Power is on again and off again. We have periodic winds to 50 mph. We have had more than 8 inches of rain in the last 18 hours. We just found a leak in the ceiling of the family room: the roof is only 3 years old. The wind is too high for me to go look at it.

My daughter in Austin,Texas, South of Dallas, has clear skies and 91 degrees.

New Orleans is flooded again. The Mississippi Coast has received torrential rains. Lake Charles, Louisiana, is under water. Apparently, the oil refineries in Houston are unscathed but those in the Beaumont area are problematic.

For many people, it's nightmares all over again.

Glenn

Glenn-
It's good to hear that you are okay-I hope that your roof damage is minimal. We're just beginning to see damages on TV.

Hang in there!

Glenn, my thoughts have been with you and all the folks in Texas and La. I hope you are still faring well now that the storm has passed. Sandra

Toots, I am coming down rain or shine. Hopefully, shine though. I thought it was the end of November but a local weatherman who's very respected said it was the end of October. Perhaps because the hurricane season does tend to be less by then.

It makes me mad to hear people complaining about the skyrocketing cost of gas for their SUVs due to the hurricane when there are people who have lost their lives, livelihoods and/or homes.

We in Houston fared well. There was little damage, we only had 40-50 mph gusts, and we never lost electricity. I, however, was one of those statistics dealing with the number of cars on the freeway. We left Houston at 4 a.m. on Thursday, drove for 9 hours and never left the Houston city limits. Upon hearing that Rita had made a slight turn to the east, we, also, turned and came back home. We battened down the hatches and waited for the storm.

I live just north of MonaP and the region in which she lives also received minimal - if any - damage.

Thanks for your concerns. We were VERY lucky.

JeanA-
Thanks for the update. We were worried about you folks. That traffic jam looked like a real nightmare.

We lost electricity for more than a week for each of the first two storms we had last yeat. When it stayed on for the third one, we were like giddy little kids!

I'm happy that you and Mona came through safely, and that the worst is over. Here's hoping it stays that way and that any future storms head right back out into the Atlantic.

Tootsiebelle,
Thank you so much for your concern. But my heart is bleeding for those people in Louisiana who are in such dire need. I have three evacuees in my high school class, and those people need so much, both physically and emotionally. I just can't imagine how seeing their city flooded once again will impact them. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

So what do you think's going to happen in the future - are all the gulf coast cities going to be evacuated whenever there's a hurricane alert? That's going to make living in that part of the world a real pain for several months each year, isn't it?

With global warming increasing surface water temperatures, there's bound to be an ever- increasing number of severe hurricanes in the future.

Regards,

Chris

If I were dumb enough to have built in a flood plain in the first place and had to be building a new home, it would definitely be a monotlithic dome ON HIGHER GROUND. Those domes can easily withstand hurricanes. They are impervious to even f5 tornados, forest fires, most earthquakes, and the shells, if not the interiors, are flood resistant. They do look seriously strange, not nearly as pretty as a Fuller dome, so few people build them. I would guess that everyone in the path of the hurricanes who had a monolithic dome still has a home to come home to, if they bothered to leave at all.

Chris,
I think most Gulf Coast people will agree that evacuation doesn't work. People ignore schedules and panic ensues. The elderly and sick can't evacuate on their own, and someone has to drive the busses to get them out. Most drivers don't want to do that and risk their own lives. However, we do have some heroes who did just that. And thank goodness for them.

In my opinion (and no one has asked for this, I assure you), there should be designated shelters for those who cannot get out of town - fully staffed shelters with people who are aware from the beginning that their job will be to man these shelters. For those leaving town, ALL freeways should be designated as escape routes with all lanes opened to the evacuees, as early as three days before the hurricane strikes. Those needing to go to work could use the feeder lanes to get into town. All jobs should be suspended - unless emergency workers - three days out from the strike.

As for the fuel, the outlying towns should be serviced regularly for gasoline. Trucks would not be able to get into Houston because of the traffic lanes. Every town should have a designated shelter so their own people - plus any stranded folks - could get immediate shelter from the storm and then move on.

This sounds too simple, but moving 5.2 million people in three days is impossible.

Hi all! I'm home and only slightly the worse for wear and tear. Thank you all for your prayers and kind thoughts over the past few days. I returned home from vacation in time to do laundry, throw some family picture albums in a box, load the car up with a couple of weeks' worth of clothes and rush out again. I was already too mentally and physically tired to decide what to try to save and what to leave behind so, knowing I would need clothes because I would still have to work for a living and the rest was all just "stuff," I decided it would take too much energy to pick and choose belongings.

