[Howlin]

onyx and I made a list - sort of -- by keeping up with those of you who signed in.

This list is the ones we saw, not necessarily everybody; if any of you know some who didn't check in and haven't been heard from, please advise myself, onyx, or McGavin999, who has graciously agreed to help with our search for you all!

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[TexanToTheCore]

TexanToTheCore checking in.

Thank you everyone for your prayers. We are back home now and very pleased to be so.


TTTC

[BnBlFlag]

We're back home in West Chambers County, Texas. Our only damage was two large Cedar trees down in our front yard. We got power back late Sunday afternoon. Thank God.

[Frank_Discussion]

Frank_Discussion from Clear Lake, checking in!

Boarded up and packed on Wednesday, took off about 4pm for the Woodlands, arrived seven hours later, unscathed. Sat out the storm until Saturday, made it home in 45 minutes!

No damage. All power on. I feel very LUCKY.

:)

For those of you with trials and tribulations from this, my heart goes out to you.

[exhaustedmomma]

Does anybody know how to go about finding people? I have two daughters who live in Port Arthur. One evacuated to Woodville. I last talked to her on Friday afternoon. I haven't heard from her since. The other one stayed and did not evacuate.

I have called the Houston Red Cross (couldn't get them to answer the phone), Tyler county sheriff dept. (who directed me to the FEMA website), and I have tried all phone numbers I have for both girls. The FEMA website is suppose to have a place you can check names in shelters. I can't find it. I found the RITA section, but nothing with names in shelters.

We evacuated last Tuesday from Alvin to Hemphill. Man, in living over 20 years on the Gulf Coast I have never gone through anything such a mess. We ran out of ice, and were cutting it close on water. For the first time ever we went to FEMA and were so grateful! They were there immediately. FEMA, Tx State Troopers, local sheriff, and the national guard were our only source of information. None of the stuff that typically work were reliable... like battery operated TV's and radio's. Cell phones were useless. Handheld walkie talkies helped. My family decided after this we were investing in CB's!!

Any info about contacting people to locate family members would be greatly appreciated. The younger daughter would have contacted my brother in New Mexico (our family contact) but has not done so. I am trying not to panic, but...

[Miztiki]

I just got home a couple of hours ago. All is fine here. It's been a looong week! I'm going to sleep...

[half-cajun]

Just checking in. Made the trip east from Katy on Wednesday morning at 3:00. Made it to Baton Rouge 20 hours later at midnight, with the 2 kids and the golden retriever, with my husband in the car behind. The trip normally takes 5 at the most. The worst part was that the kids had no food except for the snacks I brought. I felt horrible for not packing sandwiches, but I didn't expect everything would be closed. It seems Rita was moving east as we were. We stayed until Tuesday so we could go to the LSU game. (The loss for me was worse than the 20 hours in the car.) Coming back we saw the damage in W. Louisiana and E. Texas. Really bad. I'm disappointed that the news media is hardly even focusing on it.

[Johnny Crab]

We boarded up(3/4" plywood was all they had left!), packed, and left not knowing if we'd have a home or a plie of rubble when we returned. Mandatory evac at this point(Thursday, Cat 4? still pointed at us):

.EVACUATION INFORMATION...FOR JACKSON COUNTY...MANDATORY EVACUATION HAS BEEN DECLARED FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTY.

155 miles and 12+hours later we were given(by Providence) a room in NE San Antonio instead of having to drive all the way to Midland. Normally San Antonio is a 3 hour drive max. Never again will we complain about a 33 gallon tank on a conversion van as we had more than 1/2 a tank left.

Oncoming traffic is a 6 block-long line for gas!

We experienced TrafficFest in lower left screen and hotel had one comfort of home using what we brought

VERY thankful that we did not come back to(that over-used phrase): "Total Devastation".

[ForGod'sSake]

I've been out of commission for a while. Have you been behaving yourself?

[urtax$@work]

A little late here. Vacationed to my native H last week and caught a great A&M game along the way (sorry SMU). Left H early Thur morning getting my 84 yr mom to NE Tx.(Tyler area) and made it to NW outskirts of H by 11:30. Stayed the nite in
Tomball with niece and left earlier Friday and arrived in Jacksonville by noon. Then i returned to KCMO that Sat.

Were there any shelter areas for the Houston residents? Mom
lives on Near-North Side.