Hurricane Rita Alert (update)

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Hurricane fatigue set in, so I’m horrified to admit now that I haven’t followed the latest developments on Hurricane Rita. Until I heard this morning that it had been upgraded to a Category 5 storm, headed directly towards Houston. That’s where my Ammi lives!! sepiarita2.jpg.jpg

Several desperate phone calls later, Ammi intrepidly reports from my sister’s place in California:

They evacuated people from Galvaston and Corpus Christi. And they told people living near the coast, or near the bayous to leave. For everyone else, they kept saying not to panic…but if you can leave, go. But not to panic..it was really confusing.

Rita was downgraded to a Katrina-level Category 4 a few hours ago:

The National Hurricane Centre said the path of Rita, with top winds dropping slightly to 265 kph and is now a Category 4 storm, had shifted toward the north. It appeared to be headed toward Galveston and Houston…forecast to hit Texas as no less than a Category 3 storm with winds of up to 209 kph.

1.3 million Texans told to evacuate…Bumper-to-bumper traffic jams filled the region’s highways. Area stores were scrambling to keep supplies on the shelves while gas stations with fuel to sell dwindled to a precious few.

Maj. Gen. Charles Rodriguez of the Texas National Guard told CNN they have 3,500 troops on the ground and expect to have 5,000 by Friday evening and Saturday morning.[link]

Lessons learned:

Along the Gulf Coast, federal, state and local officials heeded the bitter lessons of Katrina: Hundreds of buses were dispatched to evacuate the poor. Hospital and nursing home patients were cleared out. And truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals as well as rescue and medical teams were put on standby. [link]

But still confusion:

Houston Mayor Bill White said passengers should plan for waits of at least four hours at airports because of the failure of Transportation Security Administration employees to show up for work…At William P. Hobby Airport, some airline employees said only two TSA screeners were at work this morning.[link]

My mom asks us to pray for those who couldn’t leave. And please don’t forget to donate to the Red Cross.

Update: Officials STILL can’t get it right:

As many as 2.5 million people jammed evacuation routes on Thursday, creating colossal 100-mile-long traffic jams that left many people stranded and out of gas…[Mayor] White and the top official in Harris County, Judge Robert Eckels, admitted that their plans had not anticipated the volume of traffic. They maintained that they had not urged such a widespread evacuation, although only a day earlier they invoked the specter of Hurricane Katrina, and told residents that the “time for waiting was over.”

Officials also made matters worse for themselves by announcing at one point that they would use inbound lanes on one highway to ease the outbound crush, only to abort the plan later, saying it was impractical…

Noting the difficulty medical examiners have had in identifying the dead from Hurricane Katrina, [LA Gov. Kathleen] Blanco offered morbid advice to those who refuse to evacuate. “Perhaps they should write their Social Security numbers on their arms in indelible ink.” [link]

What the hell is wrong with these people! Why on earth weren’t they reviewing evacuation plans for Houston the minute things went to hell in New Orleans? My mom lives near a bayou and the roads flood whenever a storm hits. She even had to bail out of her car once. Houstonians, please share your worries and concerns in the comments. We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Related posts: 1, 2.

15 thoughts on “Hurricane Rita Alert (update)”

  1. A number of us SM bloggers have had to retreat from our Bureau assignments back to the ND bunker. Vinod’s parents are now living at HQ so yours are welcome as well Cicatrix. Also my cell phone doesn’t work because it’s a Houston number.

  2. Do you know if Katy is considerably more inland than Houston? I just heard from family that this is the farthest they’ve been able to get due to the traffic.

  3. Sorry, that was a dumb question- just looked it up- it’s not very far west from Houston, and they started this morning. Not good…

  5. many thanks Abhi. My youngest sister goes to school in New Orleans, so the family’s been sort of plagued by hurricanes this year. Everyone’s safe though. Thanggod 🙂

    Brimful, my Houston geography sucks since my folks moved there after I left for college. I’m fairly sure it’s more inland though.

  6. Abhi…. texting still works on cellphones with Houston numbers. Try that. It is small bursty data and works well where phone calls are impossible due to peaking demands.

    ‘txtng gts da msg thru’

  7. Katy is slightly inland…..so a bit safer…one probably should stay on course once oubound….the exit from houston is aweful but the storm is still 36 hours away and most of the people on the roads currently would reach dallas/austin/san-ant by that time…..

    i need to get going too…..got called to the hospital for emergency cover last night so couldnt leave…..there are a total of 12 cars remaining in my apartment complex as of now(kinda scary looking)…..

    damn i hate such inconveniences….

  8. Traffic is a mess and the storm track is shifting west to Lousiana. At the point, if you live on the west side of the city, it may be best to sit tight. Katy is quite far west — should be fine as long as you don’t live near any trees.

  9. Latest update: they’ve opened all lanes going both ways on I45 and I10, outbound (counterflow) to Dallas and San Antonio. My wife, mother and kids left yesterday @ 4pm..they didn’t reach Dallas until 10am this morning. To think they were the lucky ones, others who’ve started out a bit later were stuck on almost all lanes out of Houston. The stories were heartbreaking today of babies and the elderly stranded out in almost 100 F heat. I did not have any peace of mind until my wife called and said they had reached safely. No signs of any crazy weather here yet, probably tommorow night. I’ve spent the last three days preparing my parents home and mine for the worst. I work in the local hospital in the medical center here, I will have to ride out the storm here near Downtown. Flooding is a possible. The stores all crazy, theres barely any food on the shelves and every gas station in town has run out of fuel. Hopefully Rita will keep moving more north and east. I’m a proud Houstonian and, we will overcome this. Keep us in your thougts and prayers.

  10. It’s been bad going out of Houston – unfortunately, it may be even worse coming back into Houston after the storm passes. All the fuel supplies along the way will have been exhausted. The evacuation had some semblance of being staggered. The re-entrance into Houston will not be staggered. Hopefully people will be more prepared on the return, if any such thing is even possible.

    A relative of mine made the Houston-Dallas journey using the back roads as much as possible instead of highways. It took him considerably less time to get to Dallas than those who used the highways.

  11. Sri Lankan-sounding family stranded on the freeway:

    “I don’t know what to do,” said Nissanka Dharmawardene, who left Wednesdsay evening with his wife and two children from their home in Clear Lake, a flood-prone area in south Houston. Almost 36 hours later, they were on the grassy shoulder of Interstate 45, about 50 miles from home. Their gas-starved car was pointed northbound on the normally southbound lane, a result of officials who rerouted traffic Thursday in an unprecedented step to relieve horrific congestion… “Last night we were bewildered. Now we are hoping, waiting for trucks to come,” said Dharmawardene, 52.

  12. Aloha from Hawaii!

    To all of you out there evacuating the Hurricanes: Our prayers are with you. May the blessings of our Heavenly Father be with you always. We will all get through this and all the trials and tribulations will bring us closer together as ONE NATION UNDER GOD, brothers and sisters seeking one purpose in this life to keep peace and harmony in our daily lives.

    We feel for you and we love you and WE KNOW that you’re strong enough to make it through. Our leaders are doing the best they can, let us say a silent prayer in our hearts. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will hear our sincere prayers. Let us all practice the brotherhoods and sisterhoods of love and forgiveness during these times of hardships.

    Much love and ALOHA from Hawaii.