Prepoceros

Fifth Third most intense storm in US history—looks like Rita isn’t kidding around. But we’ve learned our lesson, and Houston isn’t kidding around either. We’ve been evacuating hardcore since very early this morning, starting with Galveston and the other barrier islands and moving inland. All three “storm zones” down by the coast are under mandatory evacuations, and the mayor is strongly encouraging the rest of the city to get the hell out of Dodge.

It seems that most people are listening: the grocery stores are empty, gas stations are either out of gas or sporting lines around the block, and all the highways have turned to parking lots. I obviously haven’t been out along the evacuation routes, but I get the impression that the general mood is still positive despite the heavy congestion.

The radio stations and local websites have been yammering about the fine points of exactly how strong Rita will be when it gets here. It’s a Category 5 storm, BUT it will probably weaken as it gets close to land, BUT the storm surge will still be enormous, BUT it’s set to hit south of here, BUT that will put us on the “dirty side” of the storm, with the highest winds, etc.

So it’s a little uncertain. What we know for sure is that it *will* be an awful storm, but that most of Houston will still be standing after it all blows over.

Nearly everyone I know is on their way out of town. As for me, I was planning to ride it out in my apartment, but I’ve been convinced to head up to my parents’ house instead. They’re leaving Friday morning to visit my brother in Nashville, but we’ve got a big, sturdy, comfy house on the NW side of the city. Rita is supposed to be a combination of the winds of Alicia and the flooding of TS Allison, and this house has withstood both, so I’m feeling pretty confident about its structural integrity.

A little poking around on the internet revealed that my apartment complex, just north of Brays Bayou, is in the 100-year flood plain, while my house, a little farther south of Cypress Creek, is not. Good to know. I’ll be watching the BayouCam from my house.

I’m impressed at how far in advance of the storm the evacuations have begun, and how well organized they are. Everything’s running on a schedule, and as far as I know it’s all going as planned. Just over an hour ago the police reversed the southbound lanes of the Gulf Freeway and locked down many of the evacuation routes by blocking most of the on- and off-ramps. In the next two days, I believe most of the major freeways will be converted to one-way streets to keep things moving. All the tolls on the outbound tollways have been lifted, and the HOV restrictions will be lifted started tomorrow morning. All very calm and orderly.

I bought all my storm groceries this morning while I was marketing in Katy, a small town west of Houston along I-10 (and thus relatively far out of Rita’s way), and even THEY were out of bottled water and batteries. Thank goodness I remembered to fill up on gas while I was out there and gas was still $2.69 with no lines—some of the stations in my part of town were already out of gas YESTERDAY.

Tonight I’ll gather up all my stuff worth keeping and cover it with garbage bags, pack, take out the trash, and try to get to bed early so that I can wake up ass-early tomorrow. The radio is saying that the traffic is thinning slightly, so hopefully it’ll be passable by 4 or 5 in the morning. Still, I’m planning to have to dodge along the back roads to avoid the evacuating hordes. Normally the trip takes 40 or 45 minutes; I think I’ll be lucky to get there in under two hours. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Tags: Hurricane Rita

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 at 8:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.