The Westbound lanes of IH-10, usually empty during the morning commute, are full of refugees from Galveston/Houston area. The sun rises through a murky mass of impending cloudbank from Rita; still hundreds of miles away but whose cloudtops are easily visible from San Antonio. (Pardon the blurriness; shot on the fly during the morning commute.)
Thursday afternoon 9/22/2005: It doesn't look too unusual until you notice everyone has 2 or 3 cases of bottled water in their carts. Bottled Water! Also, due to the limitations of my camera, you can't see the lines -- 8-10 people long each.
It's 3am, and I can't sleep. I swear I can feel my ears pop with the lowering barometric pressure.
Spent yesterday doing laundry (if the power goes out you can't wash clothes -- and we usually do laundry in Casa Largo on Saturdays -- right when Rita should be coming ashore. See Previous Post "Hurricanes and Moral Quandries . . . still don't Help Me do the Laundry!")
About noon I went to get some shopping done -- same reason. Wal-Mart had Guards! on the bottled water!!! Apparently it went fast when Rita started aiming at South Texas, and one store had some kind of trouble when the water ran out. They were limiting customers to one case each; so i had to make a trip to Sam's Club to get another case. Wal-Mart was in short supply of bread, tuna, peanut butter, and cold remedies, as well as water.
Traffic was remarkably light. Really weird. Applied Rain-X to both cars' windsheilds. That stuff really works great; and it's too late to apply it when it starts to rain.
Got an e-mail from my former church in Indiana; our former pastor is in Corpus Christi with his brother and seeking shelter inland. I e-mailed them back to call us if they need anyhting. We'd be happy to put them up in our tiny apartment.
Picked up my weekly quota of comic books and extra Coors and chips. Gotta do something if the power goes out.
And I still can't sleep.
~~JD~~
MSNBC'sw Website captioned this "Thousands of cars slowly make their way out of Houston, Texas, on Wednesday to escape Hurricane Rita." I'd say that's about right.
Rita is still a Cat-5 storm, and has started to shift to the Northwest. While that's something of a relief (since we won't be hit head-on) I'm feeling more than a little guilt as she sidles up towards already-devastated New Orleans and the bulk of the Katrina refugees in Houston.
So, that's a bad thing. Fotunately Texas has a no-nonsense governor in Rick Perry who started evacuating those refugees earlier this week to Arkansas and (sigh) San Antonio. And unlike New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagin (who seems terrified that he'll lose his constituency and is trying to re-populate his city frantically) Perry has expedited placement of the refugees in permanent housing through Section 8 vouchers and Housing Loans for refugees. Lotta these folks are here to stay, whether Ray Nagin likes it or not.
The sun also rose this morning; with apologies to Hemingway. The high overcast is reflecting glare everywhere and makes the sky appear bright white. Governor Perry has ordered the Southbound Lanes of I-45 and I-10 to be turned around at 9am to double the flow of traffic outbound from Galveston; which means it's getting VERY serious.
And Fox News has just reported that draining groundwater from the aquifers und Houston has lowered the elevation of the city fifteen to twenty feet in the last century; which could be catastrophic if Cat-5 Rita comes ashore there.
An interesting aside for the Global Warming conspiracists lurking out there. Several years ago I visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where they have the U-505 German U-boat on display. I asked the tour guide why there was so little German U-boat activity in the Caribbean during the war. He replied the Germans were terrified of hurricanes; that a U-boat could only stay submerged 12-16 hours, and if they had to surface in a hurricane, the crew would all be killed. This made little sense to me (Hurricanes? How often are there Hurricanes?) until I heard on the TV Joe Bastardi from Accu-Weather saying that his father (who was also a meteorologist) saying that there used to be a LOT more hurricanes in the gulf in the beginning of the 20th century. Houston/Galveston had hurricanes in 1900, 1909, 1918, 1926, 1935, 1946, and 1954 -- then no hurricanes until 1983.
Apparently the cycle has swung around again; and considering the sunspot cycle just completed a major upswing a year or two ago, it seems likely we're starting back toward that cycle again.
Just don't spout the pop-psych answer of "Global Warming, Dude!" I'm not in the mood right now.
