My wife, 3 kids, dog, and cat left at 9am today to try to work our way to Dallas. We went up Barker Cypress to 529 and turned East (West was was a parking lot). We then went over to 290 (also a parking lot) and took the feeder to North Beltway feeder. Went to 249 and were thought we were cruising until we hit Compaq/HP. Went Louetta to 45 and let me tell you that 45 was insanity! Cars were all over the shoulder overheating or out of gas. People were walking around on the highway because traffic was not moving and had not moved for some time. At that point, I just did not think we could make it far enough north to get fuel again, so we turned back to Katy (6.5 hours roundtrip). We are praying for a miss.
We're waiting intently for the 10pm hurricane update.. if it looks like it will remain a cat 4 and hit beaumont, we are definately going to at least try and leave.. only problem is, the next best place for us to go is only 25 miles north.. not exactly shelter from the storm.
Does anyone remember that Monster Hurricane Allen in 1980? It had sustained winds at one point of 190mph.... It was going at Corpus Christi then wobbled west and just stopped...for 2 or 3 days it hovered off the coast of Kings ranch and weakened then came across as a Cat 3 I think in mostly unihabited land. That is what I am hoping this storm does....stay just offshore and weaken..... DD
Even with the west wobble, Billingsly was just on 2 News and they seemed to have moved the eye line even more eastward towards Beaumont. Praying hard over here.
castor27 lives in beaumont (or somewhere in the golden triangle area), right? dude probably jetted out a while ago. forgot to add... hope all ends up well there.
Channel two's new update: It's weakened a little bit and may weaken more, but no much. Frank had a discussion with the Hurricane center and they all agree on a Sabine Pass landfall about 5am Saturday as a smaller Cat 4. Houston to receive around 8-12 inches of rain with 80-100 miles an hour north winds on the dry side of the storm, but this is just a prediction. Still says this may not stay the path, but this is what the expectation is with all new charts. Next update around 12:30 am with a new full track about 5am CDT.
Yeah we left yesterday and headed North. I live about 7 miles to the NW of Beaumont and no offense to the people in La. but I am hoping for some more Eastern movement..
Winds down to 138 - there was a definite 'wobble' to the west - landfall in about 24 hours. -From kxan news-
Check Victoria and Corpus Christi. I'm in Beaumont now, and I'm leaving first thing in the morning for Houston and taking 59 (and then 77) to get down there. From the checking I did today on the Houston traffic cams 59 South didn't look bad at all. I got a hotel in Corpus for Friday and Saturday nights, and there were a lot of other rooms unless they've all been booked the last few hours. If you have relatives that aren't mobile, though, I can see how that wouldn't be feasible. But if you can, I think that's the best bet, considering the insane traffic on 69 and 96 heading north.
I'm still sticking it out here with plenty of supplies. Bayou is low and the ground has been very dry, so I'm expecting flash flooding but receeding shortly thereafter. If wife and I leave, it'll be tomm afternoon towards her family home in the valley. Not trying to play the 15 hr game on the freeways, especially w/no AC to preserve gas. If we stay, we're putting the cars in a med center garage to keep them high and safe from debris. Evan
I know we discussed this briefly in the other thread, but just so you aren't misinformed...you definitely can't take everything from those webcams. The 59 south webcams this afternoon looked empty but helicopter reports on the news showed it as a parking lot, from Bisonnet to past Rosenberg. That all, apparently has cleared up, but just be sure to have your radio on, etc. Don't just go off those transtar webcams at 1 random spot.
The Chron Update http://weather.chron.com/auto/chron/tropical/at200518.disc.html "The central pressure has only risen slightly to 917 mb as measured by the most recent dropsonde...Rita is about to pass over another eddy of high ocean heat content. Combining this with the possible contraction of the outer eyewall during the next several hours...some restrengthening is forecast in the short term. Gradual weakening is possible later on Friday before landfall due to lesser ocean heat content closer to the coast...and to the possibility of some increase in the wind shear. The bottom line is that the intensity will likely fluctuate during the next 36 hours...and Rita is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane...at least category three. Rita is expected to gradually turn northwestward and eventually northward as the high to its north slides eastward. Rita is forecast to then essentially stall in about three days in the area of northeastern Texas where steering currents are forecast to become very weak. This scenario poses a great risk of very heavy rainfall well inland and for many days after landfall." Stay Safe guys.
Frank on channel 2 just said if it does stall it could dump 20" of rain. That would be a b****. I just hope it stalls far enough away from here.
Well, I went on the Houston traffic website and it said the spot past Bisonnet was averaging about 32 mph, so my *hope* is that all the cars close together made it look slower (from the helicopter shot) than it actually was. But I'm definitely carrying a detailed map so I can come up with alternate routes if it gets really bad someplace... I appreciate the concern.
Hopefully the folks who left for Dallas won't get stuck returning on the freeways when the storm turns around and stalls.
Damn, here in Dallas, we're running of supplies too! Everyone is finishing out the water, milk, gas, etc....it's just mad!
It sounds like to expect landfall in a little more than 24 hours now. For all of y'all Clutchfans in the potentially affected area I'm guessing you're not going to get much of a chance to visit Clutch BBS in the next day or so. Stay safe and keep under cover. Don't take any unnecessary chances. Most importantly remember that those of us way out of the danger area will be thinking about y'all.
