I used all-purpose wood screws. I wish I had gotten and installed Plylox earlier. Those things are amazingly easy to use. I'm not boarding up because I'm afraid of high winds blowing out my windows, but 60mph sustained winds (and 75mph gusts) over the course of say 10-12 hours can sure throw around a LOT of debris and I'd rather not have my windows shatter and have to deal with the rain pouring in.
We are leaving in bout 30 min from Friendswood going to Woodlands... hopefully i wont experience something like my 23 hour hell that was our trip to Austin during Rita.
We left at night for Rita too. But in our case, the sun rose and set again before we were even to the north side of Houston.
If I were evac'ing, this would be my plan as well. 3am I'm sure Madmax already knows, but he won the bet over the 9:45 pm arrival at IAH. Airport shuts down tomm at 2pm. Evan
Regarding the traffic, I've talked to a few people that waited until the very last minute to evacuate during Rita, and found nothing but empty highways and clear sailing to their destination. If you are the daring type and don't have any kids with you, maybe that's an option. Of course, if a lot of other people decide to take that same approach, you're screwed.
My wife was on Highway 6 for 10 hours and decided to come back home and spend the night. She left the next day with clear sailing to Austin.
So where do you find the intesity models? I've heard several weather guys in the last hour or so say that while the national hurricane center is keeping it a category 3 at landfall, they suspect it has a very high chance of only being a 2.
http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/ It's green all the way to 1960. You may want to bookmark the mobile traffic map on your cell phone, if you trouble, you can look for an alt route before getting stuck in a jam. http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/mobile/
great 290 looks brutal trying to make it to college station tonight after work from westheimer and south gessner (taking the beltway to 290 to highway 6)
My family and I are staying in our home in Friendswood. We didn't board up the windows since it was a last minute decision to stay. I'm not really sure how to feel about our decision, but all I can do is hope for the best.
ever since jeff posted the projection history for Rita I have been convinced this thing is going north of us... and all of the projections just seem to keep moving north...Port Arthur better watch out http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200809_sat.html#a_topad I think new orleans is getting a bit complacent...it really looks like they could catch a serious part of this bad boy.
Anyone think I'm crazy if I head down 59 South as far down as I go until I feel safe instead of battling the traffic on 290, I-45, or I-10?
Not at all. That's what we did the Friday morning of Rita -- loaded up the cats and went from Beaumont to Corpus (I-10 to Houston and then 59). No traffic at all, and a beautiful weekend. Much better than fighting the masses going to Dallas or Austin.
I plan to leave around 6:30 in the morning tomorrow. I'm only going from lake Jackson to Pearland. Will still suffer but her house is better than my crappy apartment. 288 shouldn't be that bad for that 30 min stretch.....or am i making a mistake?
You'll be fine. The majority of people from your area have already evacuated or decided to stay since your evacuation was ordered yesterday.
Does anyone have any ideas on what to do with an outdoor cat who is terribly afraid of people other than myself (I have other people staying inside of our house)?
thx...that makes me feel a little better. Ugg....use to be a contributing member...gonna wait until i c if my apt falls down to donate again tho lol
That's genius. It will be much easier to find a motel along 59. I bet the motels are all booked up for friday along 290, I-45, and I-10. You could also wait until tomorrow morning to see if the hurricane continues to shift north. Traffic along those routes shouldn't be as bad, because most people left today.