~~JD~~
Traffic was stop-and-go all the way home both ways tonight; a far cry from the usual San Antone commute. I'm glad I have the day off tomorrow; it's bound to be a cast-iron BEAR driving through town tomorrow.
Some interesting changes in the weather as Rita (I keep wanting to type "Katrina") has advanced to a solid Cat-5 storm. Already. The sky seemed grayer than usual on the drive home tonight, but nothing really unusual for late summer haze over South Texas. When night fell was when we noticed it was a solid high overcast. We've been watching the full moon for three days now; but there's no moon tonight, and the sky's reflecting the city lights in an errie glow.
Plus there's no wind with high humidity and high 80's -- a bit too warm and humid. The weather channel's radar is showing feeder bands bringing thunderstorms ashore in Corpus Christi already. Wow.
I have that weird little gut feeling I get when my predicitions are about to come true; and I still have it. Nothing but bad vibes coming from the near future and Rita.
I'm filling the cars' gas tanks tomorrow (just in case we lose power for a few days) and buying candles and lantern fuel. Also a couple of cases of bottled water, just in case. I'm pretty much counting on working all weekend; either in the Katrina Shelters or at work (in case somebody can't get in -- which is quite likely.)
My first real hurricane. I'd be excited if I wasn't full of foreboding. Frankly more than a bit scared, too.
~~JD~~
All computer models are predicting Hurricane Rita will hit somewhere between Galveston and Corpus Christi Texas Friday or Saturday. She should be a minimum Category 4 storm (like Katrina) and possibly a Category 5. Just a little Texas history here; in 1946 a Category 5 storm hit Victoria Texas (about the same place Rita will hit) and charged inland to San Antone, destroying much of the city.
Which is where I am.
And, being a nurse, I couldn't evacuate if I wanted to. The Interstates heading northbound out of San Antone (I-10 and I-37) were clogged wall-to-wall with traffic this morning; making rush hour very interesting, indeed. (I may have to take the surface streets home tonight to get home at all.)
And to make it even more interesting, San Antonio's full of Katrina refugees. as well as coatal refugees fleeing Rita. My place of business is accepting patients from Corpus Christi starting tomorrow.
I may be off the Internet for awhile. Gotta go buy some bottled water tonight, if there's any left.
The city of San Antonio Texas. The obvious allusion is that there's a Storm brewing; but it's more like an earthquake.
The first thing you see on entering the warehouses the refugees call "home" is the Red Cross registration desk for Volunteers. Whilst I blurred the pictures deliberately to protect identities, thye actually DO move that fast and efficiently trying to get everyone signed up and working. This airman in particular had been at this desk almost 16 hours, and was looking forward to going home for abite to eat in 8 or 9 hours . . . and then working Saturday as long as they'd let him. "These are my People; I'm from Baton Rouge," he said. "They need our help, and I'm not gonna let them down."
The Job Fair in progress 24/7 at Kelly AFB in the Refugee quarter. Major employers from all over San Antonio are screening and hiring folks on the spot for everything from truck driving to hair cutting to nurses to engineers. (By the way; I should mention that the refugees are housed in air-conditioned Motor Pool warehouses that ate roughly 100 yards wide by 500 yards long -- and there are FIVE of these monstrous hangars end-to-end full of people!) The Job Fair occupies the entirety of Hangar #2.
A view of one smaller shelters in San Antonio; called a "Special Needs" shelter because the occupants have more medical or other problems. Putting these folks in smaller shelters (such as this one ruyn by a local Baptist Church) allows them better attention so that hopefull these folks won't fall between the gaps of a social system stretched incredibly taut.
The face of FEMA: the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In fairness as well as to counter the negative stuff you hear on TV; FEMA has never been designed as a "hands-on" relief agency, but as backup to the Agencies already in place (i.e., your local Red Cross, Catholic Chartities, Salvation Army, and local government.) The FEMA guys appear in their khaki army fatigue pants and navy blue polo shirts and ask what we need; and what we need appears the next day -- in massive quantities. You have to be very careful what you ask for. Yo ask for wheelchairs, you very well might end up with 50 of them. You complain about transportation problems and three brand-new 15-passenger Econoline vans are sitting in your parking lot the next day. You need water? You get three semi trucks full of it before sundown. We've learned to be specific and cautious in our requests.
