<p>tanman, there was no evacuation for Alison. My S was a counselor at sailing camp at our yacht club and they rode out the storm in the ball room. There was very little storm surge or wind damage. The storm itself was not bad when it hit the coast, it was when it stalled over the city that Friday evening and rained buckets. I was racing in the Friday night series, the weather was beautiful down at the bay. I didn’t even know there was a problem until I called home to say I was headed that way and my H said, “Don’t take I-10, it is under water.” I took the beltway around the city and encountered no problems. The next morning, we woke up to news reports of massive flooding. We were lucky in our area, there was very little rain and no flooding. The rain clouds just sat on top of certain areas like the medical center and downtown and they were deluged. It was not the original landfall of the storm at all though. Hurricanes are tricky things to understand or predict.</p>
<p>Sad picture on the front of the Houston Chronicle. It is of a NO evacuee who was recently placed in subsidized housing in Galveston. She is sitting on the porch outside her apartment. The caption says that she just got into the apartment a few days ago after going through evacuation to the superdome and then bussed to Houston, and now she is facing evacuation again. What horrible luck for this poor woman!!</p>
<p>Allison was only a tropical storm, so no one even considered evacuating. The problem was it just sat and kept raining. It wouldn’t leave!!! Massive flooding in the low-lying areas of Houston and underground garages, equipment facilities, etc. Most coverage in our area is concern over high winds doing tree damage and dumping them on houses and cars, etc., in higher areas, and flooding in lower areas. Voluntary evac has already started, schools in coastal areas have already closed, and the gov has signed the mandatory evac orders for tomorrow if storm stays on course.</p>
<p>Here at Rice they are not telling us to evacuate. Apparently they have enough food and water for all of us for 3 days (after that I guess we are on our own?), and they have backup generators for power. The official plans don’t call for evacuation of this area even in the case of a category 5. I’m a little anxious about the hurricane - as I’ve never been in Houston for one and don’t know what to expect - but I’m trusting that the authorities at Rice are making the right decisions. </p>
<p>Right now they are thinking it will hit about 150 miles southwest of here, so maybe it won’t be too too bad. I just hope we don’t lose power for more than 24 hours. I can handle 24, but after that I think i will be cranky. Luckily, I have a flashlight!</p>
<p>Since we have as a nation (thru GWB) pledged to rebuild NO, would we deny rebuilding of any other devastated area as the result of RITA?</p>
<p>The estimated cost to rebuild NO has been estimated to be $200 billion in current dollars. If no new taxes are to be raised and inheritance taxes abolished, just where do we think all this money will come from? </p>
<p>I hope the wise ones can figure this out because GWB will be out of office when the stuff-hits-the-fan.</p>
<p>Oops I meant to post this under this thread and got it under another - so here it is again.</p>
<p>This is the hurricane Texas did not want to see coming at us right now. No hurricane this big has hit the Houston/Galveston area since the hurricane of 1900 that killed 6000-12000 people. Gov. Perry and others are on the ball, Tx is prepared for this. The last I heard before leaving work at 3pm 09/20 was that Gov Perry will probably issue a Proclamation of Imminent Disaster on Wednesday (or maybe Thursday), he has also recalled the Tx National Guard from LA, they may already be back as I write this. </p>
<p>Authorities are projecting possible catastrophic flooding from Galveston on into the hill country of Central Texas. Galveston is under mandatory evacuations already and everyone is being sent to Hunstville or Bryan/College Station or other locations north of Houston. </p>
<p>Everyone please check your evacuation routes that are based on where you are evacuating from. All of the local news stations have this info on their websites. </p>
<p>Katrina evacuees still in Houston’s major relief centers are being taken to Arkansas. I too feel for these people that must go through this again. It is best at this time to pay close attention to weather and news reports. Anyone in voluntary or mandatory evacuation areas should err on the side of caution and evacuate as calmy and quickly as possible. </p>
<p>The storm surge alone will cause major problems in the Houston area. A 4 foot storm surge will cover most of Galveston Island, 4-6 feet will also cover Texas City, Hancock,and Santa Fe, while the worst case scenario of 22.8 feet will cover everything from Alvin to Friendswood to large portions of Baytown, basically almost everything from south nad east Beltway 8 to the coast and into downtown, or approx 600,000 homes. Any storm surge can also push water up into the bayous that normally drain water away from Houston into the Gulf. </p>
<p>And this doesn’t include rainfall. Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston in 3 seperate events and dropped a total of 37 inches of rain on parts of Houston in 42-46 hours. In some areas IH-10 and other major roadways were 26-30 feet under water, even semi tractor trailer rigs were floating. and she was just a tropical storm. </p>
