Tales of Rita - 2

Collections of Tales from Emails by my friends at Apollo Con and Houston SF groups

Victory - Artist

Hey guys, we made it to Henderson.

It was hairy, the traffic was unbelievable, we made it to just
north of Livinston before all of us ran out gas because all the
gas stations had no fuel. We had to overnight next to an Exxon
station. The next moring D.O.T. had a thousand gallon tank of
gasoline and started rationing it out. We waited in line for 5
gallons each from 7am till 3pm. I'm as red as a beet (that damn
Irish blood) the animals had a really hard time, we have 3 large
dogs and 2 cats. The cats had the roughest time. We left Dayton
Thursday at 1pm and got to Henderson Friday 6pm.

We are fine here in the hotel.
However, I had a neighbor call and tell us that our entire fence
and half our roof has blown away, and a large chunk of the side of
the building. The only window we couldn't board, the large bay
window in my studio (figures) broke.

Mark Hall reports on a number of people

Kim and I never got out of Houston. We were going to Dallas anyway for FenCon, but packed a bunch of stuff we wouldn't want to lose if the worst happened. We waited for the traffic to die down, but it never did. On Thursday night, we decided it was better to ride it out in Houston. Bright side: no damage, we didn't lose power, and only lost the cable about 10:30 Sat. morning. Very Lucky, indeed.

About 30 minutes after we made the decision to stay, we heard from David Brummel, who with his wife spent 16 hours or so traveling from Friendswood to the north side of Houston, and was calling to tell us they were turning back. We offered them crash space, and they rode out the storm at our place. The bright side: having guests took our mind off worrying about Rita, we ate pretty well, and Emily is really cool. (You too, David.) BTW, when they got home to Friendswood everything was okay...

Shai and Michael traveled out 290 towards Austin for about 7 hours before turning around, and rode out the storm at a friend's place. They have power, phone.

Anita rode out the storm at her place. She was without power Sat. afternoon.

Rebecca rode out the storm at her house. They were also without power as of Saturday, but it came back on today.

Bill left early Friday morning, and made it to Dallas in 7 hours! Then he gave us grief for not making it to FenCon. Like it was no big deal. Next time I'll ride with him... ;-p

Lee also made it to Dallas and FenCon in about 7 hours, thanks to a Texas road atlas. Russ stayed home. Haven't heard from Russ on their power status.

Mark Hayes

The trip to Huntsville, that takes 2 hours regularly, took 23, including sleeping in the car in a hotel parking lot. Hundreds more were with us, and it was incredible. I'm sure a move-of-the-week will be written........

Made it back to Houston in 2 hours Sunday, only to find the power at about 6 homes dead. They say it will be a week, but we are optimistic. We are staying at the Camden Plaza Hotel [deleted address and phone]. I'm at my office reconnecting the systems, and no one else here.

Mom is tough, otherwise she would have not made it thru the last few days.

Clifford and Margaret, Clif was developing his own hurricane modeling system which would be an improvement - most of the ones in use are not dynamic enough.

I went down and picked my mother up on Wednesday and got her and her van to my sister's. Thursday morning, the four of us caravaned in two vehicles headed for cousin Karen's in Dallas to ride it out up there. We didn't want to use up Karen's food and thought a storm that headed north might knock the power off even that far North, so we were well provisioned, and with full gas tanks.

Then began the nightmare of the freeway. It would take an hour to get a single exit north. The radio said that they were opening both sides of the freeway with traffic on both sides going north at a time that kept getting later and later. Every so often an ambulance would make it through the crowded traffic. By the afternoon we finally saw traffic going north both ways but it didn't really help. Gas stations were inundated and closed. The radio news was reporting people taking the better part of a day to work their way through Houston. Some people would use the shoulders to wizz by traffic, till traffic there stopped when they came to someone who had run out of gas. Then the shoulder and regular lanes had to merge slowing everybody down, but once they got past they would do it again. Traffic was so slow that passengers would jump out of their cars, cross the stalled feeder roads to use the restroom and buy food and then walk to catch up with their car. People kept trying to cut between us and it was a constant battle to keep the two cars together.

The Governor and Mayor came on the radio and was proud of the contra-flow and the fact so many people had been evacuated out of Houston. We got a brief spurt of 15mph that seemed like speeding and then things backed up again as we came to Conroe. Police blocked the entrances and exits and were starting to get seriously concerned about fuel.

