Hurricane Rita

[Jake]

Well, here we go again. Bush caused another hurricane. Most people have been already tracking this storm for days but it finally has total nationwide coverage.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Hurricane Rita's winds were at 175 mph Thursday as it spun closer to the Texas coast -- where it is projected to make landfall early Saturday -- and as thousands of residents began streaming from the Gulf Coast.
At 5 a.m. ET Thursday, the maximum sustained winds for the Category 5 storm were 175 mph -- equivalent to the maximum strength of deadly Hurricane Katrina at its peak, according to CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. Rita's gusts were even higher.

"Rita is a potentially catastrophic Category five hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest advisory. A storm becomes a Category 5 when its wind speeds reach 155 mph.

If the storm maintains its intensity, Rita "could be worse than Katrina," which devastated southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi a little over three weeks ago, said Max Mayfield, director of the hurricane center.

So, saturday, hmmm, might be a good idea to leave. That gives people THURSDAY and FRIDAY. Some incredibly smart person in Texas said "we're leaving, homes can be rebuilt, people cannot."

[ZUBi]

black satire: if rebel Iraq people cannot, nature can strikes against USA...

[j7wild]

I live in Houston, Texas:

I was going to ride out the storm and even stocked up on supplies (batteries, canned food, water, first aid kit, flashlight, candles, lighters, gasoline for 2 portable power generators, cash, etc).

That was yesterday morning but yesterday afternoon, Rita was upgraded to a Category 5 Hurricane which makes it more powerful and more dangerous than Katrina.

So I got online and bought the first tickets out of Houston to Dallas, TX (326 Miles North) on any airline at any price for my wife and I.

I am watching the Houston local news on the internet and all southbound lanes of Highway 45, the main highway going North to Dallas from Houston have been turned into northbound lanes.

So you have 8 lanes of cars for 100 miles going northbound out of the city.

Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland — most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.

The last major hurricane to hit Houston, Texas was Alicia in 1983. It flooded downtown Houston, spawned 22 tornadoes and left 21 people dead. The damage from the Category 3 storm was put at more than $2 billion. Tropical Storm Allison flooded Houston in 2001, doing major damage to hospitals and research centers and killing 23 people.

Here are pictures of Houston from Tropical Storm Allison in 2001:

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~dwallach/photo/allison2001/

http://hydrology.rice.edu/flood/photos/index1.htm

Here's the latest real time updated every 1/2 hour image of Rita from the National Hurricane Center:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA...-ir4-loop.html

:big grin:

[htitos]

I live in Houston, Texas:

I was going to ride out the storm and even stocked up on supplies (batteries, canned food, water, first aid kit, flashlight, candles, lighters, gasoline for 2 portable power generators, cash, etc).
...

Never take Hurricanes for granted, leave the area ASAP, and be safe.

[Kn'thrak]

Thread Moved

Zubi, thats just heartless of you. Good will always triumph.
Tho, I can see a good thing for all this. Like relationships, something else will always emerge stronger. Hopefully ppl will react differently this time and less ppl be hurt/killed. Funny that the U.S. learns quicker throughout history thanx to all the experiences it has. Good words Jake too.

[Granite]

Looks like Rita has been downgraded to a category 4. So it's just gonna be really, really bad as opposed to really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, bad.

Good luck Texas!

(P.S. To all others, keep supporting those relief organizations working with Katrina affected folks, if bad stuff happens in Texas, they'll be there too)

[j7wild]

Now that Hurricane Rita has made a Northern turn and is aiming for Houston; we can expect to see higher gas price!!

The Houston Ship Channel/Pasadena/Baytown area have the largest concentration of oil refinery plants in the U.S. and they supply most of the nation's oil.

Also from Houston/Galveston coastline westward to Corpus Christi, there are 26 of the largest oil refineries in the U.S. and the world (outside of the Middle East).

So go gas up your cars now (even if you don't live in the U.S. you will be affected) !!

As a matter of fact, these same refineries are being shut down and evacuated so even a few days of non-operation, until the hurricane blows over, will affect the price and supply of gasoline drastically!!

Remember what happened to gas prices at the pump worldwide after Katrina?

