Good luck to all the AR members in the way of Rita...hope you make it out of town in time and that everyone makes it through the mess safe and sound.
Better tomorrows!
Mims

Amen and godspeed to all in harms way...

Mike

I echo Harry's sentiments. Take care, and our prayers are with you.
Max

Thank you for the well wishes! I echo them! My parents finally made it up here to Ft. Worth from Houston. It only took them 16 hours!

Good luck to all others who are riding it out or haven't made it yet!

Hang tough y'all and show them looters the right end of your boomstick should they come-a-looking!

JW

It is looking better for us right now as they are currently predicting the eye of the storm moving inland more east of us. Thanks for all the good thoughts!

quote:

It is looking better for us right now as they are currently predicting the eye of the storm moving inland more east of us. Thanks for all the good thoughts!

Good luck, MHC_TX. Looks like we Cajuns in old Lousyanner are soon gonna take another partial one. A friend in Houston just e-mailed me and said they'd made it to Tyler. From what I can gather most Houstonians are a lot more concerned with the rain/flooding than the wind (ala Allison's 20+"). According to CNN.com, Houston may be looking at 25" of rain. Get to the hill.

DB

Not living in Wharton anymore, but I still call it home. I'll consider the well wishes for my family. Mom called and she's made it safely to Austin. Now just waiting to hear that siter and her family made it there too.

I am on the SW part of Houston,looks like the storm is moving more east all the time.
I thank the Lord we are on the dryer side now and that it will stay that way.

Sean

Looters wouldn't last long in my neighborhood. Just hope the winds don't get too high.

When I think of the stupidity of the government from city up to federal it just pisses me off to no end.How much money has been wasted on evacuation plans under homeland security?Surely that money was spent on hookers and booze.Houstons traffic during rush hour is bad enough.Then when you tell folks to evacuate on roads that come to a stop for just the working people trying to get home,W.T.F. do they expect to happen?

As far as looting goes I'm thinking that I 've got more brains then most looters.I wont go for a plasma screen, Nike shoes or the liquor stores.I can think of some targets close enough to home that could make my retirement lots more comfortable.I just finished loading 120 rounds for the AUG and 45 rounds for the pistol,if only it was'nt so hot and humid.I'm also regretting selling the pvs-7.

Thanks Harry et al. I am in San Diego and was scheduled to fly back to Houston tomorrow afternoon but the flight has been cancelled. Damn the luck, looks like I will have to spend the weekend in Vegas!! On a more serious note, hopefully all can get out of harms way and the destruction will be as little as possible.

Settle down Baboon. Would you rather have Mayor Nagin running the operation. Or suppose "Out of Town Brown" was still at the helm. Crossing over I-10 about 80 miles west of Houston today just boggled my mind at the mass exodus. Remember this is the largest evacuation in U.S. history. Four solid lanes of traffic heading west. People are everywhere around here.

If you think it is bad now just think how it's gonna be when they all head home at the same time. At least most of them were staggered when they left. On the up side at least they will have a home to go back to if the hurricane keeps heading to the north. Chances of us getting hit are dropping so most of us are happy if we can dodge this major bullet.

Talking to my friends in Matagorda several times a day right now. Spent the last 2 days emptying out the beach house and shops, and moving stuff to the inland house towards Bay City. Got my fingers crossed for everyone down there.

Thanks for the well wishes everybody. I just finished having a dinner party for some friends with the last of my speckled trout. Somehow it seems very appropriate and just ironic enough to be humorous.

As some of the earlier posters noted, I don't think I will have any trouble with looters on my side of town, but just in case, I have a 45/70 DR to deal with them.

I just moved all my boats etc from Matagorda and I am praying for the best.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts concerning those of us potentially in the path of Hurricane Rita. As I type this (about 1:58AM Friday my local time) Rita may just go east of Houston. That will help a lot. I live on the west side of Houston so I'm not in the storm surge area. (The storm surge area lies mostly to the southeast of downtown Houston.) I'm riding out the storm stayng at home. The big worry is the wind speed. In Houston, we're projected to start getting tropical storm speed winds around 3:00PM Friday. Hurricane force winds will start around 9:00PM Friday. I'll probably be offline for a day or so when the power most likely goes out.

Good luck to all of those in the path of Rita.

-Bob F.

We live just west of the 610 Loop off I-10 West. You would not believe the monumental traffic yesterday. An absolute parking lot. Apparently this morning (Friday) there is none. We decided to ride out the storm from the beginning and my main concern remains the large mature oak and pine trees around our house. Even if the storm moves to the east and Houston doesn't get too much rain, we will still get some fairly significant wind and I worry mostly about a tree coming down on the house.

Best wishes and godspeed to you all.

