I can vouch for the stories. Gas is running out in a lot of gas stations. I went to 2 stations and no gas. I waited for water for 2 hours in Wal Mart and was one of the lucky ones. A lot of people were in line but did not get any water. Talked to a lady in line and she said she tried to get a room somewhere in Texas and the closest place she could get was Lubbock (570 miles away).
Traffic is plain nuts. I was going to ride this one out (I am in NW Houston) but I am thinking about getting out of here if it turns into a Cat 5 and goes north.
It is 100 degrees here in Houston right now. I am not exagerating. It has been hotter than it usually has in the past 4 weeks. The Gulf must be like gasoline right now for Rita.
I was here in '84 for Alicia and the thing that was the worst was having no power for 4 days in this kind of heat and humidity.
We are in NW Houston too. We thought we would ride it out, but now I'm concerned. Here's a general question for Houston FReepers, who is leaving from this part of town and why?
Contrary to reports and previous links, it is a five. Get moving.
forget hotels, do you have a place you can go - friends, family, closer then 570 miles? do you have gas in your car? if you evacuate, consider leaving off-hours - in the middle of the night perhaps. running out of gas while evacuating isn't a good position to be in. worst case, know where the evacuation centers are in your area and prepare to go there.
If you are going to do that, you will need to leave by early tomorrow morning - early as in 4 am or so.
And realize - there are NO HOTELS anywhere to be found until you get to Oklahoma or New Mexico - and the storm is going to be tracking north through the Dallas metroplex and up into Oklahoma.
I called as far west as Midland and Fort Stockton and all the hotels were booked.
If you buy gallon jugs/containers you can fill up the jugs with your own tap water, either freeze them or put them in your utility room until you need them. Most bottled water is no better than your own tap water. You also could buy that 99cent gallon of fruit drink /lemonade that they sell at Walmart,Winn Dixie ETC, and either use it for drinking or dump it out and use it to put tap water in. If you have a good sized freezer try to store plastic freezer bags full of water in them. One caution, make sure your freezer is defrosted and does not have any excess ice built up, because when your power is off for days it will melt and flood your floor. Also to keep your good floors from getting soaked when the frozen water melts either put large bath towels under them, or keep them in the garage in a cool place. Both my kitchen and utility room tile was ruined by these things.