Open Thread - For Rick to Hurricane Blog

Rick, for as long as you are able to get a connection, post any updates in the comments section. Then I'll post them to the main page.

Hang tight buddy!

Rick's UPDATES (All Times Pacific):

12:35 pm

Bush gave me gallstones! Well, we attempted to make a break for it and drove for about 6 hours and got 35 miles out of the city. It is so crazy out there...no gas anywhere. And the traffic...you go 4 hours and get 10 miles on some freeways. Anyway, we turned back and have decided to do our best to survive Bush's, er, I mean Rita's fury. It seems to be turning a little towards New Orleans, cause maybe Bush isn't finished with them, so, we may be fine. If not, I've got the boards to cover the windows, just need someone to do the labor since I'm still recovering a bit. Anyway, I'll try to put some posts on here as the storm hits and what we are experiencing, until we lose power and phone lines. Thanks for your kind thoughts and prayers everyone.
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It's very quiet in the neighborhood and city. I think a lot more people evacuated than the city had planned for and traffic jams have been record setting. I've heard about people driving 20 hours for what would normally be a 4 or 5 hour drive. So, naturally they ran out of gas and gas cannot be bought in this city. Craziness. We are fine for now.
Posted by Rick at September 22, 2005 06:42 PM

The calm before the storm...

As the storm continues to move a little more further East it appears Houston will be spared the worst of its fury. I guess we have Bush's desire to continue to punish poor black folk in Louisiana to thank for that. He is even coming to Texas today to watch his plan to destroy Louisiana come to fruition. This is what you get when your president is selected and not elected people.

I am just hoping that our power doesn't go out for too long, cause Houston without AC = Hell.
Posted by Rick at September 23, 2005 06:15 AM

To board or not to board...

It is a question I have been grappling with. Do I really need to drill holes into the mortar of my home and put up plywood or not? It seems as though most of the neighborhood opted for "not to board". I bought the boards on Tuesday so I have them and I hope I don't end up looking like a fool as all my windows are blown out and my boards sit in the garage. I'm not really in physical shape to do it anyway since my surgery last Saturday.

Our "hunker down" closet is all stocked with water, radio, land line phone, scrabble, and anything else we might need as we "hunker". I was thinking earlier that 60 mph sustained winds probably wouldn't be that bad, but as I was standing outside I noticed how much the tree limbs were already blowing about in probably 5 mph winds and rethought that notion.

You may well know that the only reason Houston is being spared the brunt of this is that Halliburton is located here. Thank you Dick Cheney, thank you.
Posted by Rick Hamman at September 23, 2005 10:17 AM