On the road, covering Gustav

Posted: Sunday, August 31, 2008 6:04 PM by Jen Brown

From Dan Fleschner, TODAY producer

It didn't really sink in what I was heading into until I saw the Superdome around 1 am early Sunday morning.

Everything happened fast - I was visiting my family in New Haven on Saturday afternoon when I learned I'd be flying out of JFK airport that night with Lester Holt and my TODAY colleague Sarah Clagett.

So I hopped on the train back to New York, packed a bag and headed for the airport.

We got in late Saturday night - after our plane took a pit stop in Memphis, since there was no fuel in New Orleans, and mass evacuations had already begun.

I learned a lot about highways and cities in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, just from listening to the radio as people talked about their odysseys out of town.

But again, it wasn't until I saw the infamous roof of the Superdome that I realized what we could be in for during the next few days.

Hopefully, thanks to a combination of fear among the population, and better governmental organization, nothing like what we saw in 2005 will happen this time around, even if Gustav ends up being stronger than Katrina.