Sobering
We've had an interesting past few days. Houston was essentially shut down--I've never before experienced anything quite like it.
Wednesday night, news reports were predicting that Hurricane Rita (then a cat 5!) was headed straight for us packing winds of 175 mph. Micah, me and my parents and sister decided to leave for Austin first thing Thursday morning to stay with friends there. Micah and I were worried about our little house. It's small, about twenty years old, and as we've only been renting it about a month, we're unsure of it's capacity to handle severe weather. It's only part brick, and the windows seem kind of flimsy. We virtually dismantled everything (that we had just recently gotten situated after the move, by the way!), putting everything fragile or expensive away in closets and moving everything away from the windows. We packed up the most important things, like pictures and some keepsakes, to take with us. At about 1 am, we drove to my parents house. It took us twice as long as usual to get there because the traffic was so congested.
By the time everybody was ready to go in the morning, all the roads out of town were parking lots. Nobody was getting anywhere. Several people we know who tried to leave ended up turning around and coming back. We decided we'd rather wait at home than out on the road burning up gas in 100 degree weather! Maybe you saw in the news what those poor people out on the roads were experiencing...they couldn't buy gas, and they had to keep their air conditioners off to conserve. Trips that should take about two hours were taking fifteen.
As the day wore on, the situation didn't improve much. It was starting to look like the storm was redirecting to the east of us, so we held off on leaving.
Long story short, we ended up staying put at my parents'. We were spared. We received the very outer bands of the storm, with only minor damage to our area. My house lost power for about a day, but that was the only real consequence. My parents lost part of a tree, but kept their power. Just miles away to the east, some people sustained a lot more severe damage, with trees slicing through their houses, etc.
When I see the footage of places like Beaumont, Lumberton, Lake Charles --the places directly in Rita's path, I just have to think, wow: that could have so easily been us. It's kind of sobering, and humbling.
Things are just now getting more back to normal. For the past few days, no stores or gas stations have been open. Micah and I drove around town a bit on Friday morning, and it was kind of weird. It was like a ghost town, though with plenty of cars on the road. People were driving around but their was no place to go! Everything was dark and boarded up. Today, a lot of places were open again, and by tomorrow I should think that most places will be. Things are getting back to normal...but not for everybody. Some people have endured extreme losses--some twice over--these past three weeks.
Wednesday night, news reports were predicting that Hurricane Rita (then a cat 5!) was headed straight for us packing winds of 175 mph. Micah, me and my parents and sister decided to leave for Austin first thing Thursday morning to stay with friends there. Micah and I were worried about our little house. It's small, about twenty years old, and as we've only been renting it about a month, we're unsure of it's capacity to handle severe weather. It's only part brick, and the windows seem kind of flimsy. We virtually dismantled everything (that we had just recently gotten situated after the move, by the way!), putting everything fragile or expensive away in closets and moving everything away from the windows. We packed up the most important things, like pictures and some keepsakes, to take with us. At about 1 am, we drove to my parents house. It took us twice as long as usual to get there because the traffic was so congested.
By the time everybody was ready to go in the morning, all the roads out of town were parking lots. Nobody was getting anywhere. Several people we know who tried to leave ended up turning around and coming back. We decided we'd rather wait at home than out on the road burning up gas in 100 degree weather! Maybe you saw in the news what those poor people out on the roads were experiencing...they couldn't buy gas, and they had to keep their air conditioners off to conserve. Trips that should take about two hours were taking fifteen.
As the day wore on, the situation didn't improve much. It was starting to look like the storm was redirecting to the east of us, so we held off on leaving.
Long story short, we ended up staying put at my parents'. We were spared. We received the very outer bands of the storm, with only minor damage to our area. My house lost power for about a day, but that was the only real consequence. My parents lost part of a tree, but kept their power. Just miles away to the east, some people sustained a lot more severe damage, with trees slicing through their houses, etc.
When I see the footage of places like Beaumont, Lumberton, Lake Charles --the places directly in Rita's path, I just have to think, wow: that could have so easily been us. It's kind of sobering, and humbling.
Things are just now getting more back to normal. For the past few days, no stores or gas stations have been open. Micah and I drove around town a bit on Friday morning, and it was kind of weird. It was like a ghost town, though with plenty of cars on the road. People were driving around but their was no place to go! Everything was dark and boarded up. Today, a lot of places were open again, and by tomorrow I should think that most places will be. Things are getting back to normal...but not for everybody. Some people have endured extreme losses--some twice over--these past three weeks.
posted by Erin | 2:22 PM
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