I had read a week or two ago that the shrimp and fish in the Gulf area hit by Katrina are gone due to the storm. Also, the oysters were covered by great amounts of mud.
I’m pretty sure we’re saying the same thing. 
This website explains it well, starting with the paragraph, “When hurricanes approach land…” This is also bad for NO, because the farther north Rita passes, the more water will be pushed up toward the levee system (due to counterclockwise motion), and a 1-2 ft surge could easily destroy the repairs.
Wow, Cat 4! Rita had a wild night! I do hope she weakens.
Pet food, water for pets, and pet carriers. Also, take their medications along if they are currently taking any. Please consider your pets’ safety, health and well being.
I am a strong supporter of animal/pet rights. It has broken my heart to see what happened to the animals and pets in NO. I feel for the people as well. It just seems that those who were the worst affected were those who could not do anything to help themselves - i.e. pets and animals. 
Both my parent and consulting companies, both with thousands of employees, have told everyone not to come in Thursday or Friday, to prepare or leave. I see the lots are already starting to empty.
Interesting monitoring that real time traffic link. What was recently just congestion from Galveston to downtown Houston has now spread and is backing up further out the exit arteries to the W, NW and N on 10, 290 and 45. So far though, 59 to the E still looks pretty clear, although good luck finding an empty hotel that direction.
Additionally, cell phone traffic is so high we’re having a number of problems with connecting and having conversations terminated.
I think we’ll soon have a clearer understanding of what our other gulf coast breatheren have been through the last couple of years.
My boss just told me that even though we’re technically open tomorrow, I don’t have to go in. I’m about out of vacation time so she’s actually giving me one of her own vacation days. Best boss ever!
But yeah, it’s virtually impossible to make a cell phone call right now and even out-of-the-way roads are full of people. It’s crazy. Now watch, the storm will take a crazy turn and go to Mexico or something.
She worked for my company. It was really tragic and a horrible way to die. Our offices closed at noon today. I don’t think anyone is going to take this one lightly.
Y’all take care. I went through several hurricanes growing up in Florida, but don’t remember anything as bad as we’ve seen these last few decades.
Mr. Dax and I were planning to vacation in Galveston this weekend for our 5th wedding anniversary
I don’t remember the Texas coast being hit with a storm this strong in a long time…they’re now saying it will likely be a category 5 by the time it makes landfall. We’re up here in Austin, pretty far inland, but I’m sure we’ll see our share of flooding/wind/tornadoes (ohdeargod i have horrible nightmares about tornadoes since being way too close to one as a child…but that’s another story). The city is advising everyone to have supplies on hand, which we will do, but I’m not sure whether we should be boarding up windows or anything??? Anyone have any suggestions? What are the chances we’ll see any significant damage this far from the coast?
We’ve had a trip to Denver on Friday scheduled since June. I hope the airports aren’t too crazy. Our flight leaves at 7:00 am. We return Sunday night around 8:00 pm. I hope it’s not too bad when we get here. IF we can get here.
I’m thinking mother nature doesn’t like me to go on vacation. We drove to Florida on Aug 26, just missing Katrina. This is scary.
I tried to buy water at Wal-Mart today, in case we need it when we get back. It was a madhouse! No water, barely any canned goods left. I did find a case of water at a Stop-n-Go.
This is so scary. My 81-year-old dad and his 81-year-old buddy live in Richmond, my son lives in Katy, and my husband and I live on the west side of Houston. My neighborhood has never flooded in the 15 years I’ve lived here. My dad is baby-sitting my 10-year-old dog, and they have a plan to go to San Angelo (where my dad has family) if necessary.
I hope everyone will be ok. Good luck!
Category 5 now.
Oh no, not again…
Wait. I live in west Houston, the rest of MY family is going to San Angelo, and some of the others (who live in Richmond) may be headed for Denver. Do I know you?
I really hope everything’s going to be okay. I guess all us HouDopers should check in now and then as we can. I just got an email from the Mucky Duck suggesting we all go outside every 15 minutes on the quarter hour and try blowing as hard as we can back in Galveston’s direction.
