Texas Members; Hurricane Rita...Your Preparations

Now the winds are up to 175mph. The gusts are up to 215mph. It has slowed to 9mph.

It is now forcasted to slam Texas just south of Galveston/Houston.

As a resident of west Houston since 1980 and a survivor of Alicia and Allison, I say this;

Get out! Get out now. If you stay, the chance of you dying from any number of events is.........whatever.

Travel from Galveston to Houston, normally a 1 hour trip, is now 4 hours.

Get out everyone. Im not being an alarmist. Im being realistic.

Get out!

LEAVE!!!
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Okay guys!

Hit Dallas about an hour ago. Will really be PO'd if you Gen, you Zip, you Love, or you elf DON'T get out.

Hey! I left Bay City at 2:45 and saw boat parades, motor home shows, cows, cats, dogs, dead deer, and other anomalies people don't normally flaunt on the open road. Even a few freezers and fridges, thrown in with a kitchen sink. Seriously.

The blue highway route took close to 9 hours compared to around 5 and a half on I45. And after spending many wasted minutes in traffic (read three mile long jams entering the small towns), decided to get back to I45.

Have to hand it the Sealy and Bellville people, they had constables and officers at the major intersections directing traffic. And doing a great job under the circumstances (temps there were in the 100's).

On Hwy 6 noted a flashing sign warning motorists there were no shelters available and directing them to the next possible location which was College Station about 35 miles away.

Finally picked up I45 at Madisonville and watched as it became a red light ribbon heading north at sundown. And continued that way until well passed Corsicana. Traffic thinned some in Ennis and I was one happy traveller when I hit Central and 635!

Safety is job 1? Right? So like Robert DeNiro said to Nick Nolte in Cape Fear, "Get out, get out, wherever you are!"






[edit on 22-9-2005 by garyo1954]

I 45 just made all lanes outbound

The Delco Center shelter is full in Austin. New open shelter is LBJ High School just off Hwy 290.

Get out folks!

i dont live in bay city but my aunt does and she evacing this morning. she said there out of ply wood so they cant board up the house. there expecting to come back to no house. i guess they shut down the main highway around 10pm so there tryin to hurry. the people of texas are in my prayers. ( and wahts up with the ending with an a in the hurricanes, katrin A, ophilli A spelling i no, rit A)

For those who are comming to the Dallas area.
They have set up an emergency shelter info line.
Once you are here, call 211 and they will direct you to the local shelters.
Good luck all,
Latest on I45, it is bumper to bumper for over 150 miles heading north so if you are still in the coastal region you may want to use another route.

I live between I-10 and Westheimer. They are both parking lots at this point. If I attempted to leave, I don't think I'd get two blocks in two days.

I'll be okay, though. They're saying it will move more easterly this morning, so here around Highway 6 and Westheimer I should just be getting a good windy drenching, I think.

Zip

Went ahead and topped this, while the storm is active...

This is a GREAT idea Worldwatcher, and should allow us all as members to not only make sure our members are safe, but also allow them to share valuable traffic/shelter info, etc.

I'm glad to see people taking this monster seriously... You can bet that I'd be leaving Dodge too...and I'm right across the street from a shelter! I don't play with cat 4 and 5 hurricanes...time to leave....

On the news just now, a mother and daughter were interviewed on the freeway in their pickup truck. They had been on the road since 9:30pm last night and have only gotten 15 or so miles. It is 2:30pm here at the moment.

Zip

If you are in Dallas, (or anywhere in Texas) I noticed that quite a number of gas stations on the busiest areas are already out of gas. There's probably enough left for everyone to top off, but don't wait till Saturday to do it. I also noticed when I stopped off at a Wal Mart that almost all the bottled water was gone. Still plenty of batteries, junk food, and such so it's not a complete loss yet.

I'm going to put some bags of water in the freezer just in case we lose power Sunday. Ya never know.

For those on I35E heading north
In the Dallas area
The Frankford exit has a RaceTrak that is still serving gas up for $2.60 (als they have some great coffee)
Heading north from there, the Next 4 exits have service stations that still have gas (as of 7:30CDT) ranging from $2.79 up to $2.99

Arrived in Slidell yesterday morning. Normally 9 hour trip took 10 hours, so wasn't too bad of a drive. Spent 1.5 hours in congested traffic in Houston, but clear sailing all the way east.

Broke my heart driving through Slidell. Katrina really hurt this city bad. Lots of businesses still not open, long line for gas. Lower parts of Slidell under flood evacuation now.

Staying with my friends (across the street from my old house). I see what these people have to go through on a daily basis just to get food and water. Long gas lines and people are really stressed out. Tempers on the edge. I don't look forward going back to this in Corpus.

My house in Corpus is 1/4 mile from the bay in Nuecec county. I expect water damage due to possible flooding. Will stay here until safe to go back.

New Orleans already flooding. We may lose power here. Will try to keep you up to date.

BTW Cat still runny but otherwise fine. Stressed from being caged.

Are any members actually riding this one out in the area??? I hope not.
At least it looks like it may lessen to Cat 3 before striking, so that's good news....

Stay safe you guys... Good luck with everything... Personally, I think much of TX will get spared most of this, and LA will be taking the brunt... Looks like the hit will be somewhere between Port Arthur TX and Marsh Island LA....

I'm riding it out in Houston... The traffic yesterday pretty much made that decision for me. I'll be okay, though. Right now I'm trying to get all my guitars and electronics to high ground.

Zip

If you haven't done so yet, turn your refrigerator and freezers to the highest setting now.

Take a nice hot shower, cook yourself and family a good meal. And hunker down.

And remember never open a window during the hurricane, not even a crack. It doesn't help relieve pressure and is more of a danger since winds can breach your structure and actually push up on your roof.

Don't forget the kids, constant hurricane coverage can be stressfull, allow them time to watch cartoons, play games and just be kids. Have games ready, such as cards that you can play if the power goes out.

For all of you who didnt get any or enough bottled water. Keep in mind that your hot water heater holds a lot of water. Turn off the circut breaker for your hot water heater, and there should be a little spicket. Just like those on the outside of your house. There is plenty of water in there that is just fine for drinking. I think most hold 30 gal. of water.

EDIT: remember to shut off the water to the hot water tank so that none of the water in the tank gets contaminated.


Also, shut off the water to your house so that your pips do not get contaminated. After you do this, say you have a 2 story house, if you open up a faucet up stairs you can drain all the water out of your pipes downstairs.


[edit on 23-9-2005 by mrsdudara]

[edit on 23-9-2005 by mrsdudara]

Good luck all in the path!

Remember to check back in to ATS as soon as you can to let us know you are ok

Thinking of you all

Checking in to see who is where and what the plans are. Glad to see you here zip, even if you are there.

Zip Stay in touch, k?

Still looking for news from Gen, elf, or Dr. Love.

Thinking of everybody out there, down there and in the zone.

North Texas..Denton Co.All is well here...first band is over us, wind is up.all is good!

Austin, Texas all is fine. We have 39 shelters full to the maximum. We're not going to get hit at all. I bought 12 cases of bottled water last Tuesday when CNN announced it would hit here. Does anyone know how long bottled water will keep?

Well if you are in the dfw area, the latest forecasts are now only giving us a 50% chance of getting rain.
I am in Irving at the moment and all is well.