The Coming Storm
Residents along the Gulf and East coasts start twitching when meteorologists point to nebulous, ominous swirls of clouds out there in the ocean.
Will this be the one that finally strikes here, like they said it eventually would?
So we watch and feel partially relieved - and sometimes partially disappointed - when they go somewhere else. The more dominant, pragmatic and fearful side of human nature wants it to go away, but the smaller voice of curiosity speaks of something interesting to be experienced.
When Hurricane Rita entered the Gulf after shooting the gap between Florida and Cuba - always a bad thing because it passes over no land to take away some steam - the early forecasts called for it hitting the South Texas coast around Port O'Connor, roughly the same spot where Hurricane Carla, a Category 4 storm, blasted into the state in 1961.
The decision for the wife and kids to evacuate came quickly Wednesday, Sept. 21, while the storm was on its way to becoming a catastrophic Category 5 and the third most intense storm on record.
We decided to send them to a friend's home in DeRidder, La. They left early and got there 90 minutes later. Hours later, the same drive would take 10 hours as panicked Gulf Coast residents, including millions from the Houston area, fled north, west and east.
My parents left Houston early and were rewarded with a breeze of a drive to San Antonio. My sister and her family left Houston hours later and were rewarded with 1 mph bumper-to-bumper traffic and gas outages. They got a lucky break and found gas along the way.
After a stressful night of sleep Wednesday, I awoke early Thursday, Sept. 22, went on the Web and saw that the storm's track had put us right in the cross hairs. With the highways still snarled, it was too late to send the family out of DeRidder, which was in the storm's track as well.
I quickly secured the house as best I could, loaded my Nissan Pathfinder to the brim with as many valuables as I could find, left the house and went to work.
I haven't spent a night at home since.
Will this be the one that finally strikes here, like they said it eventually would?
So we watch and feel partially relieved - and sometimes partially disappointed - when they go somewhere else. The more dominant, pragmatic and fearful side of human nature wants it to go away, but the smaller voice of curiosity speaks of something interesting to be experienced.
When Hurricane Rita entered the Gulf after shooting the gap between Florida and Cuba - always a bad thing because it passes over no land to take away some steam - the early forecasts called for it hitting the South Texas coast around Port O'Connor, roughly the same spot where Hurricane Carla, a Category 4 storm, blasted into the state in 1961.
The decision for the wife and kids to evacuate came quickly Wednesday, Sept. 21, while the storm was on its way to becoming a catastrophic Category 5 and the third most intense storm on record.
We decided to send them to a friend's home in DeRidder, La. They left early and got there 90 minutes later. Hours later, the same drive would take 10 hours as panicked Gulf Coast residents, including millions from the Houston area, fled north, west and east.
My parents left Houston early and were rewarded with a breeze of a drive to San Antonio. My sister and her family left Houston hours later and were rewarded with 1 mph bumper-to-bumper traffic and gas outages. They got a lucky break and found gas along the way.
After a stressful night of sleep Wednesday, I awoke early Thursday, Sept. 22, went on the Web and saw that the storm's track had put us right in the cross hairs. With the highways still snarled, it was too late to send the family out of DeRidder, which was in the storm's track as well.
I quickly secured the house as best I could, loaded my Nissan Pathfinder to the brim with as many valuables as I could find, left the house and went to work.
I haven't spent a night at home since.
posted by Brian Pearson at 6:16 PM
1 Comments:
Brian, I'm still mentally reeling from all you went through. I'm so glad you and the wife are okay. (I'm one of her friends from "the board", we've met a couple of times)
Post a Comment
<< Home