Hurricane Rita Live Thread, Part VII

NHC - NOAA ^ | 23 September 2005 | NHC - NOAA

[luckystarmom]

I have family in the Woodville area north of Beaumont. I'm wondering how they are doing there.

So far, everything looks much better than I expected.

[Howlin]

I'd LOVE to run outside and see some rain; we are very close to a drought.

[don-o]

NO has at least two levees letting in water. There was council woman on babbling about getting her peeps back home asap.

What is the matter with that picture?

Plenty. It seems to me that as battered as the system is, it won't even take a hurricane to reflood the city. If federal money is going to be poured into reconstruction (as W. promised it will be) we must demand that the corrupt machine never gets it hands on a dime of it.

[DJtex]

Rick Perry is an R, as is every other State elected official in Texas. When George W. came in as only the 2nd Republican Texas Governor, every State office was Democrat--and had been since Reconstruction. When W left, every State elected official was Republican.

[jeffers]

That was the dry season.

The whole dry season.

[Rightly Biased]

From Nita

---

Thank you. Wind has died down somewhat and getting light outside. Devastation just unbelievable. This house used to have solid woods in back behind lot... now looks like it's been clearcut by timber company. Huge trees everywhere either down by their roots or split in half and hanging onto themselves like broken toothpicks. Someone here works for electric company and heard them mumble, "We'll be weeks before we get power back." Ugh.

Signing off to save battery. Wind kicking up again. Please continue praying. We feel it and thank you very much.

2,259 posted on 09/24/2005 7:11:41 AM CDT by Nita Nupress (Kountze/Lumberton)

[luckystarmom]

Are you serious or not? Is White a decent mayor? He certainly seems better than Nagin.

[Crawdad]

Mayor McCheese is better than Nagin.

[Cboldt]

can anyone tell me exactly where the eye came ashore this morning?

Real good map by jeffers at ...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1490378/posts?page=2232#2232
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y138/jeffers_mz/Rita/o4landfallmap.jpg

[johniegrad]

The electric company and I are fighting right now. My electric bill jumped thirty dollars over last years bill. There is a problem on their part as their is nothing wrong with the AC or the hot water heater. They say it's my fault and not theirs and I say just the opposite

I had the same problem a couple of years ago. However, I am an anal compulsive record keeper and had electric bills saved from the past 5 years. I was able to plot out on a spreadsheet, all the electrical bills and usage from 3 separate accounts including the one in question. I explained there was nothing that had changed in my electrical usage or behavior at home during that time and that their current bill was 1000% higher than any of the others. I showed them the graphs. They said they would "look into it". I explained to them that they could look into it if they wanted but that regardless of whatever explanation they came up with this bill would not be paid because I had proof they were wrong. They called me back two weeks later to explain they had placed new meters on all their accounts and had taken the final reading from someone else's old meter for my account. I thanked them for the explanation and paid them what I thought the bill should be.

[luckystarmom]

I have family in Woodville which is a little north of Jasper. Ahh. Hope that area is okay.

[TheMom]

Be careful making sense regarding the evac procedure. I dared do the same thing last night and was called an idiot by several people.

[milagro]

Am so happy for you DG! I just now got up here on the left coast and have not read through all the posts yet, but turned the news on and am rejoicing and prasing God this morning for answering our prayers.

Rita was a MONSTER--it could have killed so many and destroyed so much. But I believe--and call me nuts I don't care--there were MIGHTY angels riding that whirlwind to a place where it would do the least harm. And the back side--the outer eyewall--pretty much disintegrated. To some that my be a stroke of luck; to me it is the power of prayer!

HALLELUJAH!

[Strategerist]

So did people in Houston just outpray the people of Lake Charles? Doesn't seem like a fair fight really, given Houston's population advantage, but it must work by quantity, I guess.

[McGavin999]

I think that's because it's all concentrated in LA. Whew, that place is going to be waterlogged for a long time.

[laz]

Fox Reporter-Rette: [holding up large piece of broken street lamp the size of her head] "This must be from a broken lamp"

I saw that. They really shouldn't keep going back to her, because honestly, nothing much happened where she is. It's like TWC going back to Stephanie Abrams at Fort Walton Beach all the time during Katrina while the real action was in Biloxi and Gulfport. (Of course, you didn't hear me complaining too much because it was Stephanie. :) )

[bwteim]

Here's forecast for Tyler County.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/forecasts/TXZ180.php?zo=1

Try not to imagine the worst, it may just power and phone outage. There will always be neighbors there, too, right?

[JimSEA]

Have to Laugh, when I was growing up in Superior, AZ and the rain would begin, the whole family would go out on the screen porch to smell and watch. Of course, the wind and rain would get pretty violent on occasion but nothing like what these folks are experiencing.

[Howlin]

Let's face it, what we had last night is a "regular" hurricane -- done by the book, to the best of their ability -- and I mean everybodys, i.e., government, the public, businesses.

This is the way it is done every single year all over the coastal communities of this country, whether it's a CAT 1, 5, or a tropical storm.

To me, that says VOLUMES about Louisiana.

[McGavin999]

Has anyone started the check-in thread yet?