Well, my half-sister and half-brother and their families live(d) in NO, and now my sister and her family are trying to work their way out of Houston, hopefully first thing tomorrow morning (all plane tickets to San Diego, where my mom lives, are booked). They’ve got family in Kansas and Iowa (in addition to us here in NorCal), so hopefully something works itself out ASAP.
I’ll third this advice (or whatever nmber we’re up to now). I evacuated for Hurricane Frances last year. The normal 4-hour drive to my parents’ house took 14 hours. The traffic was so backed up that it took me 7 hours to go 20 miles.
I just got an e-mail from my aunt. She’s very nervous about the storm, but she and my uncle have no plans to evacuate just yet. I’m getting worried.
Hello all! Another Houston Doper checking in. I am in the Clear Lake Area, firmly ensconced in Zone B of the storm surge evacuation map.
The traffic going up I-45 from Galveston is at a virtual standstill. The news reports say that it is taking more than 12 hours to go from Galveston to Huntsville (about 100 miles). The majority of gas stations in area are out of fuel, store shelves are nearly empty, cats are living with dogs…it’s mass chaos down here.
I am at work right now (Hobby airport area), and am still mulling over as to whether or not I am going to evacuate. I will probably decide to leave, but I would be lying if I said that part of me wants to stay and witness what will undoubtedly be an awesome spectacle of nature. I already have a twelve-pack of Shiner Bock laid in, just in case I do stay.
I will check in later. Take care everyone!
I just got off the phone with my mom. My aunt and uncle have their bags packed and ready to go, but they still don’t plan to evacuate unless they’re told to do so. My uncle has been calling around to all of the hotels (he even tried hotels in Oklahoma) but everything is booked solid. He’s going to see if they can get rooms in western Texas.
And to make things worse, my aunt is sick with 102 fever.
I waited in a couple of gas lines today. A couple because the first station ran dry on the person right in front of me.
As it happens, I’m going to fail to heed my own advice. My mother was quite reluctant to believe that she needed to leave, so I finally just bought her a ticket. Unfortunately, the only flight I could get leaves at 9:40 Friday morning, and I’ll need to get her to the airport. It will then be much too late to be heading out on the highway. So I’ll be riding it out with friends in the 1960 area.
Holy sweet mother, 898 mb and dropping, 3rd worst storm ever.
The wife and baby are going to Austin with me. We will leave sometime tomorrow and hopefully get there by sometime Friday so we won’t miss the concert.
If Saturday shows are cancelled that will suck, but I am far more preoccupied with the situation here. Most of my family will be weathering it out in SW Houston and the Galleria area.
My buddy’s mother just went into ARDS in the Methodist CVICU. My concerns are paltry next to his…
Yet another Houston doper here. I’m going to be riding out the storm in the Copperfield area with my family. We’re just a bunch of stubborn SOBs, I guess. My parents’ view is “Eh, we rode out Alicia on the far south side, so this shouldn’t be too much worse” and my view is “Sweet! My first hurricane! Bring it on, fuckers!”
This weekend is definitely going to be an adventure.
Yeah, a storm that currently is more powerful than Katrina was at full intensity. Should be a piece of cake to ride out. :rolleyes:
You will keep ID on your body at all times for ease of identification after the storm, won’t you?
Storms this big are nothing to :wally around with. It’s not exactly like taking a ride on Space Mountain.
In defense of those staying (I’m not). Houston is 40 miles inland. Rita is expected to move quickly over the area meaning lots of wind damage but hopefully not that much flooding (although some blogger on Weather Underground has some computer models which are predicting it won’t, which will be a nightmare). It is expected to hit 50 miles south of here, meaning that there may be 100 mph winds here but not 165 mph. Most out of the 100-year floodplain and with reasonably sturdy windows feel that they will be able to ride it out. Couple this with the fact that the routes north and west bound are in a historical mess (12 hours to go 40 miles or so). So many are taking their chances. Houston ain’t Galveston or Freeport.