I wish I could somehow convey with words the majesty, the grandeur, and the mind-numbing horror of a near-miss from Hurricane Katrina to my friends and family up north. The Refugees are pouring into San Antonio and the strain on the local economy is incredible -- and probably unimaginable.
I got the call we had refugees at work Sunday afternoon and headed in to work a partial shift to help out the weekend nurse. Ariane and I bought quite a few supplies at Wal-Mart (wet-naps, fleece blankets, band-aids, antibiotic ointment, and Tylenol -- and specific clothing for one of out patients -- shoes, pants, & underwear.) Friday I get off for Labor Day, and I'm heading over to Kelly AFB to volunteer some time.
I wish I could put this into words better. This was a dress rehearsal for something worse -- and God help us when THAT happens.
More later.
~~~JD~~~
Saturday 8/27 5:00pm: Looks like Katrina is going to be the largest, closest hurricane to South Texas since we moved here in 2002. Haven't seen any changes to the weather yet, though.
Sunday 8/28 7:00am: Weather's a little weird this morning. The land "Where the Sun spends the winter" (old San Antonio Tourist slogan) is overcast and grey; looking more like Winter than Mid-August. Showers are peppering us intermittently even though It hasn't rained steadily here since April (and rarely does in the Summer.) The clouds are odd as well: they're all high broken overcast cumulus clouds with a fair amount of sunshine peeking through.
Sunday 8/28 12:00pm: Counting Louisiana license plates on the way from church: 2 or 3 seen. (We rarely, if ever, see any Louisiana plates this far from the border.) Northwest Church of Christ had planned a water-party picnic to celebrate returning to school next week -- and got more water than they dreamed of. Well, the crops needed it pretty badly.
A lot less sunshine than this morning, too.
Sunday 8/28 7:00pm: The wind shifted this afternoon. Airplanes usually fly overhead on the landing pattern to San Antonio; now, they're taking off overhead as the wind has shifted to the Northeast. That doesn't happen too very often down here.
Magnificent Sunset; plenty of fat cumulus clouds to highlight and glimmer in the last vestiges of the setting sun.
Monday 8/28 7:00am: Wow -- just, Wow. Most incredible sunrise I may have ever seen in my life as high overcasrt and low, scudding, purple clouds frame the blood-red rising sun in the east. Almost didn't get a sunrise at all with all the cloud cover; but eventually it poked through and put on quite a show.
Wow, indeed.
Monday 8/28 12:00pm: It's only 85 degrees in the Alamo City; the forecast today was for 98 degrees. I seriously doubt it'll get there. It's actually quite cool and pleasant with the overcast. For once the air conditioner in the office I work in is cold in the extreme, instead of just being able to keep up.
Monday 8/28 4:30pm: First time I've ever driven home since we moved here that I didn't need tha A/C full-blast on and my sunglasses. Full scudding steel-grey sky in progress overhead; and the dust patterns on my windsheild say it's been drizzling on-and-off most of the day.
At a stoplight on the way home I see another weird weather thing I've never seen before. The clouds are coming out of the east and making a left turn above the city and heading south. I wondered if I was losing my mind until I realized; it's the cenmtral rotation of the clouds around the storm's eye.
Man, that's gotta be one kick-ass storm to influence the weather this directly over here. I'm a Midwestern boy who's seen lightning storms, blizzards, tornadoes, and green skies -- but this is truly awe-inspiring.
Counted 27 Louisiana license plates on the way home.
Wow.
~~~JD~~~
The above picture is of a Hurricane Evacuation Route sign on I-45 heading north from Galveston Island, which I mentioned in a previous post. It's a weird thing to see one of these along the Interstate in good weather; and another thing entirely to watch them as you're evacuating your home and loved ones from a killer hurricane's path; like my neighbors in Louisiana are doing right now. We're feeling the effects right now here in San Antone. This morning the Airport started lauching airplanes in the opposite direction as usual (to the North rather than the south) as the winds shifted from Hurricane Katrina. The skies are intermittently overcast as feeder bands sweep north from the storm; we even got a bit of rain as well. 
