I have a sister in Houston and a sister in San Antonio. The DH of the Houston one was sent out of town in case power goes out - he’s IT and it has something to do with the oil stuff and keeping it up. The three of us are supposed to meet at Disney Tuesday night.
My whole family and many friends still live in Port Lavaca - 70 miles north of Corpus. Port Lavaca actually shut down utilities today - electricity, natural gas, and water. Pretty much everyone left.
My brother and sister both live in old wood frame houses within 100 feet of Lavaca Bay - they aren’t expecting the houses to be standing when this is over.
^^^^Wow, that is so sad. Well, at least your sibs are safe.
Yep! They got sentimental stuff and the pets. The dogs were fine with it but the cat was not happy!
Good that the residents of Port Lavaca left. Their county, Calhoun County, is under mandatory evacuation orders.
Good luck to all west of the Gulf. We get knowledgeable hurricane forecasting from local meteorologists living in Tampa- I do not envy you at all!
Now it’s a CAT 4
I’m surprised that at the moment the Houston transtar traffic map shows that all the major Houston area highways are clear, with no slowdowns anywhere. I guess the coastal evacuation traffic isn’t affecting Houston metro right now, but I figured more people would be leaving Houston and clogging up the highways. Interestingly, the special weather bulletins on my NWS local forecast page advise people to consider the risks associated with evacuating, and to keep the roads clear for those who really need to evacuate because of life threatening conditions. We may lose power in our Houston suburb but the rain and wind are not expected to be anywhere near what Houston might get. We may not even see tropical storm force winds at our house. We also rent a first floor apartment near downtown Houston that my husband uses during the week to avoid the long commute to our suburban house, and I’m really glad we have renters insurance there because I think Houston is going to be a mess and there’s a chance the apartment could flood. So far today we’ve just had a few rain showers and it’s been overcast all day.
No one is leaving our area and we are about halfway between Houston and Galveston. Everyone is just staying in and hoping that we don’t flood. We expect power outages. It is the tornados that scare me. The alarms have been going off all day. Dog won’t leave my side.
Thoughts are with everyone in Texas - from south jersey where memories of Sandy haunt us around here.
Keeping the cell phone charged became critical it was the lifeline, and battery operated radio to hear the local updates.
KCRP radar has 150 mph winds at 2700 feet altitude just crossing the coastline east of Rockport. They won’t be quite that strong at the ground but it’s going to get ugly when this thing crosses the bay and start hitting the towns.
Wishing all Texans in the path of the storm to come out of this unharmed.
I have a friend who lives in Dallas, but works in Harlingen during the week. He was fortunate to get a flight out at 6 am this morning with a connection through Houston. He was fortunate to get out at all. Hoping all of you in the path stay safe and dry.
Austin area SAT tests scheduled for Saturday, August 26, will be rescheduled to be held on Saturday, September 16.
Anyone have a guess as to whether and how long flights will be cancelled into Sn Antonio?
Been glued to the Weather Channel, anyone else tired of hearing how safe and well constructed the Holiday Inn Express in Port Lavaca is?
I’m sure they run out of things to talk about after HOURS of standing in the wind/rain.
These newscasters standing (barely) outside in the wind and rain. I’m waiting for a blowing street sign to hit and kill one of them. I guess anything for the ratings.
The Weather Channel is making them wear helmets now. I’m waiting for one of them standing in the surf to get swept out to sea!
I have a friend who has a house in Port Lavaca; they are out of there. A former classmate of one of my sons and her DH live not far from Beeville. They moved their cattle to higher ground. Not going to get heavy winds, but the rain will be a different story.
Be careful out there, friends.