Mass Hysteria

Well, the hysteria over Hurricane Rita is growing here. I have a worker who's getting so hysterical that she's updating us every ten minutes about the storm, and she's been asking us about when the company is going to let people go to evacuate. I have to keep telling her that the company doesn't work that quickly, and if she wants to leave early, she'll have to take a vacation day.

Still, the word at the moment is that we will be closed on Friday and letting our way understaffed Denver office finally use the disaster recovery plan. I can't wait to see what disaster that we'll come back to.

Rita is a category 4 storm and seems to be heading for somewhere just west of Galveston, putting Houston on the "dirty" side of the storm. It should be coming in sometime early Saturday. Since I was already going to be bugging out to go to what now should be a very wet Austin City Limits Festival, I'll be fighting the traffic going to Austin on Thursday night. I hope the company doesn't make me go to the Austin recovery site.

Right now I'm trying to figure out if there's items I should carry with me to Austin. I may pack up the computer and a few items. I was going to pack a small bag, but now I'm going to carry extra clothing just to be sure. My apartment complex is pretty new and my apartment is on the third floor, facing northwest, so things should be OK, but we'll just have to see. If nothing else I'm going to move things away from the windows and unplug the electronics.

Still, it's a hurricane, and we have warning, things can be prepared for and there's no need to go into fits. I've started playing with my associate since she's annoying everyone with her antics. Should we be concerned, yes, but when I asked if she had a plan for what to do if she was allowed to leave, she said no.

She's going to need therapy.

Here She Comes!

I'm starting to think that one of the New Orleans' evacuees that came to Houston happend to be holding the numbers 4-8-15-16-23-42.

Today at work the first email that came out said "If your children are off from schoolyou may bring them to work on Thursday and Friday." Trust me, although I said it would be great to have the extra help, no one was amused by this. By mid day, several of the coastal counties had decided to make evacuation manditory, the people in charge, off in Atlanta started to hear that a good chunk of the workforce would be leaving. Around noon they announced that we would be closing after today's business.

You can guess that my hysterical coworker was very, very pleased. When I asked her what she would do, leave or ride it out, she said that she didn't know. She spent the next few hours going back and forth between staying at her central city appartment, staying with a friend in west Houston, or driving off to the Valley (McAllen). I guess I won't know what she did until we get back.

My boss' boss, Gina had a trip to San Francisco already planned, and the first thing everyone said to her after she said that she'd be safe was "what about an earthquake?" She wasn't too pleased.

Since people were being told to leave the roads filled up quickly. Trips that normally take one hour were being reported as taking four. There was a report that driving to Dallas was taking 8+ hours, and Dallas hotels were already filling up, forcing those leaving to make reservations in Oklahoma. I was already reported that a convention in San Antonio and Austin City Limits Festival in Austin already filled up many of the hotels there. Shelters had alredy been populated with Louisiana evacuees, now more space had to be found for our town.

I talked to Mom today, and she mentioned that Dad would not be able to get out of work, which I wasn't surprized. When you work at a jail, there isn't much of an ability to leave. Mom will ride it out in Conroe with Dad, some 100 miles from the coast, so hopefully everything will be OK, though she'll be at home, which is not as strong as the jail building.

I'm planning to leave tomorrow. I need to pack and prepare the apartment here. Much of the smaller stuff will be thrown into the bathroom, the only room that doesn't have a window. I'll be packing up the desktop computer and bringing that with me to Austin. if I get a chance tonight, since I have to run over to Walgreens, I may cross the street to Spec's Liquor and pick up some makings for some Hurricanes, so I can bring that to the guys who will be in Austin with me.

Already their are lines at the gas stations that remain open. I hope when it comes time to fill up again I can get some.

I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's drive. It could take hours to make it to Austin. Still, it must be done. I'm not staying.