Helpless Hits Home
I have a few minutes to post today because my cousin who left Houston at 4:30 yesterday afternoon, is still only 60 miles outside of Houston. Every highway out of town is a parking lot. She hasn't slept, or eaten, she's down to 1/2 a tank of gas and the last 6 gas stations she stopped at were completely out. She's at her wits end, and I don't blame her. She's doing her best to hold it together for her 6 year old. The Weather Channel people were saying yesterday evening that everyone had left in plenty of time, that they had never seen an evacuation so early before. Now I'm beginning to wonder if she'll have to ride out the storm in her car. (Update, she has found a place to stay between here and there, so if she can't find gas, at least she'll have shelter)
Kent's family is still all in Corpus even though they have issued mandatory evacuations there too. His brother in law is a nurse so he will have to stay behind unless by some miracle they let him leave. He will be working at the hospital about 50 yards from the water. Kent's brother is a city worker, so he has to stay behind as well, but at least his house is a few miles inland. Kent's niece who lives in Houston was scheduled to be induced on Saturday, but instead is driving to Austin with her medical records and hoping she doesn't go into labor on the way. His sister decided to drive south out of the hurricanes current path and hope it doesn't make a sudden turn. My brother who lives in Austin (3 hours from here) said everyone there is stocking up on water and supplies, just in case.
I have lived in Dallas my entire life and know nothing about hurricanes or hurricane preparedness. (Tornadoes I can handle, water? not so much.) We're hearing that it's a possibility that when the storm reaches us it could still be as strong as a category 2. We are 300 miles away from Galveston. I can't even comprehend this. It would be like an entire states worth of damage, and Texas is BIG.
Right now we're still planning to go to Vancouver. What happens with the storm between now and when it hits is anybodies guess. It could turn and miss our area completely. Most likely by the time it gets here it will just be like a bad thunderstorm. There is nothing we can do for our family except open our house to them. I've got really high anxiety about leaving the dogs in a potentially bad storm, but there will be people here to take care of them if anything disastrous happens. I'm back and forth though. If anything were to happen to any of our animals while we were gone I don't think I could ever forgive myself. See what I mean? Panic is setting in.
Kent's family is still all in Corpus even though they have issued mandatory evacuations there too. His brother in law is a nurse so he will have to stay behind unless by some miracle they let him leave. He will be working at the hospital about 50 yards from the water. Kent's brother is a city worker, so he has to stay behind as well, but at least his house is a few miles inland. Kent's niece who lives in Houston was scheduled to be induced on Saturday, but instead is driving to Austin with her medical records and hoping she doesn't go into labor on the way. His sister decided to drive south out of the hurricanes current path and hope it doesn't make a sudden turn. My brother who lives in Austin (3 hours from here) said everyone there is stocking up on water and supplies, just in case.
I have lived in Dallas my entire life and know nothing about hurricanes or hurricane preparedness. (Tornadoes I can handle, water? not so much.) We're hearing that it's a possibility that when the storm reaches us it could still be as strong as a category 2. We are 300 miles away from Galveston. I can't even comprehend this. It would be like an entire states worth of damage, and Texas is BIG.
Right now we're still planning to go to Vancouver. What happens with the storm between now and when it hits is anybodies guess. It could turn and miss our area completely. Most likely by the time it gets here it will just be like a bad thunderstorm. There is nothing we can do for our family except open our house to them. I've got really high anxiety about leaving the dogs in a potentially bad storm, but there will be people here to take care of them if anything disastrous happens. I'm back and forth though. If anything were to happen to any of our animals while we were gone I don't think I could ever forgive myself. See what I mean? Panic is setting in.
posted by Kathryn @ 11:07 AM
8 Comments:
At 12:29 PM,
hazel said…
it is an awful time to have to worry about things. I can imagine how tough it is. I would be totally freaked out if I were stuck in a car for that long and running out of gas. or had relatives who were having that happen to them.
I hope that things run more smoothly for you and your family and that this storm turns out to be nothing but a sprinkle. I can hope, anyways.
I do have to ask you one question that has nothing to do with the magnitude of the impending storm - you say you've lived in dallas all your life. do you have a southern accent? if so, I need to know, so I can read your posts with a southern accent in my head.
At 1:46 PM,
lonna said…
I'm so sorry this is happening now too. I hope that everything turns out okay. Your poor niece. I can't even imagine being due in the middle of all this. That's just wrong.
At 2:48 PM,
Kathryn said…
Patrice: Ha! Years of actor training and parents who insisted on speaking clearly and correctly have done a pretty good job of getting rid of the accent. It comes out when I'm drunk or when I'm around people who have a bad one. So maybe you should read a post and from that determine if I was drunk when I wrote it (what? I've been drunk on sugar a couple of times since I got knocked up), then insert the accent as you please!
At 8:57 PM,
Unknown said…
Have a good safe trip!
At 8:30 AM,
hazel said…
hey, I heard that there was a bus accident on the way to dallas, and I was just wondering if everyone is okay? I can't remember when you said you were leaving but know that we're on the east coast thinking about you and your family and hoping everything's okay.
At 7:13 PM,
Missuz J said…
Holy shit.
I hope that in a couple of weeks I'll read a post from you about how your trip was great, dogs were fine, relitives made it through ok, and you're feeling great.
Cripes!
At 9:31 AM,
NME said…
I hope every one is safe and you are having a lovely stress free time in Vancouver with your mother.
At 1:12 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi!
My name is George Tschoepe. Home town, New Braunfels,Tx. Now, living in Cypress, Tx(NW HARRIS COUNTY).
I know the feelings you were having, watching and listening to the television stations. The three network stations in Houston, Tx, in my opinion were very irrisponsible in their reporting of Hurrican Rita.
I was living in Houston in 1961, Hurricane Carla. The TV stations were creating mass hysteria with their reporting of "RITA". First of all, they did not know where "landfall" would be. Hurricanes that hit Florida, hardly ever hit the Texas coast line. And, the elected offficials, Governor, County Judge, and the Mayor of Houston were like the "THREE STOOGES" and then when you combine all of the rest of the people that should have been making some intelligent decisions, they made the "Keystone Cops" look like a well organized group.
The evacuation should have been limited to the first twenty or thirty miles of the Texas coast line, at least until they had a better idea of the path of "RITA"
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