I stayed during Ike. But I live way out on the NW side of town so all I lost was power for 8 days. We had plenty of food and we had ice chests to keep our refrigerated stuff until we could cook it. We still had gas and water.
Rita was bad, but Ike gave a whole lot of people a new respect for hurricanes including me.
I’m about 20-25 miles from the coast, that’s close enough for me. I wouldn’t want to ride one out much closer to the coast.
We lost about 250 trees with Rita.
After Ike, I barely recognized my own property.
We lost close to 750 trees. Big oaks came down and took other trees and big oaks down which took more down. It was like dominoes falling.
Pine trees 2 1/2 foot round snapped like match sticks.