[gentoo-dev] Hurricane Rita Evacuation (fwd)

[Deedra Waters]

-- 
Deedra Waters - Gentoo developer relations, accessibility and infrastructure -
dmwaters@g.o
Gentoo linux: http://www.gentoo.org


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 13:46:38 -0500
From: Jason Huebel <jhuebel@×××××.com>
To: dmwaters@g.o, kingtaco@g.o
Subject: Hurricane Rita Evacuation

I just wanted to give you guys an update on our status with our
evacuation for Hurricane Rita.  If you could forward this to the
Gentoo mailing lists (the public lists are okay, too), I would
appreciate it.  I'm accessing the internet from a Windows 98 (bleck)
computer using Juno (double bleck) as an ISP.  So Gmail isn't fully
supported on IE5 and won't allow me to send email out as
jhuebel@g.o.  Downloading Firefox would be utterly painful on
this slow dialup link, so I haven't bothered with that.  That and this
isn't my computer, so I don't have permission to change anything. :-)

Anyway, our status... We've evacuated from our home in Orange, TX,
which is about 25 miles northeast of where the hurricane is expected
to make landfall.  My parent's and my sister's homes are directly in
the path of the hurricane, in Port Arthur, TX.  At the time of this
writing, the hurricane /may/ drop to a category 2 when it hits the
coast.  But that will do little to help the areas to the east and
northeast of the hurricane's path (basically, the area where my house
is).  The storm surge alone will likely wipe out my parents' and my
sister's houses.  Our house probably won't withstand the winds, since
we're in a manufactured home.  That being the case, we fully expect to
be homeless by this time tomorrow.

Thankfully, we've evacuated far enough north that we'll probably only
have to deal with high winds.  We're staying with my wife's aunt and
uncle in Anacoco, Louisiana.  We're sharing a one-bedroom house with
(last count) 13 people.  So things are going to be a little cramped
tonight as we ride out the weakening hurricane.  We expect to see
winds where we are staying of approximately 75 mph, with rainfall in
the range of 10 to 15 inches over a 24 hour period. There rainfall
isn't of much concern, since this area of the country commonly sees
heavy rainfall of this kind.  The wind is an issue, though.  We've
boarded up the eastern and southeastern sides of the house to protect
against the wind, so I think we're about as prepared as we can be.

We would have gone further north, but when we evacuated the hurricane
wasn't expected to come this far east.  By the time it became apparent
that the hurricane was coming closer than expected, roads were
completely clogged and there was little chance we would get much
further way.  It made more sense to stay in a solid home than to be
out on the road or staying in a travel trailer at some campground.

Provided we still have phones tomorrow, I'll send an update.  I hope
everyone else who might be effected by the hurricane made it out
safely and we'll see you on the other side of this thing.  If you
don't hear from us tomorrow, don't be too concerned.  I expect we'll
be very busy with cleanup on Saturday and Sunday here in Anacoco, LA.
Then early next week we'll be heading back to our home in Orange, TX
to survey the damage, begin the long insurance process, etc.  I doubt
we'll have access to phones or the internet while we're there.

--
Jason Huebel
jhuebel@×××××.com
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