understand a bit of apprehension; however..... here are some facts easily verified by any search engine. Austin is 208 miles from the coast at the closest point(Galveston). We are 406 feet above sea level at our lowest point, 1,080 at the highest. My brother's house lies 50 miles west of New Orleans, and he had minimal damage-- lost some shingles from the roof, had a shrubbery blow away, and has to rebuild a portion of his fence. We have survived several floods here in Austin-- some quite nasty. Most of us are aware of the hazardous places-- the new Whole Foods location is right smack in the midst of the area hit the worst in the labor day floods of 1980, and the city has taken some pains to improve the drainage since then. We're going to be fine, people. I believe the worst thing you will face is a storage problem for all the bottled water and toilet paper ya'll are hoarding. And those $1,000 generators? Ebay ext-nay eek-way, icken-chay ittle-lay.