Hurrricane Rita: The Aftermath? Try just getting out of town...
Hey Guys!
Well as you can tell on the news, Houston didn't really get that much of a storm. Thank God that she continued to weaken and was only a Cat 3 storm.
We do have some cousins that live in the Port Arthur/Beaumont area. Dave's cousin was supposed to get married on October 1, but they may have to reschedule the wedding. What is most important is that they all got out of there with their lives, the rest (although it does make life more bearable) is after all just stuff and can be replaced. There is really no price you can put on human life.
I think the worst part of the whole "experience" was that we couldn't get out of Houston. The original plan was to get to John and Jean's house to get breakfast and then leave from there to go to Killeen. At least, that was the plan...
David and Linda (dave's mom) rode together with all of her stuff and her dog, Belle. I had Owen, all of our "important" crap and the cat with me. It took us 7 hours to go 15-17 miles. My electric fan that cools the radiator died & we were trying our best not to let the car overheat. I had to turn off the A/C and turn on the HEATER. I had burns on my legs from the heater blowing on them. I blew it on me so Owen wouldn't get over heated, though he was plenty hot & the cat was freaking out. He was mewing and panting and generally unhappy. Owen, on the other hand, was a trooper. He had his LeapPad Learning System and some CapriSun fruit juices and a piece of gum. He hardly complained and mostly just asked where we were.
We finally got to a place where I could park the car safely & I called Dave and Linda (Thank God for cel phones!) and told them where Owen & I was. I told him that I couldn't drive anymore (7 hours, my best is 1.5 hours at a time.), that the car was trying to overheat and I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I just wanted to go home. I was in panic mode. My biggest fear is being stranded. Also since we only have one car, I was really worried about it being toast. He told me that they were pretty close and to try to calm down and rest. I did my best and Owen was really good so that made it easier on me.
I was talking to Dave's cousin in Killeen and I saw the most beautiful, welcome sight I ever beheld. It was my husband walking up to get to us. Linda was in the car and came driving up about 5 minutes later. Dave opened the hood on the car to take a look and let the engine cool off faster. He put more water in the reservoir and we waited for a while for the car to cool down. I switched cars and rode with Linda. Later the car got hot again; so we took Owen with us and left Albert(the Cat) with Dave. Linda and I had finally made it to J and J's and Dave called and said he was stuck. We unloaded Linda's car and John went to get Dave. Amazingly, they were back within 10 minutes. It helps when you know all the short cuts!! It took Linda & I 45 minutes to get to J&J's from the same place. :-p
When we got to John's house Linda & I had decided that we where not going any further. Really, we (Dave, Owen & I) couldn't because of the car. Basically, we had all just had enough and I was wound pretty tight. Anyone who has actually spent time around me would have known that something was wrong because I was really quiet and on the verge of tears.
I told Jean how much we appreciated them letting us stay. I was way far gone on the emotions. A friend of theirs had dropped by with his new girl friend & Jean made some Pina Coladas. I relaxed after the drink and was able to rationally process everything. Life was much better after the drink. We all had one, even Linda. :-)
By Saturday morning, although quite thankful to have a place to stay, the SouthWest Side Neumann's were really ready to sleep in our own beds. Especially since the storm essentially passed us by, there was no real reason to stay other than no power. Which when we got home, we had no power, but that was the only thing wrong at our house other than some small limbs fallen from the trees. We just opened all the windows and let it fly. It was comfortable until the sun started to come out. Then it was 83*F in the house. I couldn't hang...
By that time, Linda had power at her house. So we packed up for the night and camped out over at her house around the corner. We all walked over with suitcase, elephant(Owen's ratty, old lovey), movies, cross stitch and some steaks to cook over at her place. Dave checked on our place later in the evening and we had power. We stayed at Linda's for the night. We didn't want to move twice in one day. We cooked dinner and washed dishes, then watched a movie and went to sleep. We got out today and went to lunch, then the grocery store.
We were greated with a sign telling us that they had no meat, dairy, water and a few other things. While we were there the milk and cold cuts were delivered to the store. Again, Thank You God! :-) We got our milk and some essentials and booked it on home. Of course, being hours later, I notice that our freezer is not freezing and our fridge is not as cool as it should be. Dave found the problem. Looks like "Little Fingers" (Owen) played with the controls, so hopefully that was it and the freezer is freezing and the fridge is cooling. We'll see, if not, chalk it up to another annoyance. Better than losing a house!!
Btw: Mollo tells me there is another one out in the gulf. I'm off to watch the weather. Love to you all!!! m,d,&o.
P.S. Yuri- there were several storms between Katrina & Rita that didn't make. That's why there was a break in the alphabetical line-up. :-)
Well as you can tell on the news, Houston didn't really get that much of a storm. Thank God that she continued to weaken and was only a Cat 3 storm.
We do have some cousins that live in the Port Arthur/Beaumont area. Dave's cousin was supposed to get married on October 1, but they may have to reschedule the wedding. What is most important is that they all got out of there with their lives, the rest (although it does make life more bearable) is after all just stuff and can be replaced. There is really no price you can put on human life.
I think the worst part of the whole "experience" was that we couldn't get out of Houston. The original plan was to get to John and Jean's house to get breakfast and then leave from there to go to Killeen. At least, that was the plan...
David and Linda (dave's mom) rode together with all of her stuff and her dog, Belle. I had Owen, all of our "important" crap and the cat with me. It took us 7 hours to go 15-17 miles. My electric fan that cools the radiator died & we were trying our best not to let the car overheat. I had to turn off the A/C and turn on the HEATER. I had burns on my legs from the heater blowing on them. I blew it on me so Owen wouldn't get over heated, though he was plenty hot & the cat was freaking out. He was mewing and panting and generally unhappy. Owen, on the other hand, was a trooper. He had his LeapPad Learning System and some CapriSun fruit juices and a piece of gum. He hardly complained and mostly just asked where we were.