Regards,
Martin

fla3006
If that tree gives you any problems let me know and I will bring my chainsaw over and we will make firewood out of it!

Best of luck to all!

I'd rather have our earthquakes. We had a 4.7 yesterday about 1:30 PM

Its easy to Monday morning quarterback such things as New Orleans, Houston etc. Maybe you should take over the operation...

I personally feel that there is no way to evacuate that many people in an orderly manner, but Texas did the best job that I can imagine, they took it one step at a time and corrected each situation as it cropped up...Had gas trucks on the road, had folks wit water, set up mobile restrooms, and finally opened all roads to Northbound traffic..It took a while to get it figgured out, but things started moveing a good deal faster, according to my son and friends.

I assure you if we ever get a dirty bomb exploded it will be turmoil and no amount of Govt or planning will work! and you can take that to the bank...We had days to preplan this one...

My son and his family live in Friendswood, thats about 20 miles from Galveston..It took them 14 hours to make San Antonio, but they made it and thats the bottom line...MY other son and his family are going to stick it out in Corpus Christi as recommended by the folks in charge...

Having been in law enforcement, I feel for those who are giving their all to try and get it done, that stay and face whatever happens, and then have to take a bunch of crap from someone sitting on their fat keyster whining like a milk sucking baby on mamas tit, that things ain't perfect...

We aren't worried about looters. Nothing left in town to steal. I helped save the single malt
myself. Don't want that in the wrong hands.

Got to get the 12ga and Kimber 45 and help in town a bit. Mad house here. 30+ cars at every gas pump that has any. I think Mac D is out of food. The stores are. The storm is moving away
but alot of desperate people here. Some will be in there cars tonight.We are going out to get as many as we can off the road.
We is the Local NG Co. lives across the street
and said he needs a few old jahheads to help out. Thanks for all the good wishes.
Gene

What Ray said!

Unfortunetly, about two hours ago, and buss carrying nurseing home patients, cought fire, and the oxigen bottles on board started explodeing, and 24 elderly patients out of 40 were burned to death on I-45 at belt line road, in the edge of Dallas! Now the traffic is haveing to divert back to Ennis, and onto 287 west to Fort Worth, I can hear the traffic form where I now sit typeing!

As for those who think they could do better, at least our mayors, and governor didn't wait till after the storm was over, then ask where the FEDs were! Stop and think about it folks, I-45 has heavy traffic for 250 miles both ways on a normal day, then stack an extra 1,000,000 automobiles on top of the normal traffic, all at one time, and guess what! Out of Houston there are only two wanys to get out of there on major interstate hyways, I-10 west, and I-45 North.

I don't see any rapeing, and stabbings going on in the shelters of Texas, and we have half of LA, MISS, an Al in our state already, and now we have to find away to house 5,000,000 more evacuees! I don't know about anyone else, but I think anyone who knows a better way, you need to be away from that keyboard, and working traffic, or in a shelter helping people, instead of cussing those who are trying to help!

quote:

invader66: We aren't worried about looters.

I'm not too much either but when I-10 was a parking lot yesterday we had all kinds of riff-raff walking across the freeway and going into the shops. There was a big police presence to keep things from getting out of hand but I got to worrying that if they didn't get the freeway mess cleaned up before the storm hit then they'd all be coming into our neighborhoods. Couldn't blame them I guess but I also don't want them taking stuff they shouldn't or otherwise taking advantage of the calamity. Anyway, the road is clear now and it's the calm before the storm!

Thanks for the thoughts from all...

I left the house in Freeport area about noon yesterday (wife is "essential personnel" at her plant and had duties 'til then). Our family evac plan is to go south to a place in deep south Texas where we have shelter.

Unfortunately, the official evac plan didn't allow for anyone to go south and Troopers stopped our every attempt. They were doing what they were told but I was getting pretty mad anyway. The only way was up to Columbus on I-10 and then back down through Three Rivers.

10 hours after I left we had made to to Katy (about 70 miles) and it was obvious that we would have to spend at least 2 days stalled on I-10 if we tried to keep going. I had the wife, two kids and a disabled in-law plus 3 dogs so we said the hell with it and cut south at the Grand Parkway and came home.

It helped by then that the storm track and intensity had changed. If it was still a big 4 or 5 and headed for Freeport I'd have had a much tougher decision.

Many thanks to Jeffe who called about the time I was deciding and offered a place at his house. I had doubts I could get to his place on the remaining fuel I had but I knew we could get home.

I don't expect a lot of trouble on the stalled roads for now but if help doesn't arrive it will get nasty.

Bottom line, all plans fall short in some places when they finally get tested. The big flaw in this one was not adjusting the basics as population demographics changed. There are about 10 times as many people south of Houston as there were when the plan was formulated and funneling everyone through the greater Houston area was folly.