If these refineries get damaged, destroyed or even shut down permanently, we are all ******!!



Opec is going to save us you say? You cannot depend on them!!

[ZUBi]

Zubi, thats just heartless of you.

& wrote: black satire (& it wasn't from heart). isn't that clear? or I must put some smilies? god help all innocent people... DOH...

ohh BTW: if U do not read articles: that was just sentence that rebel Iraqi people send straight to USA (& NOT ME!). U got it wrong...

[Jake]

If any Texans can get over to NY I can provide shelter....lol....assuming you're Republican! LMAO

HANG IN THERE TEXAS,

This one better not get hit:
XTO Energy Inc.
810 Houston Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
I own way too much stock in that co.

GOOD LUCK, keep us updated, somehow I believe Texans are more competent with this stuff than the people in Louisiana

[j7wild]

If any Texans can get over to NY I can provide shelter....lol....assuming you're Republican! LMAO

HANG IN THERE TEXAS,

This one better not get hit:
XTO Energy Inc.
810 Houston Street
Fort Worth, TX 76102
I own way too much stock in that co.

GOOD LUCK, keep us updated, somehow I believe Texans are more competent with this stuff than the people in Louisiana

I am Texan and I am a Republican (voted for Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr) ... will you be providing Cowgirls too?

If so, I'll dump the wife and I will be on my way!!

[Jake]

HAHAHA, no no cowgirls here, we've got Victoria's Secret models though!

This thread has somehow gone horribly wrong.


Here's the latest:

-Rita weaking after Texas announces it will fight it with high-powered rifles.
-Walker the Texas Ranger (Chuck Norris, whoohooo) says not even Rita can stop his back-spin-kick.
-Bush flies in to Texas to set up defenses at his ranch. Halliburton receives contract.
-Cindy Sheehan has steel bunker with no exit built over her tent (is she still there? lol) Bush says no plans to dismantle it after the storm.
-Rita changing course from Texas to Lousiana, when asked to comment she said "I don't want to **** with those people."

[radstar]

I'm in Dallas, Texas. The city that wasn't badly affected from the hurricane, which is good. Everyone has been saying how bad the tropical storm's gonna be here. But I said, oh c'mon we'll be fine. And I was right! HA HA! We didn't get no thunderstorms and hardly any rain! What a bunch of freaks.

My boyfriend stacked up on batteries, water, and candles. We still had power. Though we have had such wonderful weather here in Dallas. After an entire summer soaking in over 100 degrees of heat... the weather went down to about low 80's. We definitely got some clouds from the hurricane. And definitely the wind! Strong strong winds but nothing over 100 mph. But the wind came with a nice cool air. The clouds sparkled pinkish during sunsets. My.. it was an enjoyable weekend.

But sadly to say, a lot of people went through hell. Traffic was horrible from Galveston/Houston to Dallas. I've ran into some people around here that complained they have been in traffic for 17 hours that would usually take 5-6 hours.

My dad's a truck driver. He was home until Wednesday and his partner was home in Houston also. He was trying to drive back on Wednesday but was stuck in traffic. My dad went out to meet him in Huckesville, TX. It's about 200 miles from here. His partner was only 38 miles away from Huckesville in traffic at the time when my dad left here. My dad got to Huckesville five minutes after his partner did. It took 3-4 hours to drive 40 miles for his partner.

Isn't that insane?

And to find out that Galveston/Houston weren't hit at all. Just heavy rain and wind. No damages, I've heard. Louisiana got the worst of it. Everyone can go back home. All being stuck in traffic for nothing. But, better to be safe than sorry.

And thanks for those support, especially Jake. Haha.. wouldn't mind staying at your place with some victoria secret models. I will definitely take you up on that offer someday. And for those who are wondering, I am not gay or bi. I have a wonderful boyfriend. I just think victoria secrets models are hot, k? Nothing to it.

[bebbaboo]

Thought I'd share an email I sent out to my friends this morning. I live in far north Texas, only about 15 miles from the Oklahoma border and was completely safe from the storm. We didn't even get a sprinkle.

===
Thought I'd send you all an update on the weekend. I've already talked to some of you, but I didn't want to miss anyone.