We finally got to a place where I could park the car safely & I called Dave and Linda (Thank God for cel phones!) and told them where Owen & I was. I told him that I couldn't drive anymore (7 hours, my best is 1.5 hours at a time.), that the car was trying to overheat and I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I just wanted to go home. I was in panic mode. My biggest fear is being stranded. Also since we only have one car, I was really worried about it being toast. He told me that they were pretty close and to try to calm down and rest. I did my best and Owen was really good so that made it easier on me.
I was talking to Dave's cousin in Killeen and I saw the most beautiful, welcome sight I ever beheld. It was my husband walking up to get to us. Linda was in the car and came driving up about 5 minutes later. Dave opened the hood on the car to take a look and let the engine cool off faster. He put more water in the reservoir and we waited for a while for the car to cool down. I switched cars and rode with Linda. Later the car got hot again; so we took Owen with us and left Albert(the Cat) with Dave. Linda and I had finally made it to J and J's and Dave called and said he was stuck. We unloaded Linda's car and John went to get Dave. Amazingly, they were back within 10 minutes. It helps when you know all the short cuts!! It took Linda & I 45 minutes to get to J&J's from the same place. :-p
When we got to John's house Linda & I had decided that we where not going any further. Really, we (Dave, Owen & I) couldn't because of the car. Basically, we had all just had enough and I was wound pretty tight. Anyone who has actually spent time around me would have known that something was wrong because I was really quiet and on the verge of tears.
I told Jean how much we appreciated them letting us stay. I was way far gone on the emotions. A friend of theirs had dropped by with his new girl friend & Jean made some Pina Coladas. I relaxed after the drink and was able to rationally process everything. Life was much better after the drink. We all had one, even Linda. :-)
By Saturday morning, although quite thankful to have a place to stay, the SouthWest Side Neumann's were really ready to sleep in our own beds. Especially since the storm essentially passed us by, there was no real reason to stay other than no power. Which when we got home, we had no power, but that was the only thing wrong at our house other than some small limbs fallen from the trees. We just opened all the windows and let it fly. It was comfortable until the sun started to come out. Then it was 83*F in the house. I couldn't hang...
By that time, Linda had power at her house. So we packed up for the night and camped out over at her house around the corner. We all walked over with suitcase, elephant(Owen's ratty, old lovey), movies, cross stitch and some steaks to cook over at her place. Dave checked on our place later in the evening and we had power. We stayed at Linda's for the night. We didn't want to move twice in one day. We cooked dinner and washed dishes, then watched a movie and went to sleep. We got out today and went to lunch, then the grocery store.
We were greated with a sign telling us that they had no meat, dairy, water and a few other things. While we were there the milk and cold cuts were delivered to the store. Again, Thank You God! :-) We got our milk and some essentials and booked it on home. Of course, being hours later, I notice that our freezer is not freezing and our fridge is not as cool as it should be. Dave found the problem. Looks like "Little Fingers" (Owen) played with the controls, so hopefully that was it and the freezer is freezing and the fridge is cooling. We'll see, if not, chalk it up to another annoyance. Better than losing a house!!
Btw: Mollo tells me there is another one out in the gulf. I'm off to watch the weather. Love to you all!!! m,d,&o.
P.S. Yuri- there were several storms between Katrina & Rita that didn't make. That's why there was a break in the alphabetical line-up. :-)
posted by M at 2:15 PM
15 Comments:
welcome home and I'm really glad that the effects of Rita weren't as bad as they could have been.
Thank you my dear! I really feel for the folks in east Texas and western Louisiana. They've really caught it. That would have been us if she'd have stayed to her course and not shifted to the NE.
Dave's Aunt is really having a hard time because her daughters & granddaughter live in Port Arthur, which is where the eye of the storm landed. They are in Dallas & she's here and would rather be with them naturally.
I saw the footage on the news. Traffic jams in those kind of temperatures must have been horrendous.
It's hard to imagine evacuating a city of that size at short notice.
Glad everything turned out ok.
Thanks Garf! It was pretty hot, but we had a good stiff wind blowing, so it could have been worse. :-)
So you left town in a car that was known to break down?? Oh you poor thing!
We didn't know it was going to breakdown this time. It had been running fine until we had to crawl along at 2 miles an hour for 7 hours. :-) Dav'e taking it in tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be serviced and sent on it's way. :-)
Hey, hey, hey mhn. Glad you're safe and sound.
Thanks April!!! :-D
glad you made it safe and sound./
Thanks Ro. :-)
I am with ya MHN!!
I am finally home with power...ours went out Friday and was restored on Monday!
I am ready for things to get back to normal...lol gurlfriend :O)
Thanks. Over $700 later, Dave drove the car out of the shop. I think we were both screwed and neither one of us had any fun during the process!
OMG It must have been something Major huh?
ON of my coworkers said "screw this!" after 3 hours going 1.5 miles with an infant, so she turned around and stuck it out at home...I don't know why they waited so long to start the contraflow....
Glad you are safe. That is SCARY.
The relay on the electric fan that cools the radiator went out. You know how it is on these newer cars, you have to replace the whole unit to fix the relay switch that probably cost $1.50. They also flushed the radiator and checked the transmission at the husbands behest. Sometimes I wish that we had just stuck it out at home too. The power didn't go out until midnight friday night and the weather was cool with a good breeze until saturday afternoon, by saturday evening it was back on. Oh well, you never know until you get there.
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