Author Topic: RITA  (Read 814 times)

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Offline williamlayton

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RITA
« on: September 26, 2005, 03:23:34 PM »
Well boys let's begin the tale.
I have seen some cluster, well you know, but this one beats it all.
I am sure you have heard all the stories and a few, I hope a very few, went thru this little storm or the evacuation of it.
Boys, I put up plywood on my, my sons, my son-in-laws homes til wednesday night at 9pm. My wife, daughter, and two granddaughters left and went to Salado, north of Austin, on wednesday-took them 7 hours for a normal 4 hour trip.
I got up thursday at 2 AM and Left at three. It is 240 miles to Salado and normally takes 4-5 hours if you stop.
From my house  on the east side of Houston to the west side is normally 45 minutes. That same run took 8 hours thursday, my gas was below 1/2 a tank and I knew I was going to need gas or go back home. Took 1 hour to find a station that had gas and another 1/2 hour in line to get it.
It took me 21 hours to make the trip. The top speed i remember getting up too was 20 MPH in that 21 hours.
My son and son-in-law gave up turned around and went home.
The house is fine and we made the trip back today in 4 1/2 hours.
The folks on the road up were very considerate in the overwhelming majority but  the ones that were not were absolute idiots. Passing on the shoulders, too many tales to tell.
I hope never to have a need to do this again and I hope none of you do either.
Blessings
TEXAS, by GOD

Offline red_ford_truck

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glad to hear you came through it
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2005, 11:50:53 AM »
Glad to hear no loss of life nor limb.

Offline rockbilly

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RITA
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2005, 12:14:27 PM »
:D Just thank the Man that all are well.  I went through Carla in Port O'Connor back in the 60s.  Until you have been through one, you don't know how scary they can be and you don't realize how much damage they can do until you have actually viewed it.

I felt ill as I watched the destruction of New Orleans, and about the time I was over it here comes Rita.  I hope we have learned from these experiences and prepare for the future.  You and I both know, it is not a matter of will have another one, it's a matter of when will we have another one.

I hope the best for all survivors.

Offline williamlayton

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RITA
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2005, 07:49:32 AM »
In the years of a previous life I had need to set out three of these as the job was essential and I could not leave. Just sent the wife and kids out.
This evacuation was real scary and lots more stressful than those I sat out.
I would/will never send the wife or grandchildren out again unless it is when the storm first enters the gulf.
The powers at be have some work to do to get this evacuation of 4 1/2 million out in better order.
The gas situation was the worse part of the whole thing. Folks were running out on the side of the road, kids and all of their belongings and gas was not to be found.
Those folks must accept most of the responsibility for that. I knew when I got to less than 1/2 tank that I was going to have need to find gas or go home. It was senseless to keep on going as the news reports stated that there was no gas ahead.
My son and his wife and my son-in-law in another car were forced into this decision. They could not find any fuel and had to turn around. Fortunately my wife and daughter had made the trip the day before and had the children with them, safe and secure in Salado.
IF it had not have been that they were up there and were forced to return under conditions that I perceived to be too dangerous for women alone I would have turned around also.
Blessings
TEXAS, by GOD

Offline rockbilly

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RITA
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2005, 12:49:20 PM »
:D I understand that.  I guess I have been lucky, I lived along the Gulf for many years, the only storm I had to contend with was Carla.  Chalk this one up as experience, and try to be prepared to hit the road a few days early when the next one is on the radar.

The real problem, no one knows where the storm will hit and the strength when it does.  We have a simular problem here in West Texas with the tornados.  No one knows when or where one will hit.  When we get a weather warning we head for the shelter. It may be smart to send the wife and kids out when a hurricane is 4-5 days out.  That way you know they are safe.

We are in the planning process for a new house.  I am thinking of a solid concrete and steel room about 8x10 with a steel safe door.  I want a place to store guns and maybe use for an office.  It will also serve as a shelter for storms.  I think I can do this fairly cheap while in the building process.

Keep your powder dry and best wishes for the future.

