A former Saugerties resident who moved to New Orleans for the music and the mood has been monitoring the devastation of his adopted home from Little Rock, Ark., and struggling with emotions left by one of the worst storms to ever strike the United States.

Jesse Moore, a musician known around the Hudson Valley as the "HooDoo Man," performed New Orleans-tinged music at valley clubs for years. He moved to New Orleans in 2003, recently worked on a CD in Nashville and has been performing solo five nights a week at Margaritaville in New Orleans.

With phones out because of Hurricane Katrina, Moore participated in an interview with the Journal via e-mail.

Moore and his girlfriend evacuated New Orleans on Sunday at 11 a.m. They traveled six hours to Slidell, La., from the French Quarter of New Orleans where he lives, normally a 30-minute ride.

"We were going to ride it out, but then I realized there was a (Category) 5 heading dire! ctly for us," Moore wrote. " Threw everything we could into the car and headed outta Dodge." He added, "Traffic was horrendous."

The pair headed for Little Rock because Moore's girlfriend had a close friend there. The trip took 16 hours. According to Mapquest. com, this 532-mile journey should take eight hours.

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans Monday morning, slamming into skyscrapers, tearing the roof off the Superdome and leaving the city under water. On Wednesday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said thousands have likely died from the storm.

Moore wrote he left New Orleans because "worst-case scenarios were playing out."

He continued: "What people never wanted to dream of, let alone experience, was becoming a reality -- Cat 5 headed straight toward us is a bit hard to argue with. I figured I could probably ride it out. We live in an 1820s carriage house near St. Louis Cathedral, just around the corner from Jackson Square. This is the 'high! ground' in New Orleans. It was the aftermath that was the deciding factor. The thought of no water, electricity, toilets, food, for who knows how long did not turn me on. This proved to be one of the smartest things I've ever done ... cut and run."

Friends keep him posted

Moore wrote he has been receiving hundreds of e-mails from people who stayed behind.

"Devastation is widespread, looting, dead bodies, houses/whole neighborhoods underwater," he wrote. "Very sad."

Television news, Moore wrote, hasn't provided as much information.

"It's hard to get any perspective from the news," he wrote. "Hard to recognize neighborhoods once they're destroyed."

Moore said the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina has left him "extremely emotional."

"Without warning, I'll burst into tears," he wrote. "Morning time is the worst. I'll open up the computer, take a look at the stories, read e-mail and simply weep ... New Orleans gets into your heart, becomes a loved one, something precious. It's the last bo! hemia in this country. Art and music are everywhere, laughter is our sound track, we party at the drop of a hat. I've lived all over the world, in some pretty exotic places, I've never seen a culture so rich and alive as in southeast Louisiana. This is a very sad, sad time for all of us."

Moore wrote he's anxious to get back home.

"The minute I hear they'll let me back in, I want to pitch in and help rebuild my Crescent City."

For now, he is meeting many of his fellow New Orleans residents, who also evacuated to Little Rock.

"The evacuation was quite thorough," Moore wrote. "... A mass exodus that took us all over the south. Just yesterday, I talked with a man who had lost everything. Went to a liquor store here, the Old Mill in North Little Rock. Bought and paid for a bottle of wine and a bottle of tequila. The guys asked me where I was from. When I said New Orleans, he gave me half my money back."

(John W. Barry can be reached at jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com)