I'm home. I caught the last flight out of New Orleans yesterday before they shut down the airport. The whole drive to the New Orleans airport we were going through big bands of serious wind and rain, and my parents were convinced I wouldn't get out, but I wanted to risk it. While sitting at the terminal and looking out the window, there were a couple of times I was pretty damn sure we weren't going to fly either... like when you couldn't see 10 feet out the window because of the grey solid mass of wind and rain. But it passed in bands, and the pilot was keeping us posted as we sat on the runway waiting for each band to pass over. Two passed us by with horizontal rain and one that obscured the entire runway, but he gunned it when it calmed and took the most intense takeoff angle I've ever experienced. As soon as we were off he rolled hard into a crazy steep banked left turn. Then leveled out and did another to the right, I guess steering around some storm cells. I didn't know passenger airplanes could maneuver like that, it was nuts. But, once we got above it the view was amazing and the ride was clear. I felt like I was escaping a war zone or something, and breathed a big sigh of relief.