Hurricane Rita

I don't know if ya'll have been hearing about Hurrican Rita, but it's big news here. They called a mandatory evacuation for Galveston and the surrounding area including parts of south houston. In fact, my cousin and his wife and baby live in the south part of Houston. They arrived in Huntsville last night to stay with us. Because of all the traffic, what used to be about a 2 hour drive turned into 6. They left at 4:30pm and didn't get to our house until 10pm. Furthermore, I've heard that it's been taking people from Galveston 14 hours and 24 hours to get to houston and dallas, respectively--drives that should only take 4 and 7 hours!!! Today the Texas State of Transportation has turned all the south-bound traffic on I-45 to north-bound. In Huntsville, they've opened up several churches, the university collesium, and the high school as shelters.

The Huntsville ISD is closed today and tomorrow as well as the university. My mom still has to be at work. I called my boss last night to see if we were still going to be open. He said yes, but when I got there this morning, he had left a message saying he wasn't coming.

All the water, peanut butter, bread, air mattresses, etc. are out at Wal-mart. My cousin said when they were leaving houston, they stopped to get gas, but they were out of everything except diesel. Jr mentioned that last night at the Diamond Shamrock near our house, they were running out too.

As far as Huntsville goes, the prediction is that by the time Rita gets to us she'll be a Category 1 hurricane, but with winds of about 100mph. The general census is that we're not worried about flooding, but rather wind damage. My auntie and her kids who live here are gonna stay with us too because they live in a mobile home.

Everyone is glued to the tv and radio stations. Everywhere you go, Rita is all everyone is talking about.