Here comes Rita!

[Sonny]

Look out Texas.... Looks like South/Central Texas could get dumped on this weekend. 135 mile per hour winds and getting larger early this morning.

[mbuff]

Yep, Hurricane v2.0 is on the way.

I've been trying to get in touch with my little brother who lives south of Houston between Houston and Galveston but no luck yet. His daughter said he's out picking up a generator and more plywood now. Apparently hardware and plywood are becomming scare in "the zone".

Here's hoping that Mike Ormsby and all of the other Houston area lax families make it through this thing ok. Anybody heading up 59 to Nac and needs anything, just give me a call at 936-371-1724.

-buff

[Sonny]

Yep, Hurricane v2.0 is on the way.

Let's not forget. There have been plenty of other ones earlier this Hurricane season. They are running out names for all the Hurricanes.

[lil lady lax fan]

Ah, but v2.0 was especially designed to wreak havoc on the Gulf Coast States. There's other versions available for the Florida keys and the Atlantic Seaboard. I believe v2.0GC would be the correct designation. As with Microsoft v2.0GC is a thinly disguised version of v6.0F

[mbuff]

All others that were CAT I - CAT III were just beta versions. Bush does not call it a version until it reaches CAT IV. Since Bush-41 lives in Houston, I wonder if that means that 43 hates his daddy too?

[Brent Burns]

Let's not forget those oil refineries in that area, so I told my wife this morning that she and I better get our cars filled with gas for a while.

My families live in Houston, and I was told that they have already made plans to spread themselves in Texas (two will go to East Texas- Broaddus and Lufkin) and the other one will go to La Grange.

[Brent Burns]

Interesting article from the Houston Chronicle.com where the Houston-area refineries say they're prepared:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/rita/3362796

[Danny Hogan]

prepared for prices to go up again. its a shame, i filled up for 2.49 a gallon today.

[Brent Burns]

prepared for prices to go up again. its a shame, i filled up for 2.49 a gallon today.

Ditto. about the fact it is a shame. Mine went $2.52 at Wally World.

[Tarzan]

Darn Halliburton weather machine again!!

Here is some advice:
Get the heck out!!

If you think you are safe, think again! Thank God you don't have levees and land that is below sea level, but still...Get the heck out! Get your stuff together now before it is too late. If for some ungodly reason you do decide to stick around (natural selection I guess), remember the 5 D’s… dodge, dive, dip, duck, dodge! You will need all 5!

Get ready for lots of wind and power outages …way beyond the “impacted area”. Also, communications networks are going to be FUBAR! Congestions from people fleeing the storm will make it hard for you to make calls especially if you only have a wireless phone. Also before you leave, put jugs of water in your freezer...you might be able to save some of its content.

Personally, I don't know how I can make it to the LSA meeting this weekend...I would have to drive right through the yellow area. Plus, roads are most likely going to be closed or moving in one direction.

BTW- I attended a meeting yesterday on levees and hurricanes…An expert told us that hurricane seasons are cyclical and based on their predictions we just started a 10 year up cycle!!!!!

One more thing: Am I the only one with that Gin Blossoms song in their head?

[mbuff]

Speaking of gas, a major disruption right now would be the loss of 250,000 bbl/day in refining capacity. All of Texas' refining capacity is in the zone right now and that means about 3,000,000 bbl/day.

If 1/2 of the TX capacity is off-line due to damage, then we've got a very major problem as LA still has 4 or so plants off-line for repair. Repairs on TX plants would take longer to complete as most of the folks with the skillsets to do such are working on the LA plants right now.

Anyway you look at it, if TX loses any capacity then you will be sawing off your arm on Monday to fill up. I guess the best thing I've seen all week was a story about a lady from Los Angles who drove her Hummer to NO to rescue people. She said it cost her about $15,000 for the week she did this. I'm glad she was able to do this and she now feels all warm and fuzzy about the experience. I wonder if she would feel all warm and fuzzy about putting a refinery in CA to make the gas that she burns at about 8mpg?

[mbuff]

Billy,

Cell capacity is already FUBAR I guess. Could not get my bro on cell, got message that call could not be completed at this time. Called him on landline and got right through. He's in Pearland boarding up and told me not to bother trying to come help him because traffic is bad northbound and he said I'd be stuck down there. He had to go to north HOU to get a generator and traffic northbound is bad already. He's sending the wife and kids out tonight and then getting out of dodge as soon as his chem plant is secured around Thurs evening.

So you COULD make it to the meeting by not taking I-10. Go up and cross over at Logansport then 59S and get 21W at Nac. Really long way around. Better idea - put the meeting off 2 weeks and let's have it here in Nac when SFA plays NSU. You are riding the bus up to T-Gate right???

Bring that monstrosity of a gumbo pot and the boat paddle y'all have and we'll cook and have the meeting in the parking lot and then go to the game. Think we can get Karl to go along with it?

[Sonny]

165 MPH! Whew....

Hurricane RITA Update

000
WTNT63 KNHC 211955
TCUAT3
HURRICANE RITA TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
255 PM CDT WED SEP 21 2005

DATA FROM RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT RITA HAS REACHED CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM SUSTAINED SURFACE WINDS OF 165 MPH. THIS WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE 4 PM CDT ADVISORY.

FORECASTER AVILA

[Sonny]

Rice, Houston, A&M reschedule games as Rita looms

HOUSTON -- Rice and Houston postponed home games scheduled for Saturday, and Texas A&M has pushed up its game against Texas State, in anticipation of Hurricane Rita, which was upgraded to a Category 5 storm Wednesday, reaching the Texas Gulf Coast this weekend.

The Aggies will play Texas State Thursday night instead of Saturday.

Rice was scheduled to play Navy, but on Wednesday the game was rescheduled for Oct. 22. Houston was to play Southern Mississippi on Saturday. No makeup date was announced, but school officials said they were looking at Nov. 12 or 13.

To make room, the SMU-Houston game originally scheduled for Nov. 12 was postponed to Nov. 19, when both teams have an open date.

The Golden Eagles play at Marshall on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2168185

[shrekjr]

Folks trying to leave Houston at 3:00 decided to go 290 to Austin then north to Dallas on I-35. After 1 hour, they had traveled about 11 miles. Rumor now is the highway department is making I-45 north bound only.