Offline williamlayton

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RITA
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2005, 02:11:57 PM »
Rockbilly-
Ya know that is the truth, however, those things change course so easily you just do not know which way too run.
This little storm was to have gone ashore around Victoria, and was until about Thursday when it made a right turn without using a signal. My next door neighbor evacuated to Pt. Arthur which seemed to be a logical decision at the time. Then she had to evacuate from there in the midst of another flood of evacuee's.
Damned if you do damned if you don't OR better put--Murphy's Law.
Blessings
TEXAS, by GOD

Offline IntrepidWizard

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RITA
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2005, 03:36:40 PM »
Michael Graham Article on Disaster And Character

My cousin Charlie, (south Carolina), sent this to all good Americans, and it
is a good read.
Reid

Man bites hurricane

By Michael Graham







http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | They were poor. They lived in homes
that, to some Americans, would appear no more than shacks. They've suffered
discrimination at the hands of their fellow Americans. And when the
hurricane came, it seemed to veer out of its way, just to hit them.


So why didn't hundreds of Cajuns from western Louisiana appear on my TV
screen this week, complaining that George W. Bush doesn't like them,
demanding $200 billion of my tax dollars or blaming the bad weather on
Halliburton?


Hurricane Rita may have hit western Louisiana harder than Katrina hit New
Orleans, but Rita crossed folks made of sterner stuff than you'll find in
the Ninth Ward. Here's how one Washington Post story described the scene
just hours after Rita made landfall near Intra coastal City, a "city" that
in many senses barely exists:


"The only people who can get here are the sturdiest of sorts, a small
armada of Cajuns with pretty French names and sunburned skin and
don't-mess-with-me bravado. The bayous were full of them Saturday, gliding
high and quick in airboats, and so was the Vermilion River, where they were
spinning steering wheels on fast Boston Whalers and kicking up wakes in
flat-bottomed, aluminum boats. They did not wait for the president or FEMA
or anyone else to tell them that there were people out there — out there
and desperate, on rooftops...


'I got out of the sheriff's office in about 20 seconds,' said Steve Artee,
as his son, Chris, made a hard, boat-tilting turn on the swollen Vermilion.
'They just took my cell phone number, and I was gone. That's because
Kathleen Blanco wasn't involved.'"


Now, anyone who hates Blanco and bureaucrats can't be all bad. But I don't
agree with Mr. Artee that the people of Vermilion Parish behaved more
responsibly or showed more strength of character because Gov. Blanco didn't
have their parish on her speed dial. I believe the people of western
Louisiana behaved better because they are, in fact, better people.


The failure revealed by Hurricane Katrina was not a failure of government,
at least, not any more than government always fails. The failure in New
Orleans was a failure of character. Corrupt people electing corrupt
politicians who gave millions in tax dollars to corrupt cronies to either
mis-construct vital levees or to spend the money on entirely useless pork
projects. Then, when disaster struck, these same people—living a Faustian
deal of votes for tax-funded handouts— were utterly lost when those
corrupt government officials headed for high ground without them.


As John Fund of the Wall Street Journal wrote: "In just the past
generation, the Pelican State has had a governor, an attorney general,
three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a
state Senate president and a swarm of local officials convicted. Last year,
three top officials at Louisiana's Office of Emergency Preparedness were
indicted…. Just this summer, associates of former [New Orleans] mayor
Marc Morial were indicted for alleged kickbacks involving public contracts.
Last month the FBI raided the home and car of Rep. William Jefferson as
part of a probe into allegations he had misused his office."


Not to mention the widespread looting by the citizens of New Orleans
themselves, which included televised looting by police officers, too. The
chief administrative officer for Kenner, LA, was just busted for pilfering
food, drinks, chainsaws and roof tarps from New Orleans and stashing them
in his suburban home.


Hey—stay classy, New Orleans!


Then came Hurricane Rita, Katrina's ugly sister, to wreak similar havoc
just a few hundred miles to the west. The communities affected were, on the
surface, similar as well: Abbeville or Cameron, LA were "low income"
communities. The education levels were similar to the Ninth Ward, too. And
you won't find many branches of the Aryan Nations meeting among the
dark-skinned natives of Cajun country, whose heritage is a genetic gumbo of
Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and American Indians.


But while the people of New Orleans were panicking and complaining (not to
mention stealing, shooting and stabbing) days after the storm, the Cajuns
of western Louisiana were out in their boats, looking for lost neighbors
and rescuing strangers off rooftops.


It wasn't just because Gov. Blanco wasn't involved—it was because almost
NO government is involved in these folks' daily lives. The people of rural
Louisiana grow up with the assumption that their survival in this world of
woe is their responsibility. Unlike far too many people in New Orleans,
"low income" isn't an excuse to the working families in rural Louisiana.
It's just a condition to be dealt with. They live their lives as though
they own them, unlike those government-dependent "victims" who live as
though life is something the state provides for them and is responsible to
maintain.


