The Myth of Hurricane Rita
It was a Hurricane party in Houston! But the guest of honor never showed up. I was both disappointed and relieved at the same time. However, trying to evacuate the fourth largest city in the United States is nothing less than a cluster-fuck.Dayna and I decided to try and leave late Wednesday night, but after several hours of preparations, we needed some sleep before making what could potentially be a 24-(or more) hour evacuation. We had made a reservation at the nearest hotel with rooms available—Comfort Inn in Little Rock, Arkansas!
On Thursday morning we started out on our indefinite trip. We had about two-thirds of a tank, and needed to top it off before we headed out. We stopped at one of the very few gas stations that were still open and waited a good 25 minutes before it was our turn to pump.
After a fill-up and a stop at Randall’s for a restroom break and a $5 bag of grapes (our only healthy snack), we continued our venture. Staying mainly on back streets, we avoided most of the traffic until we were almost out of Houston. Just before we reached the city limits, our “almost-faithful” Ford Focus began to express her nervous hesitation. After several stalls and hearing that Rita was making a northward turn, we made a tough decision to turn around and head back home.
I have never been grateful for a car that brakes down. This is a first. Missouri City (where we currently live) received only a brush of Rita’s long arms, and turned out to be more of a peaceful storm than the fury we had feared. Our electricity wasn’t off for more than a few hours during the night—I think it was probably turned off manually as a precaution.
Some call it a “near-miss”—I think that’s a misnomer. I’d call it a “near-hit.” We lucked out, and I’ll be thankful for that.
posted by Smith @ 9/26/2005 08:32:00 AM
1 Comments:
I never thought I would say this but, Thank God For Beaumont!!!
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