Has anybody had any word from our Texas guys? I sure hope all is well with them.
Butch

A little bit in this thread.

Although I am a resident of Pearland, I am writing this from Amarillo Texas. Looks like I picked the right hurricane to leave. I would be in the middle of the mess except my daughter had been planning to get married in Amarillo last friday night for almost a year. We left out of intercontinental airport on thursday 9/11.

Three years ago we were faced with hurricane Rita. It was forecasted to come ashore around freeport texas and devestate the Houston/Galveston SMSA. My four brothers, my parents and most of my friends decided to leave. My wife's mother was terminally ill with cancer and could not travel. Consequently we brought her to our house in pearland. I boarded up the windows put in plenty of provisions and water, got a generator and hunkered down. I figured that If I was going to meet my demise, I would do it at my house in my bed, clutching my favorite firearm. Panic ensued and a million or so people tried to evacuate houston all at once. Unbelievable chaos. Some of my family and friends were on the road for up to 40 hours just to get a couple of hundred miles. The hurricane made a right turn and hit along the Texas/Louisiana border. Out of 150 residents in our subdivision, I was one of 3 families that did not evacuate. Consequently I spent the next week in the comfort of my air conditioned home.

Since friday, houston area has been a mess. This hurricane hit just east of houston so much of the storm surge was east toward bolivar,anahuac and Beaumont. From what I can determine by calling and talking with my friends and family, most of the damage came from the wind and storm surge. There was very little flooding due to rainfall except in extreme low lying areas. What happened was that you had a concentrated area with probably 4.5 million people that lost water and electricity 72 hours ago and many areas may not get power or water for a couple of weeks. Consequently, almost no stores are open, meaning no gas, no food. no ice, no A/C (houston is usually around 90degrees and 95% humidity in September).

Power went out around 11:15 pm friday night last Most areas still do not have potable water and electricity. Even people that were prepared did not have enough gas to last more than a couple days. Most people were not prepared. One of my brothers drove 100 miles west on I-10 to get gas to bring back to his house Sunday

I just spoke with one of my brothers down there. He says out of 10 households in our immedate family, only two have power. It's a two hour wait to get 10 gallons of gas. Grocery stores are still closed for the most part, those that are open only have limited amount of dry goods. No ice, milk, meat or perishibles. Two our wait to get into the store.
Home depot in pearland has no power. Only letting one customer in at a time and a store employee has to accompany them at all times. He says if I do not need to come back, don't. I don't and am not.

Worst of all, I was scheduled to go to montana friday the 19th for a fully guided pack in elk hunt just above Yellowstone. Due to the circumsstances, I have had to reschedule.
Oh well, se la vie!
GWB

different parts of town fared better... west of downtown, we never did loose power, only water for less than 24 hrs, monica's mom lives in alvin, south about 20 miles, they've had no power since friday nite, late.. and lost water sunday... lots of blown down trees and power lines... our shop in NW houston is still running on generator power...

Has any one heard from ForrestB?
Butch