<p>So have hotels given refunds on the reserves of parents coming long distances?</p>
<p>I just got back to the office after racing around with the rest of Houston to get last minute stuff. The dollar store was out of batteries as was Walmart, every grocery and drug store around. Luckily my sister in law called and said to get over to Conns, that they had just gotten some in. I rushed over and waited in line to get my batteries. I was able to get the last floor model lantern at Oshmans, but they didn’t have any oil for it. I am going in search of Coleman lamp oil later, the man said I could use unleaded gas, but I am afraid of blowing my house up! As I was leaving Oshmans I gave a lady the heads up that Oshmans didn’t have any batteries, but that Conns did. She jumped in her car and sped off. I hope I didn’t steer her wrong and that there are still some there. The roads are a mess. What should have been a 30 minute trip took an hour and a half! This is crazy!! It’s like that story of the little chicken running around saying, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” This is all stuff I should have around my house in case of emergencies. If the storm turns south, at least I will have my “hurricane preparedness kit” all together. (that is how I am rationalizing all of this nutty behavior)</p>
<p>Ag54, it can also be your tornado kit. No loss in getting prepared.</p>
<p>Jenskate and other college kids. We learned from Katrina that cell phone service was one of the first things to go. Please get a phone card if you don’t have one, or set up a network with someone local so that you can let your worried parents know you’re OK. (Or both just to be sure!) My son is a displaced Tulanian. He was fortunate not to have left for school when they ordered the evacuation. But if he had, he wouldn’t have had a phone card. He has a cell phone. He knew to keep his tank full and some cash in hand. I was also sending a gas card and I told him I would make sure he had money to cover a hotel for the trip if he needed to use his debit card. I never thought about how we could stay in touch.</p>
<p>I hope that hotels are accommodating to under ages kids many times they won’t allow them to register…have you decided on a hotel if that is necessary and perhaps faxed a permission or whatever they require in advance perhaps? Just mentioning because I was standed when I was underage by a blizzard and my folks had to fax some info.</p>
<p>H got a flight from Minneapolis tonight, so I think we are bugging out. Sister (my first responder) already bugged out to Austin today and we plan on leaving either tonight or tomorrow for Austin to stay at my D’s. She said she couldn’t find water there this afternoon, but I’m bringing some. They are supposed to get tropical force winds and will probably lose power as well. As soon as we get boarded up and H gets his computer and business stuff, we’re outta here. He wanted to stay but we just have too many big pine trees around the house that could crash down on us. We’re a mile from a creek, too. I’m exhausted from taking things/photos upstairs and haven’t eaten a bite all day. I also took video and digitals of the house for insurance should I need it.</p>
<p>HS S doesn’t want to leave! I told him to pack the computer and he could play his games up there.</p>
<p>In the morning we will also be evacuating to Austin to stay with friends. Hopefully, the storm will not be quite so intense there. Although our particular house has never flooded, large chunks of the neighborhood were under water with Allison, and I think we can expect the same. </p>
<p>S. has packed up all his important stuff: laptop, ipod, and half-finished college apps. He was supposed to take ACTs on Sunday but that has quite literally been blown by the wayside!</p>
<p>The Mayor recommended that all school districts and colleges cancel Thursday and Friday activities and classes so people could evacuate or hunker down, and they all pretty much did. Estimates are that it will take 33-35 hours to evacuate just the areas in most danger of flooding, etc. - Galveston, League City, etc. They need this lead time to give everyone enough time to go. I have decided to go to my friend’s house near San Antonio. I don’t relish sitting in the dark all by myself. And even though I don’t foresee my house flooding, there is danger of trees being blown over onto the house, etc. I tried to leave this evening, but traffic was so bad, that I would have had to drive all night long. Will leave at 4 am and hopefully hit a lesser travelled time. I don’t relish the return trip, with everyone trying to get back at the same time. Went to the store today - no bread anywhere, no water, no batteries at Kroger. Have some empty milk bottles so will fill them with water now. Have a large flashlight and a radio with batteries (almost new). So, I could stay, but will leave. Even if Rita hits Matagorda, Houston is on the storm surge “dirty” side, so there will still be alot of damage from winds and rain - possible tornadoes spinning off, as well. God bless us all!!!</p>