My sister Christa and her son Ricky came up on Thursday morning, when we all thought that Rita was going land west of Houston. That would have been on a direct path to her house just inland. They got their boat out of the water at the shore and their camper and found safe haven further north. Her husband, Rick, is the facilities manager of his building in Houston and had to stay IN the building to ride out the storm. Ended up that the Houston Police Dept commandeered his building to set up an outpost, so he felt very safe, especially once the storm turned.

Unfortunately, the storm turned right in the direction of my mom's house, and my brother Laurence's, just a bit further north. Mom refused to leave, thinking it would never reach Jasper, but we flat out told her she was leaving! She first drove to my brother's house a bit north in Lufkin. They were supposed to come up Thursday afternoon, but my uncle called and wanted to come too, so they waited for him and headed up at 8:00 am Friday morning.

By the way, my sister got to my house before noon on Thursday and the rest showed up at 12:30 on Friday. Neither ran into ANY traffic, except at gas stations. Of course, they weren't stupid enough to try to get on 45 or 10 (the interstates that you kept seeing in the news.) They both were able to drive the speed limit the whole way.

So, we had from 7 to 9 people in the Miller Evacuation Camp all weekend, watching Rita on the news, playing games and trying to find enough food to feed everyone. Can't say it wasn't fun.

Laurence decided to take his family home yesterday, and my uncle tagged along to check out his place. Since there are no phones, and very little news coming out of the towns north of Beaumont, we didn't really know how things were going. When my brother got home, he found that his house is fine. He has electricity and water, although some tree damage. I haven't heard back from my uncle, who lives another hour and a half south of my brother.

My cousin Harriet stayed in Jasper and has managed to get a couple of cell phone calls out. She lives in a mobile home outside of town ... put in to live in while they are getting ready to build a new retirement house. They came into Jasper Friday night and stayed in my Mom's house. She said the storm was so horrible that they brought a mattress in to the hallway, and they stayed there all night .. no sleep. She said it was the scariest night of her life.

Next morning, they couldn't get out of the house because of all the fallen trees. Larry had brought his chain saw with him, and was able to clear a path to the street, but all the streets were covered with trees. Remember, Jasper is in the middle of what the call "Deep East Texas Piney Woods". There are millions of trees everywhere .. or were. Later, people were able to get the streets clear enough to ride around town a little ... it was horrible. Trees down in every yard, many smashing into houses. Mom's house has missing shingles and siding, but nothing too major, thank goodness. They were able to get out to their home late in the afternoon, and it fared pretty well. No damage that can't be fixed. Just down the road, my cousin's mother-in-law lives in a 3-bedroom brick house. It was destroyed by falling trees. She was inside and got some pretty nasty cuts on her leg, but they got her bandaged up and she's doing okay.

My other cousin in Jasper is the head of Jasper Search and Rescue. I haven't been able to talk to him, but his sister (the cousin above), has, and he says the electricity will be out in Jasper for at least 3 weeks, maybe up to 3 months. Something about the power grid being destroyed. So, Mom is a semi-permanent guest here, safe and sound. But her freezer full of freshly butchered steaks are a goner. We have no idea what else .... I'm going to try to get thru to her insurance company in the next day or so. Also, there are literally thousands and thousands of trees down. One senator that flew over the area in a helicopter said it looked like someone took a giant rake and just raked all the trees down. Jasper's one and only industry is the wood industry. It's going to take a long time for those trees to grow back ... a long time for Jasper to recover from this, even after they get the fallen trees cleared and the electricity going. So sad.

[j7wild]

I'm still in Dallas with my wife; we can go see Jake and his Victoria's Secret models before we head back to Houston.

[Jake]

Cool, I've got everything planned out for you...



Total Est. Time: 23 hours, 55 minutes Total Est. Distance: 1554.90 miles

and the trip back....



Total Est. Time: 25 hours, 11 minutes Total Est. Distance: 1636.16 miles


lol, as opposed to this....



Total Est. Time: 3 hours, 41 minutes Total Est. Distance: 239.35 miles


hehe, that's one hell of a detour but you're welcome here, just don't forget to make a left on I-55, lmao