jonathanwatmough.com

“Honey, I think want to vacuum the floor.”
“Evacuate the floor! Are you crazy?!?! There’s vacuums stacked up all the way to the bedroom!”

Just a little light humor ;-)

Still looking at 150 mph winds with gusts to 180, and coming onshore just east of Galveston, with the worst storm surge to the east.

People are basically being advised to shelter in place since evacuation is so difficult due to grid lock on the freeways and fuel shortages. Many have been stuck in their cars and trucks all night.

Mayor Bill White advising that ‘…being on the highway, is a deathtrap…’

Shelters need to be put in place, near the freeways, so that people can be removed to safety prior to the storm starting to hit tomorrow evening (Friday).

I have been quite enjoying my current job in Detroit. I am based in the main power company there working on a software implementation for running their gas pipeline.

Detroit downtown is much different that Houston downtown. For a start, it’s much smaller. It doesn’t seem like the main downtown area is more than about 10 x 10 blocks or so. From my office windows, I can see all the major sport stadiums easily, and sadly, all the vacant lots and gravel parking.

I have an apartment in Dearborn. It’s an older complex, but it’s quite comfortable and I have a washer dryer and good cable TV and cable interweb. All the comforts really !

I’ll definitely be posting some pictures of interesting sights in Detroit and Dearborn.

Thanks to all the people who’ve called me to say ‘hi’ and good luck. These storms don’t normally get such wide press, but thanks for thinking of us. Let’s hope that this all doesn’t turn out too bad ;-).

I am kinda expecting the power and interweb to be down after the storm, so unless Houston gets wiped out, don’t worry too much. CNN might be showing a mess, but it’s going to take the house being flattened before I expect to expire. Spring, Texas is way outside the flood plain, so the main danger is winds and rain, and the small tornados that accompany this kind of weather. But, hey, that just sounds like a normal Houston summer hurricane season.

It definitely is fairly quiet in the neighbourhood. People are hunkering down, making sure they have flashlights, water, and supplies for a few days. We are getting set by making sure we have clean dishes, food, water, paper towels, basic first aid supplies and cash.

As the morning goes on, the project path of Rita is moving Eastwards. This is very good news for Houston. And as I sit here watching Buffy, errrr the news, I’m really very glad not to be stuck in the evacuation lines heading North at 1 mph, running out of gas, overheating, and getting extremely cranky.

The traffic on I-10 is still a zoo. Maybe 12 hours to get from the coast through to the North or West sides of Houston. The main deal is just to get out of the storm surge and potential strike zone of the eye of the storm. If the storm keeps changing path to the east, then Houston is going to get damaged, but with some luck we will not have too many deaths.

Here’s a link to what the weather channel looks like just now. The news on KPRC is also reporting that people are getting dehydrated and overheated on the freeways, and there have been a few injuries.

As time moves on, it looks like Rita is gradually going to hit the Texas coast at a more easterly point and have reduced winds. Already, the category 5 has relaxed to a category 4 storm.

KPRC are reducing the potential storm surge forecast. Current weather says 12-17′ at Galveston, and less further away.

It’s Thursday morning and I’m holed up at my girlfriends place in Spring. Weather here in Houston is forecast at 90F for the next couple of days, with the rain starting on Friday night.

TxDOT have started opening both sides of the freeways out of town since so many people are evacuating. The gulf coast around Houston is largely under mandatory evacuation, so a constant stream of traffic is stuck on the freeways. Many cars are overheating and running out of gas due to the slow speeds, so that may become a worse problem as more gas stations in Houston run low on gasolene supplies.

We just went round the garden and moved stuff into the garage to try and minimize the chances of plant pots, tables etc coming in through the windows. At this point, I don’t really want to evacuate since I think that would add even more risk. As far North as we are in Spring, it’s going to get very wet and windy, but unless we get a direct hit on the house from a tornado, we should be ok.