I have friends in Spring (about 40 min. from downtown Houston). Not that close to the coast. Do you happen to know if Spring is part of the evacuation area?
I have family in Spring. They are telling them to leave. They have so many trees in that area that I think that would be the biggest problem with blown down trees. They said they went through Allison and their house was flooded, so they did not want to take chances on this one...... Roads will be getting better, the problem is, 45 to Dallas is always busy....then you hit Dallas traffic and that is a nightmare on a good day.
Spring is not a part of the evacuation area and should be okay. If Rita stays the course, she will have to worry about 70+ mph winds, tornadoes, lots of rain and not having power for 3-7 days.
I'm a little north of Spring, they're not in a mandatory evacuation zone at all.
I'm in Spring. We are 70 miles as the crow flies Northwest of Galveston. We are not in any evacuation zone.