My family tried to get out last night via I-45 but failed to do so. We are now sheltering in place because there is no other choice left.
The food, water and other provisions have been laid in and we're waiting for the storm to arrive. It's windy but dry outside as I write this, my final diary entry before the storm arrives.
Last night's attempt to bug out via I-45 was a total NIGHTMARE come true. Hundreds, maybe thousands of motorists were standing around on the side of the roadway, their cars out of fuel and their options diminishing rapidly. The survival urge was kicking in as roving groups of people wandered across the highway just south of The Woodlands, looking at storefronts and office buildings and trying to decide what to do.
If it was me, I would be breaking into one of those buildings and dragging whatever I had to eat and drink, etc in there and get ready. I hope that's what they're doing now, if they are still stuck there.
The faces of the stranded still haunt me this afternoon: a van full of young black kids from Galveston, a carload of Mexican nationals from Tabasco state who spoke no English and were confused about what to do, a vanload of young Gen Y kids from Clear Lake sticking it out together because they were separated from their families along the way. Children were running across the southbound feeder road as cars and SUVs roared back into Houston.
I decided I could not let my family meet their end on some kind of Freeway of Death, so after a fierce argument with my wife - who wanted to get to Oklahoma at any cost but knew as well as I did that doing so was a lost cause - we finally turned around and came back.
My daughter and wife were in tears.
So we're in place and waiting. We are more optimistic at this time than in previous days, hearing that the storm may hit east of us at Port Arthur or maybe Lake Charles.... yet I don't wish this thing on anyone. I pray that those cities as well as Beaumont have done all they can to prepare too, and according to news reports it seems they have. It seems that Rita plans on dealing out pain evenly between Houston and New Orleans, and the Golden Triangle on the TX/LA border is going to be paying the price for that.
I will report back in again as soon as I have power and a phone line that works to let you know what's up. I plan to canvass around after the storm and report the truth on the ground as I find it.
Until then, may the God of your understanding keep all in Rita's path safe, and continue to pray for my family as well. We are honored by your compassion, and I am determined to bring us all through this alive and safe - after all, I want to see my grandson graduate college someday. :)
Love and Peace,
BigDaddyTX
riding it out in Houston, TX
"Hey bartender! One Rita on the rocks to go!"
- Spraypainted Sign on a bar in Key West