Like I said, it was not the Trooper's fault for what was decided but the next time I need to evacuate my family they'll have to shoot me in the back to stop me from doing what I know is best for my family.

Just came home, There are about 7500 to 10,000
stuck here.No gas anywhere. We are getting 20 or so Ice chest filling them with water and going down the road to deliver it to those stuck
on Hwy. guess we can cary 50 gals os at a time.
Then Gard duty at a shelter later. Stay safe guys.
gene

Just got off the phone with my brother-in-law. They evacuated from East Bernard to......Cabelas. He said they have dog kennels and some horse pens set up out there. I don't know if that was done just now or if they are there all the time.

I suggested he check out the African mounts there to show my neice and nephew some of the type of animals Uncle Caleb got in Namibia. Since he's an Aggie, I may have gotten him interested in bongo hunting.

Rita swings north and I live south and I got lucky this time!

So did a lot of us. Our good luck is someone else's misfortune. Best of Luck East Texas and Louisiana. Hang in there!

Thanks Guys!
It's Friday, 6 PM in Missouri City, SW of Houston. Just a little wind clouds the rain hasn't made it here yet. I think Houston and Galveston dodged a big bullet this time!

An estimated 2.7 Million people evacuated the area. Now you know why there was such a nightmare on the roads leading away from the coast.

Rusty, if you are even close to the number who evac'd the coast. All things considered, it went very smooth for a first time event and the largest evac ever in the country. That would mean close to ONE MILLION cars left the area.

Hog Killer

I live in Tomball and channel 2 news just said I may not even get any rain. I spent the last two days preparing for the storm; I guess I'll spend tomorrow watering my yard.

quote:

Originally posted by Lhook7:
I live in Tomball and channel 2 news just said I may not even get any rain. I spent the last two days preparing for the storm; I guess I'll spend tomorrow watering my yard.

I was looking forward to a good big rain. My yard and the pasture are all burned up. It's been really dry here. 6-8" would of rain would be real welcome. So far got nothing but a little wind, and not much of that.

Hog Killer

I'm in Spring and we've had about 10 drops so far, it's just a little breezy. Feel sorry for the folks further East.

Channel 2, that's where I work!

They now say that the west side might escape serious damage. I could use a little rain, but glad this is hitting to the east.

First rain band approaching with full rainbow.
I could only capture a side at a time. It was beautiful!

Many of the folks I worked with for 20+ years were relocated to Clear Lake in the early 90's. Almost all of the folks that I can find made it to higher ground.

Some spent as much as 26 hours in the Great I-45 Parking Lot. Some returned to Houston after 10 to 12 hours on the road. Fortunately, they are being quartered by folks who live away from Clear Lake and Armand Bayu.

SCARY!!!

Very best wishes and our small prayers to all those in the area.

I'm about 70 miles north of Houston and there were probably 1000 cars stopped along I-45 either out of gas or waiting for more gas to travel on north. It looked like the Grapes of Wrath. I can not imagine what would happen if a terrorist event occurred in Houston. People would literally be killing each other on the road to get out of the city. It wouldn't be pretty when they got here with no food, water or gas. We would try to help but just like this evacuation we would be overwhelmed.

quote:

Originally posted by mufasa:
I'm about 70 miles north of Houston and there were probably 1000 cars stopped along I-45 either out of gas or waiting for more gas to travel on north. It looked like the Grapes of Wrath. I can not imagine what would happen if a terrorist event occurred in Houston. People would literally be killing each other on the road to get out of the city. It wouldn't be pretty when they got here with no food, water or gas. We would try to help but just like this evacuation we would be overwhelmed.

mufasa /

You took the words out of my mouth as the famous song goes ..

You know how all the F..k wits of the world laugh and berate your esteeemed President GWB when he says that terrorisim is for real and we collectively must confront tk evil SOB'S head on even pre-emptive strike them and their followers and supporters worldwide /

Well, I was just thinking about the same as you,

If these fundimentalists get hold of say a dirty bomb or similar chemical thing and released it in one of you MAJOR population based US cities, then you chaps are in BIG TIME shit .... so be VERY careful when GWB warns you and the world he is serious

Good luck with the Hurricanes, wishing you all safe passage

Peter

quote:

Channel 2, that's where I work!

Rusty, maybe you can help me understand something. Do you know why the reporters don't have enough sense to come out of the rain when doing their reports. All you get is lousy wind blown audio while watching some idot get pelted by rain in the middle of a hurricane. It's just a matter of time before one of them gets drilled by a flying 2X4 or sliced in half by a windblown sign. But I guess if they had enough sense to come out of the rain they would have chosen a different profession.