Bro. Chairman, a point of personal privilege please...
If you have been watching the news you have seen that Hurricane Rita is taking aim at the Texas coast with landfall expected to be Friday evening and strength at Cat 4. Houston happens to be ground zero for the ever intrepid Wordjunky so we may have to go to standby power for a time during the next few days. We went to the store tonight and there was no bottled water. I got the last six-pack of Perrier.
There has already been a 'strong suggestion' for people in low areas that are subject to flooding get out of town. On the coast, Galveston is in mandatory evacuation mode - the insitutional memory of the 1900 storm that virtually destroyed the town is strong. Of course, since Houston has roughly the topology of a billiard table practially anywhere is subject to flooding. The good news is we are not in a below sea level bowl guarded by obsolete levees. The bad news is there are 4 MILLION people here and if we all try to leave at once it will not be pretty. There are already no hotel rooms to be had this side of Dallas because of the Katrina refugees.
Am I panicked? No. Concerned? Yes. Will I be leaving? Don't know yet. My wife is on the "Ride out" team at the medical center, which means she will be on site while the worst is happening and I'm not leaving her. She has said that depending on the timing she may not be needed so we will see how it shakes out. If it comes to it the 'puter goes upstairs along with the insurance policies and the other important papers and we hunker down for the duration.
Lets hope that all the hype is just the usual overstatements by weather people looking for ratings. Thank you for your time. You can follow my more personal observations at Great Smoky, where I am not nearly so objective. We now return to the regularly scheduled program.
