The calm before the storm
Yes, yes, it’s a cliche, but it really is strangely calm around here. The weather was gorgeous today—blue skies, little puffy clouds—and unless you got near a freeway, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot going on. It’s strange to think that in 24 hours or so things will begin to look a lot different…more hellish, perhaps.
So far, I’m glad I stayed. I’ve had a relatively uneventful day (and even taught a lesson!), spent mostly in the air conditioning taking care of a few last-minute things and relaxing. Many of the people evacuating, on the other hand, are having a rough time of it. The ones who left early yesterday are mostly to their destinations by now, but people are running out of gas all over the place. TXDOT has said that they’ll only be able to get fuel trucks out to people on the “recommended” evacuation routes (I-45 and I-10), so anyone else who runs out of gas is basically screwed.
Hurricane Rita is definitely tracking to the east of the city now, which is good for us, but bad for Beaumont (where it appears to be headed now) and Louisiana. I imagine the folks from further down the coast, where the storm was originally predicted to make landfall, the people who gutted their homes in preparation for a direct hit and have been sitting in traffic for the last 24 hours, are getting mighty pissed right about now. Or maybe they’re happy their homes won’t get blown over. All I know is that when it’s all said and done and everyone’s got their blame-fingers out, evacuation-route management is going to be our levee-maintenance.
My parents were supposed to fly out of IAH at 7:30 tomorrow, but Continental cancelled their flight. My dad wanted to try and drive to Nashville, or maybe drive to Dallas and catch a plane to Nashville, but my mom wasn’t so keen on sitting in traffic, so it looks like they’ll be riding out the storm here with me.
I’ve been fiddling with this computer thingy for a while, and I still haven’t figured out where WordPress is keeping my images after I upload them, so I’ve put them all on my Flickr account (which I should really be using more anyway). You can see my pre-Rita photoset here.
Tags: Hurricane Rita