<p>Estimates are that Houston could be without electricity for 4-5 days and water for several days. Our crews are still helping out in LA and MS. Some recommedatiosn are for everyone to get at least 12 miles from the coast if not farther. Schools in some areas are already closed, and school buses will be evacuating those that need that assistance from several intermediate schools in Galveston starting Wednesday. </p>
<p>Hospitals in the medical center all made major improvements to protect themselves from flooding after Allison, but this is a whole new ballgame, we’ll have to see if the improvements hold up to Rita. </p>
<p>Good Luck to everyone in Houston and the Southeast Gulf Coast.</p>
<p>Another Houston mom. We’ve scraped together our batteries and water, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. It is possible that we will still evacuate on Thursday or Friday to friends in Austin. If not, we’ll sit tight and hope. We’re in southwest Houston (not far from the Dome) so our biggest problem aside from wind is likely to be flooding from the bayous. A large percentage of houses in our neighborhood flooded during Allison. We were not one of them at the time, but there’s always the possibility of a first. </p>
<p>Just another word of warning. It’s expected to be 100 degrees here tomorrow. That temp will probably drop when the storm blows through but 4-5 days with no electricity or AC could still be pretty brutal (especially for the elderly) in the hot Houston climate, even if the actual structure of the house holds up. Our homes just weren’t built for cross ventilation; we don’t even have window screens. </p>
<p>My thoughts are with the young people at Rice, UH, and also in the public and private schools who were displaced from Tulane and other academic institutions. They came to Texas in hopes of continuing their schooling and life, but instead they may face the prospect of Rita. What lousy luck!</p>
<p>My s. at Rice is still being too nonchalant for his nervous nellie mother here. He lives off campus, so doesn’t have the protection Jenskate describes. I’ll try again today to encourage the purchase of flashlights, batteries food and water… sigh…</p>
<p>To Houston Folks, Has anyone seen any batteries around? I have gone to every store around me (west Houston) and there are no D batteries!! Getting water was like a feeding frenzy. I got to Randalls around 4 yesterday and there was none, but the manager said they were getting more in at 5. I loaded up with canned goods and non perishables (of course the first thing my son did when I got home was open up a can of Raviolios to eat as a snack, I hope I have rations left by the weekend!). At 5 when the water was delivered, it was like a shoe sale at Nordstroms, people grabbing as many cases as they could hold. I was lucky to get two cases of bottled water. I figured I could fill my bathtubs and get by, then I talked to my dad, who is evacuating to my house, and of course, Mr. Preparedness has empty milk jugs to fill! I just hope he has a house to go back to after this thing passes. He lives in Shoreacres by La Porte, right on the water. He got someone to help move everything upstairs and to board up the windows, but if the storm surge is bad, it may all be twigs by Sunday. All of my H’s family lives within a few miles of us, and if (like Alicia) the power goes out and stays out for days, we have a farm in Halletsville with a main house and bunk house. It will be really cramped with 10 adults and 9 kids, but there is AIR CONDITIONING! </p>
<p>Pray for us, people!!!</p>
<p>You can also buy H20 treatment tablets if you are having trouble getting enough bottled water…in the long term case this might be of help with so many of your folks gathered together.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any suggestions for things I should be doing? I plan to fill my pitcher with water today, but i imagine that buying bottled water will be a feat at this point.</p>
<p>Do you think I should be evacuating?
Here’s the info from Rice:
<a href=“Welcome | Rice University”>Welcome | Rice University;
<p>I feel bad for all the Tulane kids here! There are 106 of them, and I can’t imagine what they must be thinking.</p>
<p>I was pretty nonchalant about the hurricane all week, but as it strengthens it’s making me a little nervous. Wish me luck!</p>
<p>Ag54, I am praying for you and everyone else in the Houston area. I’m not surprised that you’re having trouble finding bottled water. It has been in shorter supply in the Dallas area since Katrina hit. At least there has not been price gouging on it like there was on gasoline.</p>
<p>Batteries… Wow, I usually see racks and racks of them in the stores and never thought about it. In this area, we’re used to short term outages with tornadoes and thunderstorms. I don’t even know how to estimate for a hurricane.</p>
<p>Halletsville is sounding good. I so hope this storm loses some of its punch and heads to a less populated area of Texas. It’s awful for anyone that will be affected, but as with tornadoes, it’s so much easier to fix the aftermath when it’s in the sticks - and so much easier to evacuate.</p>
