I could relate about 20 stories from friends about frustrating attempts to leave Houston and make the longest post in the brief history of RevGalBlogPals. El Jefe and I have had multiple phone calls and emails today recounting these experiences.
Stories about leaving downtown Houston at midnight and still being inside the city limits by 7:30 am. Stories about driving for 4 hours from the center of town and getting to the airport and then spending another 4 hours and only reaching a few further exits off the freeway, getting low on gas, finding none at the exits, and turning around to go home and hunker down.
Much of the day we were promised that some of the major evacuation routes would become totally one-way out of town and that came to pass by the end of the day. My older neice and her family left our house about 6 pm hoping to get to the San Antonio area in 6 to 8 hours once the contraflow lanes were opened.
On the whole, I think the local and state government officials have done a great job of addressing this crisis. Many lessons learned from Katrina were put into action: early calls for evacuation; transportation provided for those without it; contraflow lanes created on the fly with the help of the Texas Department of Transportation; evacuations of nursing homes and hospitals have been completed in low-lying areas. Some of these things need to be implemented right away the next time this area is threatened by a major storm and probably will be.
Still the problem remains: how to evacuate two to four million people who heed the warnings and want to get out of the way? Where do you put them all? How can you expedite their travel? I don't know the answer to that. I sure hope someone else will be able to figure it out in the future.
My younger neice, the young mother with the recent c-section, developed mastitis today and we were fortunate to get her antibiotic prescription filled at a local pharmacy. Everything around here is now closed: grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations--you name it. We're glad we didn't try to evacuate with her and the baby now. Thank God Rita seems to be heading east of us, which will help a lot.
We have plenty of supplies between my sister-in-law's household and ours and we will be fine as we hunker down. If power will be out for more than a couple of days we will then drive out to SA and wait until power is restored.
Today it was incredibly hot and dry--about 100 degrees and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. You would never know from the weather in the Houston area that there was any kind of hurricane threat out in the Gulf of Mexico. We are really blessed to have the kind of advance warning we now have.
El Jefe, his sister and brother-in-law, and I are now so exhausted from the ups and downs of the day that we're pretty numb to the approaching storm--and that's a good thing. I couldn't sleep well last night worrying about the possibility of a disastrously slow trip out of town. Tonight I'm emotionally spent and ready to trust that God will provide for all of us in the next couple of days.
Stories about leaving downtown Houston at midnight and still being inside the city limits by 7:30 am. Stories about driving for 4 hours from the center of town and getting to the airport and then spending another 4 hours and only reaching a few further exits off the freeway, getting low on gas, finding none at the exits, and turning around to go home and hunker down.
Much of the day we were promised that some of the major evacuation routes would become totally one-way out of town and that came to pass by the end of the day. My older neice and her family left our house about 6 pm hoping to get to the San Antonio area in 6 to 8 hours once the contraflow lanes were opened.
On the whole, I think the local and state government officials have done a great job of addressing this crisis. Many lessons learned from Katrina were put into action: early calls for evacuation; transportation provided for those without it; contraflow lanes created on the fly with the help of the Texas Department of Transportation; evacuations of nursing homes and hospitals have been completed in low-lying areas. Some of these things need to be implemented right away the next time this area is threatened by a major storm and probably will be.
Still the problem remains: how to evacuate two to four million people who heed the warnings and want to get out of the way? Where do you put them all? How can you expedite their travel? I don't know the answer to that. I sure hope someone else will be able to figure it out in the future.
My younger neice, the young mother with the recent c-section, developed mastitis today and we were fortunate to get her antibiotic prescription filled at a local pharmacy. Everything around here is now closed: grocery stores, drug stores, gas stations--you name it. We're glad we didn't try to evacuate with her and the baby now. Thank God Rita seems to be heading east of us, which will help a lot.
We have plenty of supplies between my sister-in-law's household and ours and we will be fine as we hunker down. If power will be out for more than a couple of days we will then drive out to SA and wait until power is restored.
Today it was incredibly hot and dry--about 100 degrees and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. You would never know from the weather in the Houston area that there was any kind of hurricane threat out in the Gulf of Mexico. We are really blessed to have the kind of advance warning we now have.
El Jefe, his sister and brother-in-law, and I are now so exhausted from the ups and downs of the day that we're pretty numb to the approaching storm--and that's a good thing. I couldn't sleep well last night worrying about the possibility of a disastrously slow trip out of town. Tonight I'm emotionally spent and ready to trust that God will provide for all of us in the next couple of days.
5 comments:
I hope you slept well, and that today brings nothing bad for any of you.
Blessings
I came upon your site via the Locusts and Honey site. My name is Greg and I live in MS. I am just far enough north that Katrina did nothing but send some fairly heavy wind our way. But I've been working down south and seen what happened. I just wanted to let you know that I will be praying for your safety.
Also, can I post some of your comments on my own blog (while giving your site location) so that my readers will get an idea of what it was like to ride out this horrific storm?
In the love of Christ,
greg
I keep coming back and coming back to check on you. Our prayers are added to yours.
Greg,
you are welcome to post my comments on your blog as you choose. Thanks for reading. How did you fare in Katrina? Most of my friends' relatives on the MS coast were pretty devastated.
I live in the Mississippi Delta just south of Greenville, MS. I serve to small churches in Avon and Glen Allan, MS. Besides a shingle missing here or there, there was not any structural damage. Our problem comes in another way. You see, we are a farming area. All those who grew rice were hit hard by Katrina. The rice (and any corn still standing) was blown down. It took much longer to harvest and therefore they will probably lose money. The problem now is cotton. It's ginning season and I hope that my farmers can get at least half their cotton out of the fields...otherwise there will be dire problems. As we pray you come through the cane safely, please pray for the livelihoods of my people here as well. These hurricanes are hitting us all in horrific ways. Even if we're not in the path, there will be economic devastation at the gas pumps and in all our industry I fear.
That's ok. If we have Christ, we can get through anything knowing that what's to come is much better than what's in the here and now.
In the love of Christ,
greg
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