<p>My s. and his roommates (all of whom live off campus) are heading in a caravan to a friends house in San Antonio. He plans to park his car in the upper level of the med center parking decks across from the Rice campus, hopefully way in the inside, away from any flying debris. I told him I’d happily pay the parking fee. If he lived on campus, he’d have probably stayed, but its hard not having a place to sleep or call your own. Personally, it sounded like a helluva party opportunity to me, but no-- they are heading out after they finish furiously doing laundry and getting the place secured. I was befinning to sound like a nag, so I had to stop giving the’suggestions" of things to do. Hope they’ll be fine. Hard to reach them on the cellphones. Keep your fngers crossed.</p>
<p>The forecast track has shifted, taking closer to the Texas/Louisiana border. Just wanted to remind everybody that these things can go everywhere, so even if you’re not in the direct path of the storm, if you’re in the big white circle, you should definitely consider evacuating. You’ve probably heard that before, but a lot of people in Florida last year got hammered because they hadn’t.</p>
<p>Tried to evac yesterday eve although I am on north side of Houston, and not in the evac areas. Gave up when it took me 2 hours to go as far as would normally take me 1/2 hour. That meant my drive would have been 20+ hours. Will just have to ride out the storm. Went to Wal-Mart early this morning, and there are people camping out in the parking lot because they were running out of gas, having idled in traffic for 8 hours for what normally would have been a 45 minute drive. And the gas stations all around us are out of gas, so I don’t know what these people are going to do! At Home Depot and Lowe’s (right next to each other, people are parked on the grass, and the line is around the building waiting to get in. No water or ice available in any of the stores. Will fill up 2 bathtubs, and have 3 gallons at home and will be filling up pitchers, etc. Have huge flashlight. Put water in large baggies in the freezer to keep the fridge cold for longer when the power goes out. Will be able to drink it when it melts and at least it will be cold. Interestingly 2 of the worst storms hit Galveston then another New Orleans 105 years ago. Now, it’s the reverse. Ready for 2006…</p>
<p>Wow I am not surprised it took you so long to drive a short distance…pics on the news are showing amazingly huge traffic jams…at what point will they make all lanes exits? As to the fuel…reports of stations running out of fuel also. Our thoughts are with you as you hunker down. Still time to go and where the turn comes is still not known. I am hoping it doesn’t hit at nite, during high tide. Be safe.</p>
<p>They are now making I-45, I-10, U.S. 90 all exits. I-45 will be the first one to open their lanes (because the construction workers were already there, so they can divert the traffic)…</p>
<p>“all exits”? Are they shutting down the exits? I’ve heard that they’re using “counterflow” measures - turning inbound lanes on I-45N, I-10 (Katy Fwy) and 290 into outbound lanes</p>
<p>Edit: Just heard a bit from a news conference with Gov. Perry. DPS and DoD and working to get gas to anyone on the freeways who runs out. Also, the state has asked President Bush for 10,000 troops to help with search&rescue etc.</p>
<p>No, they aren’t shutting down the exits…they are making the all of the lanes as exits…atleast that is what I heard on FOX news…</p>
<p>I’m in my home, northern suburb of Houston, twiddling my thumbs. Grocery stores will be closing soon (if there’s anything left on the shelves, bought some nice steaks today dirt cheap), gas stations are almost out of gas, movie theaters (which could be making a ton of money today) are closed because nobody can get anywhere. Houston is literally paralyzed with movement almost impossible.</p>
<p>I’ve ridden out a cat 3 before, intend to ride this one out. If there’s damage to my house, I want to be here to fix it.</p>
<p>All you folks in the path of Rita, please check in with us as soon as it’s possible and reasonable for you to do so. We’ll all be thinking about you, and all your neighbors…</p>
