Rita

[auntbeast]

I just want to wish you and all of your loved ones God's grace in weathering Rita this weekend.

[D-Vader]

Thanks, Cindy. And I wish you and your geocachers well, as well.

I'm hoping that Rita's not as bad as they're predicting, because I don't think this house will hold up well to 100+ mph winds. I need to throw all the stuff in the yard (bike, David's toys, etc) into the garage and cross my fingers.

Is it too late to pick up some renter's insurance?

If you guys haven't picked up some supplies, you may want to get out there before it's all gone. Rod and I hit HEB last night when he got off work and found there was not much left. Christy went out this morning and found that there was even less this morning.

Has anyone heard from Phoung? John said he tried calling her, but kept getting the 'all circuits busy' deal.

Good luck everyone, and we'll see you on the other side of Rita!

[DarthMaximus]

I heard on the news that HEB and Walmart are "supposed" to get more water and batteries in and to check back occasionally. I was at Target this morning and they had very little water and plenty of batteries except "D" size. Flashlights were pretty scarce also. I picked up a really bright LED one. I think I'm all set for the weekend now.

[Amidala Starkiller]

Haven't heard from her either. Joe's uncle lives down that way too. We haven't heard anything either.

I guess I'll go supply hunting tonight *ugh*

[Amidala Starkiller]

And it looks like the lady has been downgraded to a 4 and is now moving more to Louisiana. Even though it is a 4 now it still very dangerous as we all know.

And a friendly remember folks, look after those pets. Nothing has made me madder then seeing people abandon pets after Katrina.

[Jedi_Pfaff]

Hey guys!

I have evacuated Houston like almost everyone else. I am in Austin now staying with some of Drew's friends. We moved all of our belongings to higher ground and are hoping for the best. Thanks guys for thinking of us. I hope to be keeping in touch.

[Amidala Starkiller]

Wow I'm glad you are safe Phoung.

[D-Vader]

Well, I think you might need to head up here if things calm down some!

[auntbeast]

Sounds like everyone is hunkered down and ready for Rita. WalMart in Hewitt was a mess today. However, when I was there this morning I noticed they were getting shipments of size D batteries, flashlights and propane canisters. However they were completely out of water. A clerk said there was more coming. We actually found some at CVS on the corner of Estates and HWY 84.

A buddy of mine from Florida who weathered Charlie called today and reassured me that his little house in Orlando made it through 105 mph winds with no damage. He said to prepare to be out of power for a few days and expect a few trees to fall, but other than that, all should be ok. That made me feel a bit better.

[D-Vader]

I don't think this will be as bad as predicted. I think everyone is just being overly cautious because of Katrina. Always err on the side of caution. I think we may see heavy winds and some decen amount of rain, but I don't think it'll ruin anysort of weekend. I think if the power goes out, it may be out for a few hours, tops.

If only we'd had time to prepare, we could have had a hurricane party and called it Hurricane Marga-Rita! hehe... but anyway....

[SaberKnight76]

Sweet, I am there for that one, I'll bring the Salt......

Sorry, I haven't posted anything about Rita, Glad you are safe Phoung, I had a friend that lives in Friendswood and she just left today, said traffic was terrible.....

It has been crazy, at Lowe's we have 33 stores that have been closed since 3pm today and some sooner than that. We also have a total of 51 stores under our Command Center Watch, all the way up to Temple.

As far as the water and batteries goes, we sold 10 pallets of water in the last 2 days, its all gone, we are also out of D cell batteries as well, I think the only thing we have left is scented candles,mini-flashlights and glow sticks.

As far as prepared we have moved everything in the garage and stocked up on water, batteries etc....

[DarthMaximus]

I'm glad you made it out of Houston, Phuong. I hope your family is well.

[D-Vader]

Just looked at weather.com. The current projected path of Rita doesn't take it much past I-45, so we may not see much of its effects, aside from some slight rain. But then again, if you guys tracked Ophelia, you know that these hurricanes can be somewhat unpredictable.

- edit - CNN's projections are a bit wider and show Rita hitting west of Waco too.... CNN's flood projections show that Galveston, Port Arthur, and Texas City will all be submerged. The seawall in Galveston should help subdue some of the initial force, but I'm betting that Galveston may end up like New Orleans. Good news is that the winds have slowed somewhat. But then again, so did Katrina...

[Jedi_Pfaff]

Hey guys!

Thanks for thinking of me. I am trying to see if I could borrow a car and drive down there before we go. Since Houston is not in the direct line anymore, I am not sure when we will start heading back. I'll keep in touch.

[D-Vader]

I know it's not over quite yet, but it looks like we got a little rain and some strong wind.... everyone doing alright?

[DarthMaximus]

Didn't get any rain here, just some gusty breezes...

[D-Vader]

Something I find a bit ironic...

Some of the Katrina evacuees in Houston were relocated elsewhere, some to Shreveport, others to Arkansas. Is it me, or did Rita just follow after those who escaped Katrina? Right now, Weather.com is showing that the Rita depression is centered in Arkansas.

[ObiWanFTW]

rita made a abrupt right turn before it went ashore thats why we didnt get any rain.

[auntbeast]

Well we definately dodged a bullet here in Waco! As for your theory Toby--hopefully it's not true--I'll start to wonder though if all the victims from Katrina and Rita are settled and a storm hits that area once again . Just finished a shift as hall monitor for the evacuees at the 7th & James St. church--a bunch of tired families anxious to get home. Many of them left this morning around 7:30. Some were refinery workers that were expected to be back on the job tomorrow morning, thus the reason for ignoring many of the warnings to stay put for a few days. I'd be anxious to get back too--especially if there was a chance that I'd have lost my home AND my job.

Also, I'm still thinking about Toby's Marga-Rita party....now that we have something to celebrate......

[SaberKnight76]

Yeah, I am glad we dodged that bullet as well.

At Lowe's we still have alot of people buying gas cans, We got in 40 5gal Gas cans and they were gone in just a few hours, i think they were people who were heading back to Houston, I hear they are still having a gas shortage. We did have some people returning batteries and flash lights, but I think most people are going to keep them and be ready just in case, since we still have time in Hurricane Season. People are still calling for generators, but we don't have any, all of ours were sent to to Louisana and the other surrounding states.