I'm from Destrehan, about 15-20 minutes southwest of New Orleans. My family is well in health and great in spirits. My home and my grandparents' home is fine. However, my aunt and uncle live in Kenner, and we believe their home has been flooded.
Reports from Destrehan are that they lost power at about 4am Monday throughout the town. However, they still have running water and nowhere in Destrehan faced flooding (except for a small portion - very small). Even wind damage was rare. The Mississippi runs between Destrehan and Luling, so we were expecting a lot of damage simply from the river. But God was watching over us and we are truly blessed to have made it out of this one without any loss in family or friends, and property damage.
Lines, both cellular (Cingular) and landlines (Cox), are down at the moment, but I got through today on my brother's Nextel and from what I hear, any landline on Bellsouth is still working. I sure hope no one else has family there, but if they do, I sure hope they made it through as well as my family did. It's a pure relief that we are all fine. Now we just need to get the rest of New Orleans rebuilt and back to normal operation.
(If anyone does have family or friends in this area and has any questions, please feel free to drop me a line. I'll try to get you any information I can.)