Month: September 2005

Here is the latest update from the BPC Hurricane Center:

We have planned out at least 3 non-highway routes out of Houston. None of them are on the official evacuation route paths. Hopefully this will keep us out of some of the traffic. Leia has already proved helpful with her amazing map skills, and is on standby if I need her for additional route assistance.

I’ve posted an update in the Blogomania forums. The servers are in Florida, so none of our client’s sites will be affected by the storm.

Pets will be loaded within the next 30 minutes or so. Then it is one last trip to the bathroom before we head out.

We have travelled with Chloe before, so I know she will be ok in the car. I have never travelled with the cats, so … it should be interesting.

I’ll be posting photos through Flickr of the ride out of town. I am prepared to be sitting for a long, long time. But the decision has been made, and we’re heading out. More from the road. (I still can’t find whatever is causing my comments to all end up moderated, so please leave comments but know that they won’t show up until I approve them from Austin.)

I ranted last night about people saying that they didn’t get why others were evacuating. My Mom just reminded me – they have called for an evacuation in *all* of Harris County. It is voluntary, but we have been told to evacuate.

Now if I can just figure out a route out of town.

We finally crashed last night after getting everything packed and watching way too much news. We woke up this morning to discover that all of Houston is a giant parking lot. Every route you might take to leave is solid with cars. My Mom left her house at 7am this morning, and headed up 249 towards Tomball – a route that normally takes 20-30 minutes to drive, My cars engine needed a few rounds of fuel injector cleaners to get it running efficiently again, so I wasn’t able to take my car. It took her SIX HOURS.

Six hours to go 10 miles.

With the windows open and the air conditioner off. It is 97 degrees outside right now.

I don’t want to be here. I want to leave. But I don’t want to be stuck on the road when the storm hits land. So we’re looking at every possible route we might be able to take, and we’re going to get on the road in a little bit. Late, but we’re hoping that when the sun goes down it won’t be so hot.

I’ll post again when we leave, and … well, whenever we arrive at Tara’s house. I’ll log into Yahoo through my cell phone if I can get it set up to work, so if you see me listed as “online” (username: bigpinkcookie), feel free to send me a message. It is going to be a long night.

I was thinking earlier today how impressed I am that people are actually taking this storm seriously. If we have learned one thing from Katrina, it is to pay attention to the storm warnings and leave town when you are told to leave town. Now that Galveston & Houston are facing a potential category 5 hurricane, people are getting out of the path of the storm. But then there are the people that you end up seeing on the news later – the ones saying, “uh uh, I’m not leaving my house!”

Great. So Saturday someone is going to have to go in and rescue you when all hell breaks loose, huh? Makes sense. They tell you to leave for a reason – get out.

Then there are people that think I’m crazy for leaving town. First of all, I will be the first to point out that Houston is very different from New Orleans because we are above sea level. If it floods, it drains. If there is a big storm surge, as we are expecting, the water won’t drain quite as fast because there will be nowhere for it to go. I know all of this – but I still don’t want to stay. It’s great if you’re staying in town, but don’t chastise those people that are leaving. They may have their reasons. Obviously, I have commitments with Blogomania that require me to need internet access and power. But everyone has their reasons for making their choices. As Michael Barry just said on the news, if you can get out – get out. Storms are unpredictible by their very nature. Where I lived when Allison hit had never ever flooded before – but that night, it flooded. All over the place, surrounding where I lived. So why risk it? Why stay?

Once the water starts to rise, it is too late to leave town.

I just don’t get the people beating their chests and bragging about how they made it through all of these other storms in the past. Great. But those storms didn’t have the potential to bring 120 mph winds to your front door. If we learned anything from Allison, realize that anything can happen. Hurricanes have a mind of their own. This can be the time that your house floods. If you want to be there when it happens, more power to you. Me? I would rather be over in Austin, enjoying a visit that Tara and I have actually been trying to make happen for months. We may as well make the most of it – why stay here when I don’t have to? I’ll take my family and our pets, and have a nice weekend.

120 mph winds. I can’t even grasp how bad it is going to be here on Saturday morning.

Once we get to Austin, margaritas are of course on the menu. We’ll be toasting those of you “brave” enough to stay behind.