Mary, mb84, I'm glad to hear that you are taking Dr Neil Frank's (former topdog of NOAA) option A advice. It happens to be "Get the hëll out of the immediate area".
If we have anyone else in the path of Rita, please let us know. We'll be adding extra prayers for you. This is a pretty bad year for storms when they're telling you they may run out of names and go to the Greek alphabet. And we still have until Nov 30 but there have been storms in early December.
Take care, Mary, and God be with you and your family.
My brother was at Lowe's at 6:30 this morning lined up to get plywood, and my parents are debating on whether to stay or flee. They are more inland than my brother....hold onto your hats (and your loved ones!). This is really something, and I feel most badly for those New Orleans residents that were in shelters in Houston....they had to evacuate again....
I was worried about our Tx members. I am assuming that MK and Jo-Ann are both ok. Mary, please be safe. Lots of prayers for you and your family as well as all of those that are being moved once again.
My parents, who are in NW Houston, decided to evacuate. When they heard 100 mph winds even 30 miles N of them, they said it was time to go. THey found a room west of Austin. Hopefully they will not hit too much traffic on their way out of town....and presumably my brother will go with them.
We live in west Houston and evacuated to Livingston on Thursday. It took me 11 hours to get there - it normally takes 1 1/2 hours. We stayed at my mother in laws house - they lost two trees that luckily fell away from the house. A few doors down a tree literally cut the house in two. We had about 40 people in the house - it was absolutely crazy. It's really nice to be home!