Sunday, August 31, 2008

Gustav

Since I live in a suburb of Houston, I thought I'd share what our local paper is saying about Gustav today.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5975899.html:

In Houston, Residents Wait and Watch

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON, TODD ACKERMAN and CINDY HORSWELL Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 31, 2008, 11:39AM

Memories of Hurricane Rita's devastation prompted evacuations along Texas' upper coast, while residents of Galveston and Houston took a more wait-and-see approach Saturday as Hurricane Gustav mushroomed into a monster storm.

Gustav, now a powerful Category 3 hurricane with forecasts of strengthening over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters, turned slightly east overnight and was now expected to barrel into eastern Louisiana Monday afternoon.

As many as 55,000 Louisiana residents were expected to flock to Texas, including 10,000 people who needed government help to evacuate, according to Gov. Rick Perry's office. Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio were each preparing to shelter about 4,100 of them, with the rest headed to Amarillo, Lubbock, El Paso and San Angelo.

Hotel occupancy rates in Houston had reached more than 70 percent Saturday morning and were increasing, Mayor Bill White said. It was unclear how much of the business was related to the holiday, versus the storm. Business was especially brisk at Houston-area hotels that have kitchenettes and allow pets. The Willowbrook-area Extended Stay America, for example, had a few rooms remaining Saturday night, but none for the rest of the weekend, an employee said.

Across Houston, families stocked up on the food, water and generators they would need if Gustav hit Texas and the power went out. The Lowe's store in Kingwood ran out of generators but was hoping to get more soon, clerk Doris Thomas said.


I've made zero preparations. Nobody in my area is worried about the hurricane. They usually turn eastward, which would be away from us. But if you see no new "Taylor Tuesday" entry, well...then I guess it surprised us! Don't worry, I'll be fine.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Caryl, Hurricanes can be very scary to be a part of. I live in NJ way inland but have experienced the wrath of hurricanes. Back when I was in my early 20's I was on vacation with the fella I was dating and his family. We had heard that the hurricane down south was not headed in our direction. Must have veered off course as we were on the beach the Police had loud speakers telling everyone to leave the island. Being young we stayed and when we realized it was really coming it was too late all roads out had been closed. We were six houses from the beach the windows in the rental were bursting left and right the waves were breaking on the street. We survived but it was one scary night. A couple of years ago Hurricane Flyod hit inland NJ. I work full time at home my husband had taken the day off as we were being contantly warned that Floyd was heading in our direction they closed the schools the Govenor declared a state of emergency. My husband came up and was yelling at me to get off the computer as the winds and rain were getting really bad I finally shut down wasn't down in the den 2 minutes when we heard a crash the weeping willow tree in our yard crashed partial into the house you guessed it right into the room I was in. Luckily everything was fixable. Please stay safe they can be nasty.

JI

caryl said...

Holy crap! That sounds very scary! Glad you survived both hurricanes.

By the way, I'm a New Yorker from Long Island. We live here because of my husband's job.

Anonymous said...

Caryl, Hurricanes usually don't jump land but Flyod did and we were in its direct path it didn't loose any of its power until it past us. We were lucky we are high enough on the mountain that we didn't get flooding, but friends who lived lower down closer to the river bank lost everything. You and your family stay safe.