By early (maybe 2AM) Friday morning we hit Huntsville, couldn't get a hotel room for love nor money. We spent the night in a Kroger parking lot in a line for a gas station. At 4 AM the gas station lights came on and with police at hand started to pump gas. About two cars got gas and the pump that pumps gas from the storage tank to the machines died and so it station had gas, but no way to get it to people. We spent the night in the corner of the Kroger parking lot.

The next morning my sister got a hotel on her cell phone that was putting up evacuees in their lobby and meeting room space until the storm was passed. Their meeting room had a large glass window, and so after a couple of hours, we were evacuated to the Huntsville fairgrounds. We spent that night and the next in a large metal building with 1,200 other people fleeing the storm. We were better
provisioned than most, some of which had been rescued from their cars, but for bedding we had our emergancy blankets stretched out over a concrete floor. The building would have been a bad joke in a tornado, but it got us through the edges of the hurricane just fine. My sister got us a reservation for a room in a Super 8 motel after two nights and so last night was our first good sleep in awhile.

Had neighbors check my mothers house and all is ok except a light pole in her back yard got knocked over and narrowly missed knocking out her power and electrical connections. Called my sister's, mother's and my and Margaret's answering machines and since they are answering we are confuident we have power.

Keith

I am safe in Denton. 35 hours on the road to get out of Houston,
but made it okay. Sounds like things won't be as bad in Houston as previously thought, but still glad to not be there for the storm.

Arwen in Pasadena

Hey everybody, Ralph and I are ok, too. There were just very slight winds here in Pasadena. Only a few branches came lose from our trees. Not much wind at all and virtually no rain.

Ralph and I were not able to make it out, because we have an older model car and it would have never made it and we would be broken down on the side of the road.

Tim and Lisa

We went to Lufkin-Huntington and sheltered there. I have family in nearby state of Arkansas. We thought about going there but decided to stay as local as we could.

We bolted early (before the voluntary re-entry plan)my animals were alone and I was very upset we couldn't take them. My kids went with their boyfriends/girlfriends except one son stayed with us and that was all we could fit-with supplies for several days. Even with only three people and taking the seats out of the RAV we were packed tight. Unfortunately, my best friend's Mother came and got her to go to Vidor, Texas, we were going to pick her up! I heard her ask on the local radio for her sister and her sister's daughter to call in. They were separated from her-this is just before we got the eye of the hurricane ourselves, I don't know what's become of my friend, there is no answer on her Father's telephone. My sister in Arkansas has an SCA friend (formerly named Barbara Armstrong, since remarried) who was there in Vidor, and emailed her and said everything was flattened except her own mobile home in that section of Vidor.

We drove back down Hwy. 69-the locals had mercifully and blessedly cleared enough for a getaway-the devastation was unbelievable. We had no choice about power lines, either, I dodged most of them, my Husband was preety freaked out, but I am a very determined person and I went off raod when I had to to dodge the lines and downed trees. If you can get in to Houston, consider using the Beltway from 1-10. We passed through Beaumont without exits-DPS had closed them. That was fine-going straight into it all might seem stupid-but I am not one to follow the crowd and for us, the counter-intuitive move was correct.

We got in Saturday afternoon. Clean up was minimal. I want to praise the good people of Lumberton, Jasper, and woodville, and other small towns who got up and cleared roads.

Lee and Russ

Everything is cool here. Russ stayed home to ride out the storm, and says we never even lost power. It took 6 or 7 hours to get from here to Dallas, largely thanks to getting off the main highways which were still backed up; the worst delay was caused by several miles of backup in front of one station that had gas on a 2-lane road. Getting back took about the same length of time -- I got off 45 at Madisonville and went down state Hwy 75 instead as far as Conroe, then ran the feeder until I got past Hwy 1488, which is where the road widens from 4 lanes to 6. After that it was smooth sailing.

We have to turn around again and leave on Thursday morning for Archon. Positive thoughts would be appreciated -- this hurricane business has cost Russ a week of printing time that he couldn't afford to lose.

Brent and Cherie

Brent and Cherie are in Tyler TX with her relatives. 30 hours on the road. Truck abandoned and stored at a car shop in Cleveland. It ran out of gas. Thistle and Lil miss are fending for themselves like they wanted.

Amy S. and Paul

Hi folks, just letting you know Paul and I are staying with friends in Ft. Worth.

We were able to bring all our cats, who are understandably freaked after the 20 hour ordeal of getting here. That was the longest, scariest night of my life, and it already seems like a bad dream. I'm trying not to think about what we might find when we return.