<p>Jenskate - What sort of window does your dorm room have? You may want to put books, papers, etc in plastic trashbags before landfall. At 45 ft, you are above storm surge level. Your dangers are wind (including blown out windows and having rain coming in), flooding from heavy rains or backed up drains. The eye will have to be close to a direct hit for this to be a real concern, but putting books and papers into a garbage bag is an easy thing to do. You have probably heard a lot of talk about Allison - it was a slow moving tropical storm that produced “Biblical” amounts of rainfall. This storm, unless something changes dramatically, will move much faster and produce a lot less rain - it may look like a lot of rain to you, but until you’ve seen tropical storm level rain, you can’t imagine! It will be scary, because of the wind, but take reasonable precautions, and you will be safe - at the height of the storm, move away from windows or any other large expanse of glass - this would be a good opportunity for a dorm party in the hallways or a large common area if it is not in the basement or a glassed in area. Particularly if your room is on the top floor, look out your window for large trees, if there are any around the dorm, the closest rooms should be vacated. I would imagine that the school will have the RAs well briefed, and everyone will move to the hallways during the worst parts of the storm.</p>
<p>Stock up on snacks and water, and be prepared to hunker down - eat anything you have that is perishable, you may be without power for a few days. I’m sure if there is significant damage, the university will evacuate people after the storm, as soon as it is safe to get out (ie roads are cleared of trees and power lines). We are in a similar location in Mobile, although we are at 100 ft. We have virtually no chance of ever being flooded, unless we let the swimming pool overflow. Our dangers are tornadoes (can’t do much about that), and sustained high winds - that means we are fairly safe unless we took a direct hit with eyewall going over the house, or just had bad luck (tree on the house). The bad part is the afterwards - the days/weeks with no air con, water or food - I would think that, faced with that prospect, the uni would move you guys, and in Houston that might be easier to do afterwards, because you can go west and north.</p>
<p>Well, I think my dorm room is pretty safe from flooding, as i live on the fifth floor. This also puts my room above all the treetops. My residential college has some pretty unique architecture, which involves outdoor hallways like a motel, with the hallways surrounded by a floor to ceiling open air concrete and brick grating. I don’t know if you can envision that at all. Hopefully the grating shields us from the wind as I haven’t heard anything about boarding up the windows. The windows are about 3 feet tall by 6 feet long, and at the top of the room.</p>
<p>Is there anything I can do to prep for the power being out? I guess buy a big flashlight… has anyone in this area been to the stores? I don’t want to go all the way there to have all the flashlights be sold out. (I don’t have a car, so getting there is a huge hassle).</p>
<p>jenskate, I hate to tell you, but I think you would be hard pressed to find a flashlight near Rice. I just got a lead on batteries though, they are at the dollar store! I’m going to try to get by Academy and see if I can get a couple of lanterns, just in case.</p>
<p>Our school district just announced closure for the rest of the week. Now, for sure my food supplies will be gone, the kids are going to be eating out of boredom! </p>
<p>The latest storm trackings say landfall at Port Aransas, if this high pressure stays a little bit longer it may push Rita south (sorry Corpus people). But, until tomorrow, nobody really knows where it is going. That is why it is so tricky about evacuating, I am glad that Galveston and the shore areas are being safe (lessons learned from Katrina), but if this thing heads south like many do, we are likely to go back to our denial, complacency mode for the next big one. I understand why many New Orleaneans (who could have evacuated) stayed.</p>
<p>yeah, that’s what i figured - because the only place i could think of to get one was target on south main by reliant, but they would probably be out, i guess.</p>
<p>Just talked to my sis who lives in West Houston. She doesn’t seem overly worried–they boarded up their house, couldn’t find any more bottled water at the store. Her work place is shutting down today. . .employees moved things off the floor, backed up the computers and wrapped them in garbage bags. </p>
<p>She and hubby had already planned on being in Austin from Thursday-Sunday to play golf. He had signed up for a hotel that accepted cats–what a stroke of lucky foresight. They are deciding whether to go to Austin or to stay with the house. I hope they go. . .</p>
<p>Jenskate - I think you will be pretty safe, safe enough to reassure your parents. The RAs may still try to bunch you guys together - for one to stop bored people from doing something stupid, and also because it is scary, particularly in the dark when you can’t see what is making all that noise. Be safe!</p>
<p>I just wanted to add, good luck to everyone back home in Houston (and all along the TX Gulf Coast)! I just heard from my sister that school has been canceled for the rest of the week, and looking at the list of [school</a> closings](<a href=“http://www.school-closings.net/rita.asp]school”>http://www.school-closings.net/rita.asp), it looks like most every district in the Houston area is doing the same. I was watching the streaming feed from Channel 11 and Dr. Neil Frank’s models show that there’s really no definate idea on where the hurricane will make landfall. The models show it going towards Matagorda Bay, but the “chance” of hitting is above 10% everywhere from the Mexican border to New Orleans and the “cone of uncertainty” stretches from Brownsville to Beaumont</p>
<p>Rice classes have been cancelled for the rest of the week, as well as pretty much all campus activities, including families weekend, the Rice-Navy football game, and the Dalai Lama visit.</p>