goingboeing737

We are staying at the lake house outside of Livingston.

Went into Houston yesterday and got my 84 year old mom and my sister.

Took 5 hours to get back up here yesterday. Usually a 2 hour drive. Have lots of food and water and supplies.

We are VERY worried about the trees here. We will probably lose power, if it is out for more than a couple of hours here, we will have to move mom again.

Will try and update as time goes on.

If anybody is trying to get out and gets stuck up this way feel free to come by.

Cell and regular phones are very hard to use already....832 654-8935

icat

I'd say the cell phones are a bit of a disappointment.

DDP

Good luck guys.

goingboeing737

UPDATE.......

Holy population explosion batman...

We drove into the little (nearest) town of Coldspring this afternoon about 3pm.

Normal population is about 650, talking to one of the cops directing traffic at the one intersection in town, he estimated close to 8000 people had come through town already. I talked to a few people waiting in line. They had left Pasadena Tx at 7:00pm YESTERDAY.....that's like 125 miles in 19 hours!!!

3 gas stations completely out of gas. I got 2 jerry cans filled (premium only) just in case. Waited about 30 minutes in line.

Might have to move the pcar out of the garage so we can pull in the blazer. If(when) the power goes out, I have to be able to get mom into some A/C if the power is off for too long. Figure we can run the blazer A/C (garage will be well ventilated) and I have a small power inverter to power a tv or charge cell phones etc.

We are hoping the power up here will be restored quicker than Houston since we are a smaller rural co-op.

Let ya'll know more tomorrow.

Kevin Baker

Well, it's looking more and more like we'll get the "better" part of the storm. Whew. We thought about leaving last night, but after seeing the pictures of all the traffic, I said If we do go, we'll just be stuck on the freeway with 3 kids and 5 dogs. Not my cup of tea. Had to work today until 5:00, lots of people with flat tires, and bad batteries. We'll keep in touch as the power and phone lines permit.

PS. Got my "looter shooter" at the ready in case anyone decides to be stupid.

Geo

HEHE.

I don't have any firearms, but I can duct tape or zip-tie back the safety on my nail gun. It shoots 3.5" common nails (the BIG nail shooter). I have a full tank on my compressor, 50' of hose and enough nails to accupuncture any small group of punks trying to rob my house.

Got the house pretty well boarded up. Only uncovered windows are west facing kitchen windows. Two N and NE facing windows on the second floor had to be boarded from the inside, so they will probably break, but nothing should come in.

So, time to crack a beer and take a nap.

Chris_924s

I'm iin Cinti- make your way up here , and I'll cook. PM me- I 'll make room for you.

goingboeing737

morning with Rita.......

Power went out at 11:00 last night.

All is well. Lots of limbs and trash on the yard.

Steady wind of about 30 with gust to about 75.

Mom is hanging in there. Running everything on battery power at this point.

Looks like we dodged a BIG bullet on this one.

Will try and post some pics later, after the storm passes.

Everyone stay safe...

Geo

We lost power at 2 am and got it back at 6 pm. Life is good here. No damage what so ever.

Our prayers go out to those in east Texas and western Louisiana. They took the hit.

Devia

My brother, his soon to be exwife, their 3 kids were stuck in that traffic snarl since Friday morning, 2:30 AM, trying to get to her parent's house. Needless to say, they never made it. We helped to get them off the freeway, and I thought they made it to Arlington. But after all day on the freeway, they turned back around and rode out the storm in Galveston!

I & my mom were on pins & needles in stark horror, and thankful Rita veered away what looked like at the last moment. They did suffer minor damage, he claims the house can take a Cat 3 hit, but I think he's having second thoughts about that. The kids screamed all night, as the winds howled, buffeting the wood covered windows, and ate at the roof.

They are shaken and stirred, but alive and relatively intact and stranded on Galveston stuck with the food & water that they have. Hope as a native Californian, he stocked up! I think he now KNOWS why dad always had canned goods, frozen steaks and a barbecue.

- Julie

Kevin Baker

We lost power at 2:00am Sat, STILL don't have it back. No damage to important things, like house or people. Just got back from cleaning out the refrig. That's about $150 of grocery money out the window. Just hanging out at my sister's house until the power comes back. Work is wanting me back at 6:00 am Monday, gonna try but without power at the house still not going to be that concerned with work. Oh well.

James, glad to hear that you and yours are doing fine. Is the whole Trinity river damn thing going to effect you at all?

Red1

It's cool. Just have a few hours of chainsaw work to do.

Call me when you get a chance.

Kevin Baker

Well, after shuffling the entire family off to other relatives/houses, the friggin power comes back on. I tell you, I just can't be happy about anything. One minute I'm bitching about no power, then I'm crying about having to go all over creation to get my family and assorted crap back together to bring them home.

Brian, I'll call you tomorrow from work. Looks like I'm for sure going to be there now that I have electricity back at the house.

Red1

My office is closed Mon-Tues. I'll need the time to clean up.

Kevin Baker

Any damage to the house? Or just trees down in the west 40.