A monster of a hurricane is headed for my hometown, Houston, Texas. My Austin home has turned into Hotel Sims and I’ve already reserved all my pillows for friends and even Duchess the Dog. Anyone showing up on my door is welcome. No prior reservation required. Now I sit, patiently waiting.
Text messages arrive from friends who have been sitting on a freeway for 7 hours and still haven’t made it out of Houston. Phone calls strategizing how to get out of a city with over 3 million people. Highways being made one way…to double the capacity out of town.
Dealing with a temperature of 99 degrees plus humidity, stuck on a freeway. Can’t keep the car on or you will run out of gas before you even go 10 miles. One friend is already on her way to the hospital suffering from severe dehydration.
At the moment, it looks like Austin will be spared the brunt of the storm. Forecasts have the storming curving east as it hits. I’ve weathered up to Category 3 during my Houston days, sitting in a hallway with a radio and flashlight trying to pass the time. Never did I have to evacuate.
If you want to see the current path of the storm and get a sense of the damage it will cause based on realtime data, head to TAOS/Mapserver interactive mapping system for Rita. Austin is in Travis county. Houston is in Harris county.
If I had one magic wish for today…I would be Frozone and I’d zap the gulf of Mexico just enough to lower the temperature of the ocean, and turn Rita into a Frozen Marga-Rita. Nothin’ like some ice and tequila to cool down a woman who is dangerously hot and bothered.
Frozen Marga-Rita! I love it!
But seriously, I wish the best to you and everyone else standing by waiting to see what damage is done. It’s hard for me up here in the land of forever mild weather to relate.
Good for you opening your doors for the evacuees!
On the other side of the world, most of us are speechless at the force of these hurricanes and the damage they do. Yet another reminder that we aren’t the dominant force on this planet.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis…on a boring day, we tend to forget how powerful mother nature can be. Those of us who live in areas that are “natural disaster prone” become a bit hardened to risk.
Funny, I’ve had conversations with my aunt in california, saying, I could never handle the stress of living in an earthquake zone…and she counters that she can’t figure out how we handle tornados and hurricanes.
As for hurricanes, the huge advantage is you have prewarning that it is headed in your general direction. The lesson learned from Rita though is…even with over 3 days notice…you may not be able to get out o’ town!
Hi G, thoughts and prayers are with you!
I’ve been on holiday for a week, so I’m only now finding out about Rita. I take its not heading up as far as Austin?