I don't know whether to hope you guys keep your heads waaaaaaaaaaaay down, or simply get out of Dodge now.
That's one mean storm they show headed your way, and predictions are the 70MPH winds may last as far north as Oklahoma City.
Take care.
Amen. Talked to family from Brownsville north last night--most are heading north and west. Looks like a nasty. I don't wish the disaster on anyone but hope it brings us some much-needed moisture eventually if it has to be anyway--a mixed bag, for sure.
No, no. They need to head _into_ Dodge.
*reading through my Guide Emergency Evacuation Knowledge (GEEK)* Canadian Issue...oh.. here it is ...page 12, paragraph 2 "What to do when a Cat 5 Hurricane approaches?" "Get the f*ck out of its path!" Swingman et al, sorry I won't have time to send you a copy of this guide, so please take my word for it..it says right here...page 12..
Swing is in Houston as is a great deal of my family. The phones are locking down as they are swamped... so are the cell phones. Communication is spotty at best. We will probably not hear from him for a while.
Sadly, my people there just got their lives together after their 5 Billion dollar flood about 5 years ago. It took 2 1/2 years to finalize their insurance claim no their house loss.
Voluntary evacuation of non ambulatory people started yesterday, and continues. According to my sister, they are thinking mandatory evacuation for everyone in Houston by tomorrow night. I am not sure how they will get out; many stations are out of gas, many cars are out of gas, and there is gridlock everywhere.
The run on food started at the first of the week, and now the banks are closing as they cannot manage their lobbies and hundreds of customers. ATMs are out of money in some areas. All the bottled water, batteries, flashlights, radios, etc. are pretty much gone. The plywood ran out yesterday and the particle board today... so no more "boarding up". Realistically, if you are in the path, nothing will help anyway. Plywood is only good for the perimeter areas of the storm.
If the roads are passble, my family will be coming here to San Antonio (210 miles inland from them) as soon as they can get out.
20,000 or more people here by the end of the day Friday (we are one of the emergency plan evacuation cities for the southern coastal towns), which is when it should start hammering the coast. We have just had as many as 12,000 here in our shelters with Katrina and can handle more on a short term basis, so at least the lights are on in our shelters and we know where they can be put for a few days.Everyone seems to be pitching in.... those like me that have seen Carla '61, Beulah '67, and Celia '70 first hand, up front and personal remember the profound damage. No one that has seen the damage or knows anyone from those storms is staying anywhere near the coast, so all of us in the surrounding cities (200 miles away in Texas isn't considered far) are collecting food, pillows, blankets, toiletries... all the stuff we were getting together about 10 days ago.
If you have never seen it, you cannot imagine what a 15 - 20 foot tall solid wall of hard driven water can smash to pieces. On the coast, the rain starts, then the wind and flying debris, small tornadoes pop up, the hurrican proper smashes into you, then in comes that gdamn tidal surge. It smashes down buildings and uses the debris as super grinders to chop down other buildings, trees, houses, anything that gets in its path as long as the wave has steam.
Sorry... I just realized I am beginning to ramble more than normal. They verified a couple of hours ago that they were now seeing sustained winds of 175 mph... no matter what, this storm will be a violent killer.
We are fine here as they are only expecting 4 - 6 inches of rain on Saturday and maybe winds of 45 with some gusts of 60 mph. Not a spot on the ass of what our neighbors are facing.
I know many are "given out" with Katrina funds and charities, but I know these folks will need the same kind of care and concern to make it through this. Kind of ironic to think that Houston was one of the largest refugee shelters for Katrina; now when the Houston residents are through this, many of them will be faced with nowhere to live, and will in fact be refugees themselves.
I think I'll go hug the LOML, and call my elderly parents and tell them their grandkids will be here soon.
Robert
Got an e-mail from my cuz yesterday. His daughter and SIL are in Rockport(near Corpus Christie) helping them get the sailboat out of the water and then all head back to San Antonio to ride it out @ daughter's home.
God bless all in peril.
Hope you all are out of Harms way and in safe areas. Our hopes and prayers are with you as we hope it will not be as bad as it loks right now. STAY SAFE and hope hope for the best!!!!!!!
All of the people on the Gulf Coast need help and prayers now.
Special prayers to the families who have lost loved ones.
Dave
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You betcha ... thanks for the thoughts, Charlie.
Finally finished what has basically been a 36 hour preparation marathon and came in to check the e-mail while the links are still up. Tough on these old man bones ...I spent half the morning on a 24' extension ladder with one of my carpenters boarding up a house we are supposed to be closing on next week ... ouch.
I guess we'll see how I build'em ...
In any event, I've done all I can do at this point ... the rest is up to mother nature. Time now to seriously consider a Tom Watson cocktail, on what may be the last peaceful, cool evening, with electricity, for some time.
Since we are not in the mandatory evacuation areas, and there is little sense in stampeding with the herd (which is basically out of gas and stuck on the freeways), SWMBO and I are going to do what we've done through quite a few similar situations ... bunker down and ride it out.
This FF on this house is 3' 6" higher than the one we lost in Allison, so, except for the shop, I am not too concerned with high water, but the wind is always a danger, especially with a New Orleans style house with porches and balconies, which tend to peel roof's back in real high winds. I did build the downstairs bath more or less as a bunker, so we have that option if things really get bad.
If I still had kids at home, then would have been no question of _not_ "getting out of Dodge" ... and trust me, I will have a fond look around at the shop again about dark tomorrow evening. ;)
.. and I hope to see it, and all you guys and gals, on the sunny side.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Keep your heads down, your spirits up and may you not need that bunker. We'll pray for you.
"Swingman" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Ditto. Login and give us an "I made it..." when you can. Got family in Corpus and South. Looks like they're going to miss the brunt.
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