Randy Gary, a fisherman from Cameron, LA, was asked about his future after
his boats were destroyed and flooding poisoned the oyster beds he fished.


He didn't blame FEMA or accuse President Bush of stealing his lunch money.
He wasn't spotted kicking in the door of the local Wal-Mart to snag a
plasma-screen TV "for survival purposes." He has yet to join the Cajun
Action Committee to investigate why so many of Rita's victims spoke French.


Instead, as the AP reports, he smiled.


"What else we gonna do?" he said, pledging to rebuild his shattered home
and work. "It's my life. It's what I do."


Hurricane Rita, you've met your match.

When you tell the truth, you'd better have one foot in the stirrups.
Anonymous
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is
a dangerous servant and a fearful master. -- George Washington

Offline williamlayton

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RITA
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2005, 02:18:17 AM »
That was a much better post and, exactly what I wished to convey on my thoughts in the FEMA thread, but did not.
Thanx for the post.
Blessings
TEXAS, by GOD

Offline unspellable

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Getting out of the way of the hurricane
« Reply #8 on: September 29, 2005, 07:58:25 AM »
Back in '67 I was just about dead center on the Gulf side beach of Padre island with Hurricane Beulah coming in.  In those days the island was not built up and the center 50 miles was full of a great deal of nothing.  We had a land Rover and it did the land Rover thing and hauled us out of there.  But now that I am older and hopefully wiser, I look back and think I was a damn fool for being there in the first place.  If we had gotten that Land Rover well and truely buried in the sand we would have been in a world of trouble.  And then any mechanical device is subject to break downs.

Offline SETexJeff

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Rita
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2005, 08:38:47 AM »
I do not post here much, But read a lot . My Wife and I for our own reasons rode out rita In deweyville Texas. Right on the sabine river 25 miles from the gulf. We are both fine along with our 3 dogs and 3 horses
We have a lot of damage, 2 trees on house 4 trees on shop and no elec for appx 4 weeks ( estimate) . But we made it healthy and have running water lots of food, I have returned to work,(lucky ones still have a place to work)  The Eye passed about 10 miles from Us. The Red Cross got around to checking on Us 7 days after the hurricane Glad we did not wait for Help  LOL
Jeff and Carol Wetherington

Offline rockbilly

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RITA
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2005, 03:53:37 PM »
:wink: Anyway you slice it, the cajuns of South Louisiana are a different breed of people.  Fun loving, hard working and very determined to live their style of life.  I had the pleasure of living in cajun country for a couple of years, and enjoyed the friendship of several familys there, I was known as the 'red headed cajun".  I don't think there is a mountain too high for them to climb, they live every minute of life taking the good with the bad.  The difference between the folks from "The Bug Easy"  and those back on the bayou is, one group is standing in line looking ffor a handout, the other is making do with what they have and working hard to get by.

If you were a cajun for one Saturday night you would never want to be anything else.

Offline williamlayton

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RITA
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2005, 11:12:34 PM »
Jeff-
Good post and I enjoyed. Glad the folks are OK, the other stuff is, well just stuff, and can be replaced though it is a pain.
Got a ticket in Deweyville way back when I was a kid, the same trip my momma found out I smoked, well, she knew, I just didn't know she knew.
Strange how these little memories pop up.
Blessings
TEXAS, by GOD

Offline SETexJeff

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Rita
« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2005, 02:43:30 AM »
Small update,
 By Saturday evening( Hurricane friday night) the county road to Our house was passable(County Sheriff confiscated a 1150 Case and a operator volunterred) Sherieffs's office is 48 miles from my house. Found out later the operater's house was hit very bad also,
some of the trees were so big we had to cut the trunk some for the dozer to budge them. Then my wife and I had to cut and move 7 trees in our driveway to get to the road( thanks to international tractor company)
Neighbors and Volunteer fire chief checked on us as we did them and let us know where food and water was located. Tuesday at noon water service was back online, still have septic tank system so we were good to GO (LOL). Only contact with national authorties has been the National Guard units handing out ice and water Very nice, efficent and polite group of Men and Women.
Still going strong
Jeff and Carol Wetherington
PS> We are counted as a POOR County   Thanks for COUNTRY PEOPLE

Offline williamlayton

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RITA
« Reply #13 on: October 02, 2005, 02:38:50 PM »
Jeff-
give a ring (post) if you have need. We are not far.
Blessings
TEXAS, by GOD