Rita

[Graham]

My heart goes out to all those whose lives are being turned upside down by hurricane Rita, those in Florida, Texas and wherever else it hits.

I find it hard to imagine what it must be like. Our prayers are with the region.

Are there any xmarkers affected?

[davedove]

At least most people have learned their lesson from Katrina and are following the evacuation orders. The government has also prepositioned a lot of supplies in preparation.

Another blessing is that New Orleans will not be hit again. My heart truly goes out to those who were evacuated to Houston and now have to be evacuated again.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

I echo the sympathies, especially for those displaced by Katrina and now facing another evacuation. Having lived on the west coast of Florida for most of my life (until re-locationg to Chicago this year), we have experienced many hurricanes. We thought last year was as bad as it could get with 3 large hurricanes hitting Florida in the span of 6 weeks, but this year has been even worse for large hurricanes, and we are pretty much at the peak of the season but still have until November 30 before the season is officially over.

Hopefully Rita will lose some strength before making landfall.

RJI

[jfellrath]

My wife is from Houston originally. She left town just as Allison hit back in 2001, and talked about all the flooding (Houston's drainage is apparently not very good).

She still has lots of friends down there and has offered them all a place to stay in Columbus if anyone needs to go that far. I think we may have one taker - a friend of hers who is from New Orleans and had evacuated to Houston with his wife and two girls.

[Jimmy Carbomb]

I'm having a couple friends of mine from Houston to stay in Philadelphia for the next week. They had a vacation planned for New Orleans to celebrate their 20th Anniversary, but that was nixxed by the last hurricane.

I've never seen anything like this hurricane season, and I'm one of those weather fanatics. Growing-up in Kansas, I had to know the stuff so that we could clear the fields prior to tornadoes, dust storms, or whatever. Two category-5's in the Gulf in one year is unprecedented, but like DaveDove said... atleast we've learned the lesson from Katrina and shipped-out the infirmed and elderly LONG before the thing hit.

My guess is that we'll be paying in the range of $4 (usd) for gas, and shipping water and supplies to Galveston and Houston within days. Oh boy.??:

[jjoseph]

I'm in Abilene... about dead center of Texas and a 7 hour drive inland from the coast. I'm originally from about an hour northwest of Houston and my mate there who works animal control called me in tears the other night -- they got all this overflow from Katrina and now they are catching evacuated animals from Galveston and Houston (this is before Rita even gets here, so rescue will be a lot worse) and they are just exhausted. Most folks don't think too much of the displaced, lost or abandoned pets not to mention the displaced wild animals. I'm totally amazed by what some of these lost creatures go through. Because so few are microchipped here in the South and in Texas, it's near impossible to locate an owner if the collar or tags get parted from the animal. A lot of the overflow are shipped to shelters outside their own communities, so there is no way for an owner to track them down either. It's a real mess. And their prospects, even if rescued are not always so good. GET YOUR PET MICROCHIPPED!!! Then there are the wild animals who are suddenly in the middle of our mess -- not safe for them, not safe for us.

Folks at the coast are taking it seriously; even here, all our hotels/motels are full. It looks like we're better prepared than Louisianna and they are not forecasting a huge storm surge this time, so hopefully Texas will be spared the chaos that Katrina left in its wake.

Abilene is on the western edge of the potential storm track..... it's so odd.... to live in a land where even the billboards say, "Pray for rain", and yet there's good reason to worry when the sky gets dark.

Keep all the workers who keep the rest of us safe in your thoughts, y'all. ...And thanks for thinking of us Graham.

[MacSimoin]

Just a 'heads up' on macsim who's down in Mississippi right now helping out with the mass clean-up effort there. Please keep him in your thoughts and pray that he gets back home safely to his family in North Carolina. He should be home by this Saturday---he's been down there since Saturday last.

Go raibh maith agaibh (thank you).

[mkmound]

We're in the Dallas area, and are expected to catch heavy winds and rain two to three days after landfall (we're about 250 - 300 miles from the coast).

My parents live on the west side of Houston, in an area that's high enough that's never flooded before in previous storms or hurricanes. They're on their way up here today. I suspect that they're in for a VERY long, hot day.

Regards,
Mark

[jjoseph]

We're in the Dallas area, and are expected to catch heavy winds and rain two to three days after landfall (we're about 250 - 300 miles from the coast).

My parents live on the west side of Houston, in an area that's high enough that's never flooded before in previous storms or hurricanes. They're on their way up here today. I suspect that they're in for a VERY long, hot day.

Saw the lines of cars on the news. At least they've shut down the southbound interstate so that there are 8 lanes of traffic northbound on I-45. The latest update has the big rain east of me.... that means YOU! I hear they are expecting 15-30" (up to 72 cm) !!! I lived in Dallas a while. THAT will be insane with all the extra cars fleeing your direction.

Go west young man!

[jjoseph]

Oh, a buddy of mine (music prof. in Brownsville~~that's the southern tip of the state for those unfamiliar) says they are closing roads going north and east towards Corpus. Guess anyone traveling will need to check w/ the hwy dept. or Tx D.O.T. before getting on the road.