Monday, September 19, 2005

Rita Gets Started

Hurricane Rita is off the south coast of Florida. A big storm, but pretty far away from us at this time. Forecasts are suggesting that it will move west into the Gulf of Mexico and gain strength, and possibly head towards the Texas coast. This is 3 weeks after the major flooding and disaster from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama, and people are not talking much about Rita around here. It’s hundred of miles away.


Tuesday, September 20

The Outlook Changes

Confirmations are coming from weather sources that Rita is indeed getting stronger, could even reach Cat 5 status, and computer models indicate it will track towards Matagorda Bay with major destruction expected to Galveston and points inland. This track would possibly run through our town of Katy as well. People in southeast Texas are getting concerned now. Hurricane Katrina is still fresh on everyone’s mind.

We start calling around to try to find hotels in Austin, San Antonio, Lubbock, Dallas — nothing is available, anywhere.


Wednesday, September 21

Making Plans

Michelle is spending the morning calling for hotels. Still nothing to be found. I told her to gas up her car right away and I did the same, leaving the office midday to get gas, water, batteries and canned food. She called me later to tell me that her mom has a friend who called a friend of hers that owns a lake house in Marble Falls outside Austin. She asked if they would consider letting us go there. They don’t even know us, but they offered the house, no questions asked. They emailed directions to Michelle, told her where to find a key and said stay as long as you need. Amazing.

At work we are making preparations throughout the day. I advised our Houston office operations that we will move all computers, monitors, printers, etc out of window offices and into internal areas on the floor — in case windows get blown out we want to protect whatever assets we can. We got this done for our offices on the 6th and 20th floors, wrapped up some other contingency plans with business partners and I got out of the office about 5:30.

Our plan at this point is that Michelle’s parents and grandparents are going to be at our house Thursday morning at 5:00 and we will be ready to hit the road. Nine of us total, three cars. Who knows how long it will take, but we think we need to leave. We are only about 70 miles inland, a Cat 5 storm is tracking toward us and we want no part of it.

At home Michelle has spent the day taping up windows (no plywood to be found anywhere for boarding them up), picking up toys and such from the backyard and putting things in the garage, and packing essentials. I packed up important records and other documents in the house and put them in the Jeep to take with us, other things get stuffed into closets and the closet doors taped up. Computers and small TVs are wrapped in plastic bags and put in a closet under the stairs. I walk through the house taking video of every room to document an insurance claim, if necessary. We get the kids to bed and finally do the same around 11:00. Nobody sleeps well.


Thursday, September 22

The Day Begins

We are up at 4:00 and start watching the local news, expecting Michelle’s parents and grandparents to show up at our house at 5:00. The news shows traffic on all the major freeways and it is disturbing: bumper to bumper, and it is moving at about three miles per hour. We need to go nearly 200 miles today.

Maybe the traffic situation shouldn’t be surprising, but it is. Sandy calls Michelle to tell her that they are sitting in traffic trying to get to our house, but it is a line of cars as far as the eye can see. She is less than ten miles away, but it takes her almost four hours to get to our house. Unfortunately, the path to our house also leads to a tollway that feeds into I-10, and it is a logjam. Cell phone service is not good at all, presumably because several hundred thousand people like us are trying to reach family members and see where they are and what they are going to do.

Decision

In the meantime we have been considering our options. Do we get on the road and see how far we can make it before running out of gas? I am beginning to think that we may be safer trying to shield ourselves in the house rather than being exposed on a roadside with three useless vehicles. Especially with small kids to consider. Another possibility is to drive to my office and take refuge there. It is less than 20 miles away and the route will take us in the opposite direction of the mass exodus going on, so I think we could drive there pretty easily. We can go up to the 20th floor where we have a kitchen, refrigerator, microwave, restrooms and running water, and we have flashlights in case power goes out. I figure we could just take some food and a few other things and try to ride it out there for 48 hours or so. Problem is, building management has notified tenants that only essential staff will have access as of Friday, and I am concerned that we will not be allowed in.