I thank God my son stuck with me instead of going on a couple of hours ahead as he had originally planned. I would never have made it without him. In our separate cars, we were both headed to Dallas where my daughter is and we were able to get across town and a little ways north of Houston before we had to hit the interstate. And "hit" it we did. Once we got on I-45, we moved less than two miles in over two hours. Fortunately, we were still on the service road and were able to turn off on a side street to rethink our game plan and let the cars cool off. The longer we sat, the more we each realized we simply could not get back into the pack. I remembered that a friend from Dallas whom I had not been in contact with for many years had offered (through another mutual friend) refuge if we needed it. We were only a couple of miles south of the town where she lives, so I called her to ask if the hotel was still open and she welcomed us with open arms and heart.

Another guardian angel from the neighborhood we were in came by and not only gave us directions to get across the interstate via back roads, but also _guided_ us out and stayed with us until we were on the thoroughfare into her suburb. Thus, after ten hours in 100 degree heat, we found air conditioning, plush carpet and soft beds - unlike thousands who were out there 10, 20 hours and more.

Miraculously, we fared well both at the friend's house and at home. My son was able to help her board up some windows, etc. (which, as at home, turned out to be much ado about nothing but we were ecstatic to not need it after all). Only minor debris from the trees and out of power for several hours at both places. We're all feeling blessed, indeed.

Yes, the evacuation effort turned into a fiasco, but there is no one to blame IMHO. I don't think anyone, even in their wildest imagination, could ever have foreseen the gridlock that developed on the freeways. Evacuation times were staggered and, in theory, should have gone smoothly. However, people jumped their assigned times (understandable) and the freeway parking lots developed. I applaud the mayors of all the towns for trying to get their population out of harm's way. Fortunately for us and most unfortunately for those east of Houston, Rita took an unexpected WIDE path to the east which put us on the clean side instead of the dirty side. Thus, we were saved while places like Beaumont and Jasper took the hit. My heart goes out to those communities in east Texas. It is beautiful contryside full of trees (mostly pine) and one official compared the destruction to tossing up a box of toothpicks and watching them fall.

Chris, you commented earlier about the increasing number of hurricanes along the coast and, rightly or wrongly, I felt you were insinuating that it is foolish to live in hurricane territory. (I admit I am still numb from what we have been through, and if I misinterpreted your remark, I truly apologize.) Almost every part of this country has its hazards - hurricanes on the coast, tornados through the central plains, forest fires out west, mudslides and earthquakes in California, etc., etc., etc. If we avoided living in all those areas that have occasional drawbacks, we'd all have to come to England where there must be none! After all, even the people in Tennessee now know what a hurricane is like - who-da-thunk-it a month ago before Katrina and Rita?! It is unheard of for a hurricane to travel that far inland before breaking down. At least the Texas mayors weren't afraid to take action. (Have you heard that last week the mayor of New Orleans bought a house in Dallas? True - or at least heard from a reliable source. Draw your own conclusions and write your own punch lines!)

Needless to say, I have a lot of catching up to do on the BB - about three weeks' worth - but first I must finish unloading my car and get myself psyched up to return to work tomorrow. It's going to be as emotional as physical because we have an office in Beaumont that I support, also, and as of 2:00 this afternoon we had located only about half a dozen of the four dozen or so employees from there. Keep them in your prayers.

It will probably be a week or so before I am able to spend time checking the BB, so thanks again for your kind thoughts and prayers. I'll be in touch ASAP.

Mona

MonaP

Welcome home Mona, I am so glad you are ok, your guardian angel has done her job.

Hooray-you're back and safe!

Mona, so glad you are alright, everyone affected by these disasters are in my thoughts and prayers.

quote:

Originally posted by MonaP:
[qb] Chris, you commented earlier about the increasing number of hurricanes along the coast and, rightly or wrongly, I felt you were insinuating that it is foolish to live in hurricane territory.
[/qb]

No, I absolutely didn't mean that! There's probably nowhere to live that's free from the risk of some sort of natural disaster. I was simply wondering how people are going to cope if, as people seem to be saying, global warming does result in an ever-increasing number of severe hurricanes.

Sorry that you interpreted my post like that - it was absolutely not my intention.

Regards,

Chris