<p>My family has decided to stay (even though we should’ve left earlier… (i really did tell them yesterday that we should leave at that moment)… but my parents didn’t take it seriously…until around noon today…by then it was too late to do anything about it…too many traffic jams). We are housing some people that we know that live in Baytown. They started out on the road at 8:00 AM, and still aren’t even close to getting here. We’ve cleared out most of the closets;we have food and lots of drinking water, and basically the necessities for the aftermath of the hurricane, because it’s pretty much a sure thing that our electricity will go out. I live in a northern suburb of Houston…the main things we are worrying about is the wind, because our house is made up of 50-60% of windows/glass. All Kroger grocery stores will be closing at 5:00 PM today in the Greater Houston area, there is talk that school will reopen on Monday…but this is most likely not going to happen for my school district.</p>
<p>Contraflow lanes are now open on IH45 froms FM 1488 in Conroe up to Buffalo and on IH-10 near Sealy toward San Antonio. HWY 290 will take a little longer to get planned for this, especially since 290 crosses SH 6 another major evac route. So far it looks like these lane are working. YEAH!!! The local governments, Gov. Perry, DPS, and city and county officials are to be congratualted for a job well done so far in getting this many people out of harms way in such a calm and orderly manner. </p>
<p>I OTOH am worried about my family. My DH an DD evac’d w/ my Father-in-Law to Conroe. DD has to take care of her Dad when he has seizures, DH went to help his dad take care of mom, a stroke victim, and his brother, who is also wheelchair bound. I get to stay here and go to work tomorrow. But, they all know how to get a hold of me, I’m easy, I’ll be in one place, on the job, while my dad and 2 brothers and both of my sisters families also evac to several different places. </p>
<p>One suggestion that I’m not sure has been mentioned yet: Choose one family member to be the contact point for the entire family. This person can keep family updated on others as families evac and call in and someone will know where everyone is. This saves on battery life of cell phones also. And remember, just because cell phones may go out, doesn’t mean that text messaging won’t still work. So if your cell dies, or you can’t get through, ty to text message.</p>
<p>The City of Bellaire is now asking its citizens to conserve water, the decision has been made to not create contraflow lanes on HWY 290, and tempers are starting to flare up at gas stations. Everyone, please stay calm and we will work through this. Tankers are traveling the freeways assisting those that have run out of gas, and if one station runs out of gas try the next one, and don’t forget to check the ones that looked closed. Several stations are closed, but left thier tanks on, so if you have a credit card you can still get gas from that station.</p>
<p>Good Luck to Houston and Beyond, it llooks like hurricane strength winds may even reach Dallas now, and Rita has made a little jog NW again. I know lots of people spent the night in thier cars on a freeway, hope potty breaks were not too bad, especially if traveling with little ones.</p>
<p>Just another quick update from what I’ve read online: traffic is starting to flow on I-10 because of contraflow towads Seguin. METRO has recruited hundreds of volunteers to board buses and deliver water to stranded motorists starting immediately. The Army National Guard, TXDOT and city and county officials are sending tankers of gas to refuel anybody who has run out of gas. Major problems at the airports because scores of TSA screeners didn’t show up. DHS is flying in screeners from as far as Cleveland to fill the gaps.</p>
<p>I just got back from my son’s school, which has been set up as a shelter. There are over 700 people there, mostly taken off the freeway. One woman left her house last night at 9pm and got to our area at 7pm today - a trip that would normally take a little over an hour. We’re scrambling for food. We were able to feed everyone tonight with the stock on hand. We have enough cereal for breakfast, but no milk and will make sandwiches with hamburger buns for lunch. I don’t know what we’ll do for dinner or meals beyond tomorrow. The school district is “raiding” all the other school cafeterias for food and supplies (which should make things interesting when our kids go back to school). All of the grocery stores closed this afternoon for the duration.</p>