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.
13 replies on “Perspective…”
Stay safe!
If I were in Houston and I didn’t have any reason to stay, I would be getting the hell out of there. Why risk it? I saw the damage a category 2 hurricane did in Richmond, there’s no way I would stick around for a category 5 storm!
If I still lived in Houston, you could color me gone. I’d be in…I dunno…Montana sounds really nice this time of year. I rode out Alicia, and that was my one allotted hurricane for my lifetime.
Christine, I hope you, Mike and Jason make it to Austin safely — although, from radio reports, it will be a looooooooooooooooooooong trip for you. Some folks have been trying to get to Austin from Houston and have been on the road for 12 hours!
And, be safe while in Austin — hopefully we won’t get hit as badly as they predict.
Big Pink Cookie In Austin
Christine mentioned that some people wondered why she elected to leave as opposed to riding out the storm…..because it was her decision. This thing is fucking *huge.* Follow your gut instinct and your own common sense. If you're close to the pat…
in 2001 (is that when ALlison hit?) my boys house and car flooded, he lived Bellaire. Anything is possible! I am glad you are getting out and hope others i know and love in Houston are too! Stay Safe!!!!!!! XO
I don’t think I’m brave for staying behind, but I do think if we tried to leave now we’d be stuck in our car somewhere when it was time to be inside somewhere.
Though, if I had children, I would have been out of Houston yesterday morning, no question. I wasn’t nearly as worried yesterday as today; actually though I think it is just anxious-ness waiting to see what’s going to happen and left over nerves from all the emotions we’ve gone through the last couple of days w/ my mother!
Drink a margarita for us! My sister and her family and Michael’s brother and his wife and her side of the family are all going to be in Austin, too…so say hello!!! Be safe!!!
Drive safe drink a ‘rita’ for me.
I don’t know who would be so foolish as to give you a bad time for leaving. True, there’s a lot of parts of the city that don’t need to evacuate, but if you have a place to stay, that’s one less family the city has to worry about it thinks don’t go as well.
I’m sorry for the folks north, but I sure hope this heads the 20 or so miles north of Galveston, as it looks right now (subject, of course, to the fact that weather never does as it is planning).
This would spare most of the home damage and harm to life, but it sure will take out the oil fields.
Time to get a horse.
Anyway, take care.
take care, stay safe and enjoy that visit (and a margarita or three)! from everything i’ve heard, Rita is gonna be a big one. my wife heard yesterday that her company’s (Chevron) offices in Houston have been closed. when they start closing the skyscrapers, you know it’s big!
They are predicting that 1/4 of the windows will be blown out of the skyscrapers in downtown, if the wind is at 70-90 mph. If it is up to 110mph (which it could be), then it will of course be worse – a lot worse.
*sigh* We’re in for one hell of a ride.
We’re not brave, but we are NOT going to be able to spend 11 hours in a car with a baby, a dog, and seven freaked out cats. So, if the traffic situation doesn’t improve, we’re going to have to tough it out here.
I hope you didn’t think my earlier comment about my wishing I could evac to where you live as ‘thinking you’re crazy for evacuating’. I wasn’t planning on evacuating at that time, and lived so much further south that I was nervous about it being like Alicia or worse.
But as the news reports showed Rita worsening, and still headed straight at us (at the time), I changed my mind and freaked to hubby about evacuating. I’m guessing the people thinking you’re crazy for evacuating didn’t see the “worst case scenario” flood model for Houston and surrounding areas shown repeatedly on the news. Scary stuff!