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September 19, 2005
Rita
I'm not sure I'm ready to do this all over again.
Yesterday this storm was predicted to hit the lower Texas coast, and I was OK with that. OK, I feel guilty for saying that, I don't wish a hurricane on anybody, but it's a little more sparsely populated, and there aren't a ton of those poor Katrina evacuees down there. And so maybe we could focus our prayers on keeping it a category 1 or 2 storm, instead of the predicted category 3. Maybe Austin could get a little rain out of it to cool off ACL. The power of positive thinking, all that.
But now it's drawing a bead directly on Houston. And Houston contains the largest population of displaced New Orleanians anywhere, outside of Louisiana. Houston is where my brother's family now lives, while he spends his days ripping moldy sheet rock out of his house in Metairie.
And for it to avoid Houston, it would have to pull farther north, closer to Louisiana. Mayor Nagin says today that the battered levees could be breached by as little as a 3 foot storm surge, so Rita wouldn't need to strike anywhere near New Orleans to cause a flooding repeat.
And I don't have enough positive thinking left in my arsenal. I'm wrung out.
Really, what are the chances of Camille and Alicia repeating themselves within weeks of each other?
And from the "Coincidences Too Tragic To Contemplate" department, the Austin Convention Center shelter is closing on Friday, just in time for Rita to make landfall.
FEMA, don't send engineers, don't send architects, don't send insurance adjusters. Send vast truckloads of Valium.
And send the Coast Guard. Put them in place now, please. You have almost a whole week to not fuck this up.
Posted by ray at September 19, 2005 4:37 PM | Permalink
Categories: [family | katrina | new orleans | rita | texas ]
Comments
I've been playing this 'watch the hurricanes take aim' thing for - well, let's say, since fiji, and brutha, you remember that.
For what it's worth, every time I cover my eyes and say "tell me when it's over", these things mostly spin out or hit without catastrophic impact.
We have a whole country willing it away right now. If will can do it, it's not gonna hit, and otherwise, well, there could be luck.
Fingers well and truly crossed here.
Posted by: Karl Elvis at September 19, 2005 5:13 PM
My fingers are crossed obviously..but I'm about empty in the positive thoughts tank. My own problems aside, I really can't see lightning striking twice, that would just be far too fecked up. It'll spin out, I'm quite sure.
Posted by: Gwensarah at September 19, 2005 6:14 PM
*sigh*
This this is going to be over warm water for days doing nothing but building up strength. It's at 70 now. In two days it's still going to be over warm water. Depending on conditions, it could be a 4 or a 5 by then and still gaining. Once a storm gets into the Gulf it's got nothing to do but get uglier. The best case scenario is usually that it goes fast and hits land before it can get get it's strength under it. I don't see that happening here. It's got too much time over open water and nothing in sight to help try and break it up.
I always feel guilty. This time doubly much. Because I'm sitting here selfishly wishing "anywhere but here" and then AFTER that I worry about Luzziane and other places. As much as I don't want it to hit Louisiana, I don't want it to make a U-turn and smack back here either.
There is no good option. I hate that. It's like firing a gun in a room full of people -- no matter where it ricochets, someone gets hurt. I can't even wish for it to hit Mexico because I know how vulnerable some of the cities there are.
Posted by: Doxy at September 19, 2005 11:14 PM
Hey, you know, I still think Dox should get outta harms way and move to CA.
Forget the earthquakes. Really. We survive those daily. B^)
Posted by: Karl Elvis at September 20, 2005 12:02 AM
This is just too much. Those poor people do not deserve to have to go through another disaster. No one deserves to go through it even once.
I have got pretty much every finger and toe crossed here and I'm trying to summon up every positive thought I have left.
Posted by: Carol at September 20, 2005 11:25 AM
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