So, if we leave we may get stuck in gridlock traffic and likely run out of gas, although we might get far enough to avoid the brunt of the storm. If we stay, we may be in the path of the storm, but we can huddle under the stairs and hope that our home is not ripped apart.

Time To Go

A neighbor of ours is outside picking up some things in the yard and getting ready to leave for Dallas where they have family. We talk about the traffic situation and pull out a Texas map to start looking at alternate routes, but it’s hard to go a couple hundred miles by avoiding the freeways. The neighbors decide to just hit the road and make the best of it, and we have arrived at the same decision. We have to leave. The Texas Department of Transportation is working on reversing inbound lanes on the major routes in order to help the flow out of the city, but it will take time, and we have no way of knowing how much difference it will make at this point. Most gas stations are running out of fuel. It is going to be close to 100 degrees outside today. But we are leaving.

We say goodbye to the neighbors, wish them well and agree to contact each other later, cell phone service permitting. They take off around noon. About 15 minutes later they call me on my cell to tell me about a path they are taking to the west of Katy to get closer to the freeways. Apparently some back roads in the western part of the county are moving well, so I write down directions and decide to do the same.

They were right. We take the route they recommended, and I can only guess how many hours we saved by doing this. I was not aware of some of these streets or where they led to, but in about an hour we reach a line of cars making its way towards I-10 west at the town of Sealy. We sit in this line, barely moving, for about an hour and a half, in 95° heat. I keep the air conditioning turned off in an effort to save gas, because I don’t know how much traffic still remains and every drop of fuel may be needed today. What I didn’t know is that this is the worst traffic we will experience all day, and it will soon be over.

Thank you, Texas Department of Transportation

The route we had originally mapped involved crossing under I-10 and continuing north towards Austin on some small farm-to-market roads. The thought was that even if the traffic is still heavy on these roads, we will pass through several small towns on our way and maybe have a better chance at finding gas and food than if we stayed on the freeways. But as we approached I-10 we noticed something: traffic was flowing to the west, on all lanes, and it was moving.

Apparently TXDOT had done their work faster than I thought they could. The inbound (east) entry ramps had been closed and traffic on those lanes was reversed, flowing west, in addition to the regular west bound lanes. Traffic police motion us onto what was previously an exit ramp, we get on the highway and immediately accelerate to 70 mph.

As we make our way down the highway there are some cars on the shoulder and medians, some appear to be broken down and others are probably just out of gas. While driving I am checking my mirrors to make sure the two cars containing the rest of the family are behind me, and checking the map to figure out which route we take from here. The traffic slows down in a couple of places where people from other small towns along the way are merging onto the highway, but things are moving pretty well.

I pick a route through several side roads and small towns. We exit I-10 at Luling, continuing northwest to San Marcos, Kyle, Driftwood, Dripping Springs, Johnson City and finally into Marble Falls. After a couple of stops — one for gas and one because Cameron threw up in the car — we arrive at the lake house. It is 9pm and everyone is tired, but extremely grateful to have made it to a safe place in about nine hours.

The Kindness of Strangers

When we got to the house we were amazed. The place is a beautiful, split-level three bedroom home on Lake LBJ. Two large living areas with a balcony upstairs, three bathrooms, a beautiful kitchen, toys for the kids in the boat house outside, everything. We almost felt guilty to have such a comfortable place knowing that so many people were still struggling just to get out of town, sitting on roadsides in the heat, waiting for gas or repairs, some of them still not sure where they will go.

As it turned out, Hurricane Rita made a northeast turn and we were spared any damage in the Houston area. Southeast Texas and parts of Louisiana were not so lucky. We stayed at the lake house for a few days while waiting for the masses to return to Houston and surrounding areas.

Needless to say, we are extremely grateful to a very generous family for opening their home to us.