Thursday Afternoon Update
Over the last five hours, we have been preparing in a number of ways getting ready for Hurricane Rita to make landfall early Saturday morning.
We have plenty of food and water (at least 22 gallons and more Powerade that I can drink) here at the house in the case that we are without electricity and phone service for a number of days -- a real possibility.
I may have made reference that we evaluated where the strongest winds will come from and have done the best job that we can to block the windows in case they were to shatter. In our home in the living room, there are three (3) large windows across the back. We have taken a large armoire, the two high bookcase pieces of an entertainment center and another bookcase and all of them are loaded with books (i.e. a lot of weight).
In the master bedroom, we situated the bed with the high 5-foot-plus headboard in front of the two (2) windows there. These measures have been to just minimize the amount of flying glass.
The rest of the house we've been going through and trying to position things in 1.) either a way that we could get to them (like non-perishable items such as chips on top of the kitchen cabinets) or 2.) off the ground so we could minimize the items that were lost to flooding.
We'll do as much as we can to get both of our vehicles in the garage so that they do not get tossed around in the 70-90 mph winds that we may see here.
And you read this and are wondering why we are staying here?
We can't get out of town.
My sister lives maybe not even 8 miles south of me and she didn't get to the parallel spot with our house on Interstate 45 after being on the freeway for more than 5 hours. She was finally able to turn around and go home. She'll will take her daughters over to our parents if the situation calls for.
We may leave tomorrow if the traffic patterns clear up; however, we doubt it.
We'll be loading up both of the vehicles this evening with clothes and other items that we plan to take in the case that we decide to leave. If there is a good side out of this is that we have the chance to plan on multiple fronts to minimize a lot of things.
What is scary is that everybody REALLY listened regarding Katrina and as soon as people knew that it was a Category 4 in the Gulf (and that was early yesterday morning), they headed out of town. Once we get through this, our state, county and local officials are going to have to figure out how to tweak the evacuation plans to be able to facilitate more people out at one time.
It is just literally amazing watching the pictures on TV that I am sure that all of you are seeing.
Both of our vehicles have at least 3/4ths of a tank of gas and can go approximately 300 miles without having to fill up (that would put us west of the I-35 corridor, if necessary).
Please keep all of the folks on the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coasts in your thoughts and prayers throughout the weekend.
We have plenty of food and water (at least 22 gallons and more Powerade that I can drink) here at the house in the case that we are without electricity and phone service for a number of days -- a real possibility.
I may have made reference that we evaluated where the strongest winds will come from and have done the best job that we can to block the windows in case they were to shatter. In our home in the living room, there are three (3) large windows across the back. We have taken a large armoire, the two high bookcase pieces of an entertainment center and another bookcase and all of them are loaded with books (i.e. a lot of weight).
In the master bedroom, we situated the bed with the high 5-foot-plus headboard in front of the two (2) windows there. These measures have been to just minimize the amount of flying glass.
The rest of the house we've been going through and trying to position things in 1.) either a way that we could get to them (like non-perishable items such as chips on top of the kitchen cabinets) or 2.) off the ground so we could minimize the items that were lost to flooding.
We'll do as much as we can to get both of our vehicles in the garage so that they do not get tossed around in the 70-90 mph winds that we may see here.
And you read this and are wondering why we are staying here?
We can't get out of town.
My sister lives maybe not even 8 miles south of me and she didn't get to the parallel spot with our house on Interstate 45 after being on the freeway for more than 5 hours. She was finally able to turn around and go home. She'll will take her daughters over to our parents if the situation calls for.
We may leave tomorrow if the traffic patterns clear up; however, we doubt it.
We'll be loading up both of the vehicles this evening with clothes and other items that we plan to take in the case that we decide to leave. If there is a good side out of this is that we have the chance to plan on multiple fronts to minimize a lot of things.
What is scary is that everybody REALLY listened regarding Katrina and as soon as people knew that it was a Category 4 in the Gulf (and that was early yesterday morning), they headed out of town. Once we get through this, our state, county and local officials are going to have to figure out how to tweak the evacuation plans to be able to facilitate more people out at one time.
It is just literally amazing watching the pictures on TV that I am sure that all of you are seeing.
Both of our vehicles have at least 3/4ths of a tank of gas and can go approximately 300 miles without having to fill up (that would put us west of the I-35 corridor, if necessary).
Please keep all of the folks on the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coasts in your thoughts and prayers throughout the weekend.
posted by WalkSports.com | 4:31 PM
2 Comments:
Jon,
Even though I don't know you, when Houston was mentioned on the news, I thought about you and your family. You and your family are in my prayers. Hang in there and be strong. I lived through Hurricane Fran in 1996 under my bed. Stay safe and don't try to get a run in during the storm! Duncan
What's that you said on my blog? You're doing RTW tomorrow (Friday) morning? Hmmmm.... ;)
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