Prelude

Friday, 9/23/05 11:28AM

Hurricane Rita's projected path is now predicted to make a direct hit in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area. I'm not sure about the mileage, but its about a 90 minute drive from where we live. Hurricane force winds are still predicted for my area with gusts up to 100MPH, but certainly not as bad as it could be. I'm pretty confident that we've made all the preparations that we could and that the house will hold up pretty well.

The first events of any signifigant rain or wind should begin here sometime around 3PM CDT, even sooner along the coast, with the eyewall making landfall around 6AM CDT Saturday.

I drove around a bit last night and got a feel for what was going on around town. Almost every store is closed. Gas stations are all sold out. Some people, rather than wait in the stop and go traffic, decided to pull off and call it a night to conserve fuel. Some are already out of gas. Help is on the way though by way of National Guard and many good samaratains.

The state and Local government have been doing a masterful job in communicating with everyone especially Houston Mayor Bill White. There is no sense of panic anywhere and people are already reaching out to other people with water, gasoline, shelter, medicine, and baby formula. Its like the complete opposite of what you saw in New Orleans.

The winds have picked up noticeably and are steadily increasing in their intensity. It does appear that we're going to dodge a direct hit, but we still expect hurricane force winds.

That's it for now. I'll update again if we still have electricity.