[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Hope-you-all-check-in-and-are-doing-okay PING!

[Sans-Culotte]

Not a lot of action down here in the Meadows. There was lots of wind, and a little rain, but not much else. The power went off about 20 times, usually after a big gust, but never for more than a few minutes. I slept in my recliner in case one of the doors blew open, but fortunately, that did not happen. It's still gusty, but no more so than in a bad "regular" storm. I walked outside and could not see any more damage other than branchlets in my yard and others'.

I had boarded up several of our larger windows, and brought everything in from the backyard deck, so there was little chance of flying debris.

[sam_paine]

Rita was a huge disappointment. She brought CenTex neither badly needed rain nor bodily injury to Shep Smith.

[hispanarepublicana]

Thanks for the ping, but I am on the Llano Estacado, high and dry.

[ElephantinTexas]

Checking in. High and dry and saying Hi from San Antonio.

Stayed up all night watching all the live coverage.

One of the 'newbies' from San Antonio that got the "oh.. just stand out there in 120mph winds and rain and give us a report" was down in Beaumont and had on a blue rain slicker with the hood tied up tight around her face with just her eyes, nose and mouth showing and she looked just like Kenny from South Park and she was just as dumb as a rock. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Every time she would come back
on with a report, trying to stand up in all of that wind and getting pounded by the rain wearing that blue slicker, all I could think was "Oh No!!! Their gonna kill Kenny!!" It was just tooo funny.

I hope everybody is ok and doing well.

[Richard Kimball]

I've got relatives in the Houston/Galveston area. Haven't heard from them, but considering the way the storm went, I'd be surprised if there was a problem. I live outside of Waco, and we haven't even gotten rain yet. They were predicting 80-100 mph winds before Rita changed trajectory, but I was always a little skeptical of that.

I think a lot of the press is still covering Katrina and calling it Rita. There was some damage, but this will not be a disaster with national ramifications, IMHO.

[buickmackane]

This is the third time I've tried to reply but lost power before hitting the Post button. We are OK and very, VERY appreciative of the support and prayers sent our way. I'm going to hit the button now and try to continue in another post.

[gulf1609]

Everyone fine here. We stuck it out with some friends from Beaumont who evacuated to Houston. They just found out their house is fine but are not sure when they can get back. Only damage was part of the roof that hid the AC units blew over. No leaking and I wanted to put on a new metal roof anyway. Power back on and now the cable is back. Must go do some catching up. I heard Anderson Cooper was running for his life when the windows of the Elegante hotel in Beaumont blew out. Hope I can catch that!