My life or death, Poll. Should I evacuate for Rita?

[Fred]

if you're on a barrier island...

GET THE HECK OUT.

I got to experience 4 of these suckers last year (in my first couple months living in FL at that).

They aren't to be trifled with if youre not in a building that you know is secure.

---Fred

[Recon by Fire]

Rita is now a super Cat5 storm with 175mph winds and could even increase...Looks like the path is likely very close to Galveston-Houston also. I will be departing Iraq on Saturday and the family has already started evacuationg (we live South of Houston in Galveston County). In 12 hours on the road, my family has made it all the way to the North side of Houston! I will likely lose my house/belongings but it would be nice if my wife could at least get the hell out of there!

[MicroMiniMe]

Rita is now a super Cat5 storm with 175mph winds and could even increase...Looks like the path is likely very close to Galveston-Houston also. I will be departing Iraq on Saturday and the family has already started evacuationg (we live South of Houston in Galveston County). In 12 hours on the road, my family has made it all the way to the North side of Houston! I will likely lose my house/belongings but it would be nice if my wife could at least get the hell out of there!

Well wishes to you and your family, as well as GT. Anyone needing temporary shelter, you can jump on 35 and keep going north.
I'm actually serious, if you want PM me.

Otherwise I'm assuming its terrible for you, being overseas while the family has to go through this order. Talk about having a tough time keeping in contact. Good luck and godspeed.

[SPECTER24]

GET OUT! Quick

If i were you dude GET THE F*&% out of ther if you seen what happend in New Orleans take the lesion and get out! But sniping looters dose'nt sound bad.

[WicKeD_WaYz]

40 miles? Thats a long way from the water. Ide stick it out.

[Muzikman]

as far as hurricanes go, 40 miles is NOT far at all. The radius of this storm is over 80 miles.

That being said, if you have everything you will need for a few weeks and the house you are in is sturdy (you just built the hous didn't you?) and you are above sea level, I see no reason ya couldn't stay. But I would go to walmart and buy;

As many 5 gallon water jugs as you can (be sure to fill the jugs ASAP)
Water purifier (Something like the MSR Mini-Works...NOT a britta)
A couple 5 gallon jerry cans of gasoline
As much canned food as you can. (and make sure you got a manual can opener)
A small propane cook stove.
A couple good flashlights. (I suggest LED)
Lots of batteries for flashlights, radios, etc.
A portable radio (a shortwave if ya want to spend the extra few buck)
A FRS radio with scanning capabilities (or portable CB)
A good first aid kit
Box of matches
Knife / Multi-Tool
Small (or large if you want to spend the money) generator.
Bug Spray (99% deet)
Sun Screen
Cash (not too much, but make sure you have some)

Board up the windows.

Take all large objects off the walls/celings.

Besure to wash all the clothes you have and put them in plastic bags in a place in the house least likely to get wet.

Get rid of all food that can spoil now so that you don't have to try live with it until the next garbage pickup. Meat is the worst when it sits a few days.


Just remember, if your not going to flood and your house remains standing there is always the chance that your car might be under a tree or something. So if you don't leave now, you might not be able to later.

[ShooterJM]

I'd get the heck out. If you're gonna stick it out, be sure to get important records (birth certificates, vin numbers of vehicles, pictures of expensive crap, insurance numbers and documents, bank accounts, etc) in a completly watersafe bag and keep it on you at all times. I'd also make a laminated card with contact info, including relatives info, for any kids you may have. Oh, and make sure the cash you have is 1,5,10,20's maybe a 50 or a 100 or two, but make sure you have the smaller bills. Good luck man.

[Recon by Fire]

Rita's projected path

My wife was on I-45 headed NW towards DFW. On advice of her Father, she instead turned off and headed to Hwy-59 which runs NE from Houston up through Eastern Texas. Her trek from 45 to 59 brough back practicly to Houston also.

[Killer V]

I'm in Irving Tx(suburb of Dallas) If anyone needs a bed for the weekend hit me up. My Aunt< dad, and younger brother are on there way from Orange and Houston now.

[Kaiser Bob]

Well now we are on the projected dry side of Rita by a good 60+ miles so anyone further then say 15-20 miles from the coastal areas that held out this long are encouraged to stay, so hurricane party it is. Hope everyone down here keeps safe if they are riding it out.

[coofoo777]

grab your mag and run!!!!

[B.A.M.]

grab your mag and run!!!!

ditto. I say screw it and just stay and rent a parachute or buy one and stand out side and see how long you can stay airborne. If you can get out i would but with that traffic it would be better to be at your house than in a car.

[Boydster]

I'm about 30 miles north of Houston.

And we're staying right put in our house. Heck, we even invited some people over for a party! Seriously though, those people are coming to my house because there are like zero big trees around us. They're kind of scared because of what happened in the last hurricane that came through in '83 I think. Big tree took out half their house.

I'm thinking about making a video of this. It's already starting to get dark and windy. Two houses right across the street from me are in the process of being built. They are just now getting the skinny boards on the 2x4's. Sucks for them.

Well, I'm off to take a shower before the power goes out. If you don't hear from me in a while, It'd probably be safe to assume you'll never hear from me again... So long AO.

EDIT: These hurricanes are following the people from New Orleans.

Holy crap it's getting windy...

[CodeMA]

Ya....soooo I live 200 miles north of Houston.....

The main problem here was a little wind today...no rain....


......oh....and being as I live right on I-45, getting ANYWERE has been a PITA.... they locked the post office up starting thusday night from like 6-7am the next morning for "security reasons" despite its location across the street from the police department.... Lots of recs and random people wandering through the streets of our little town, occationaly useing it as a place to camp or "releave" themselves rather undescretely.....

but ya, for the most part, I gotta say evacuies suck, I hope you didnt become one......... nor dead.... neather are trendy or otherwise cool now days

[GT]

Well,
at the end of the day it looks like I didnt have a choice. I was a memeber of the "ride out" team at work. I as well as the house and family survived the storm unscathed. Sounds like all we got were winds around 50mph in MoCity.

Don't believe all the crap you guys see on the news. Gas and other goods are a plenty down here. One cool thing to note, I was at Wall mart today and part of their new evac plan includes taking all of thier guns and ammo with them. good plan considering that is how some of the katrina "victims" armed themselves.