Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part III

They are predicting on ABC13 in Houston that high pressure may blow the weakend Rita back into the area next week with lots and lots of rain.

One more thing about the Houston traffic sit. The inoperable motor vehicles are further complicating the situation for the ones that are still running.

This whole summer is more and more reminding me of "The Stand" by Steven King. But it's real.

The Stand? Yeah wait for the bird flu. heh This has been a wicked year.

.".. press conference at the governor's mansion. "If you're on the coast between Beaumont and Corpus Christi, now's the time to leave.". ...

NOW. Please.

ANY shift to the north and east is BAD news for New Orleans.

New Orleans starts getting rain in a few hours.

http://www.intellicast.com/Local/USLocalWide.asp?seg=LocalWeather&loc=kmsy&prodgrp=RadarImagery&product=RadarLoop&prodnav=none&pid=none

"This whole summer is more and more reminding me of "The Stand" by Steven King. But it's real."

I was thinking more along the lines of "The Day After Tomorrow" myself.

1 million flee as Rita whirls toward Texas

Hurricane still on track to hit Friday or Saturday

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, September 22, 2005

By BRUCE NICHOLS / The Dallas Morning News

HOUSTON – More than 1 million people took to the highways and booked every available room inland, as Hurricane Rita – one of the most powerful storms ever to threaten the state – continued on a collision course with the Texas coastline.

Gas stations were running out of gas as roads filled with outbound traffic Wednesday. Officials estimated more than 1 million people, a fifth of the Houston metro area, were headed for higher ground.

They were heeding warnings and pleas to get out from Gov. Rick Perry and local officials all along the Texas coast, from Brownsville to Beaumont.

Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas warned late Wednesday that her city was nearly out of buses and said those left on the island would have to find a way off or face riding out a storm that is "big enough to destroy part of the island, if not a great part of the county."

Later in the evening, state officials asked officials with the Trinity Railway Express, which operates trains between Dallas and Fort Worth, to run a shuttle train from Galveston to Houston overnight.

"The time to leave is now," Mr. Perry said at an Austin news conference earlier in the day.

Rita was elevated to a Category 5 hurricane, the most destructive class on the Saffir-Simpson scale, early Wednesday afternoon, and experts said it was the third most intense storm recorded in the Atlantic Basin.

The storm was packing 175 mph winds about 570 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi late Wednesday. Landfall was projected late Friday or early Saturday near Matagorda, but officials warned there were no guarantees where it would strike. Tropical storm-force winds extended across 370 miles.

Wherever the storm hits, major damage was expected up and down the coast and as far as 100 miles inland.

snip

http://tinyurl.com/8y9oc

Here in Houston we DO have staggered evac, but there is no way of telling how many people are trying to leave early. Also - Galveston is under mandatory evac, but the storm surge zones near Houston are voluntary until tonight, so those people were free to join the crush. Then there are hugh parts of the city that aren't under evac orders at all, but plenty of them want out too.

President Bush, in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition, urged residents "to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities, and follow them."

"We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm," he said, "but we got to be ready for the worst."

Early indications were that evacuations were going smoothly. In Galveston, Ms. Thomas said that about 1,500 people without personal transportation were bused from the Island Community Center on Wednesday morning.

In addition to the overnight shuttle to Houston, Dallas Area Rapid Transit officials, who had arrived in the area early Tuesday with six Trinity Railway Express cars and two locomotives capable of carrying about 800 people, said state officials had asked them to start carrying evacuees from Houston to Dallas today.

The governor's office asked that facilities caring for patients with special needs contact the Department of Public Safety at 1-800-525-5555 if they need help transporting them to safety.

Ms. Thomas praised Galvestonians for their response. "People are very committed to getting their families and themselves off the island," she said. "Everybody, I think, has been extremely calm."

Galveston officials announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday and said the southbound lanes of the Interstate 45 bridge would be closed to all but emergency traffic.

Galveston emergency officials, including the mayor, planned to move to the San Luis Hotel, 37 feet above low tide atop two World War II military bunkers.

"I would not recommend it to citizens in general, but that to me is the best place for city staff to be," Ms. Thomas said.

Fleeing Houston

In Houston, Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels requested the evacuation of low-lying areas and mobile home parks Wednesday and said areas along Galveston Bay would be first on the list for mandatory evacuation at 6 a.m. today.

"Use your common sense," Mr. White said at a news briefing. "If you're in a structure that you don't think can withstand wind damage – and I can tell you if it's a mobile home, it won't – please make your plans and leave.

"We are still well out from when the hurricane is expected to hit ... but people need to be making plans now so we're not dealing with freeway congestion."

The Johnson Space Center, in the low-lying Clear Lake area, was closed except for a skeleton crew at noon Wednesday.

Several school districts, including Houston ISD, said they would close today and Friday. "We don't know at this point when we're going to resume classes," district spokesman Terry Abbott said. "There's no way for us to know."

Tom Kornegay, executive director of the Port of Houston, said the last loads were being put on ships Wednesday as vessels headed out to sea to escape the storm. "We're battening down the hatches, getting the last loads out ... not letting more ships in," Mr. Kornegay said. "We are not receiving any more cargo at this time.

"Generally speaking, ships do not want to be in harbor when a storm comes through," Mr. Kornegay said. "They want to be at sea so they can basically run from the storm. ... The only ships we think we'll have after about midnight tonight are a couple of the MARAD ships." MARAD ships make up the U.S. Ready Reserve Fleet, cargo ships kept ready in various ports in case of a national emergency.

Houston's Metropolitan Transit Authority announced it would institute a more limited emergency schedule today: buses every hour and trains every 12 minutes. The system will shut down Friday until further notice.

Hospitals were also getting ready and, where necessary, evacuating patients.

The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston said all except the sickest patients were being taken inland, and staff backed by generators on the third floor could tend to those who couldn't be moved.

A spokesman for the Harris County Hospital District in Houston said workers were making sure emergency facilities are stocked and ready for patients after the storm.

Ben Taub Hospital, the district's main facility, has stayed open during past storms and hopes to continue that tradition, spokesman John Martinez said. "We're preparing for the worst and hoping for the best," he said.

Rice University and the University of Houston announced they were closing today and Friday, and the Museum of Fine Arts and other arts institutions in Houston were making similar plans.

Downtown, skyscraper operators were checking their emergency plans and warning tenants that buildings might be shut down.

Mr. White, the mayor, said a lot depends on self-reliance because there aren't enough public vehicles and facilities to take care of everyone.

"We want you to voluntarily evacuate," he said. "Make your plans to voluntarily evacuate now."

Authorities in coastal communities in Nueces, Victoria, Matagorda, Refugio, Jefferson and Jackson counties took no chances Wednesday, issuing mandatory evacuation orders for residents to head inland by this evening. The city of Sabine Pass also ordered evacuations.

"We're using every known method of communication that we have to alert the citizens that they need to leave," said Jackson County Sheriff Andy Louderback.

The Nueces County evacuation order was extended Wednesday night to include Corpus Christi. The county had already issued an order for people on Matagorda Island, Padre Island and the Flour Bluff area south of Corpus Christi to move inland "high-profile" vehicles: motor homes, RVs and travel trailers. Once a full evacuation order is given, such vehicles won't be allowed on the roads.

FOX News showing bumper to bumper traffic in Houston. Looks like it will be rough going.

New Thread

Damn. Houston's going to get this thing right in the face?

Current strike probabilities seem to center around Galveston/Houston. Massive ugliness