Running from Rita - Part 8

Sub-Title:
OUR EVACUATION PLAN

Sub-Sub-Title:
LORDY, I HOPE THIS WORKS

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We are heading for San Antonio. Planning to leave at roughly daybreak tomorrow morning.

I went on a scouting mission tonight about 7:30 and discovered that Highway 59 South running southwest out of Houston was basically free of traffic. We are going to try to slip out of Houston on the southwest side, run down 59 to Victoria, then run up Highway 87 into the southeast side of San Antonio. My dad lives on the northeast side of San Antonio, and I am fully expecting that it will be slow going trying to get across Interstate 10 once we get there. But I am optimistic that getting to San Antonio will not be an unreasonably demanding journey.

Note that the freeways running due west (Interstate 10), northwest (Highway 290), north (Interstate 45), northeast (Highway 59 North), and east (Interstate 10 again) are jammed to the gills. Gridlock is the prevailing situation there. But as sometimes happens, it seems massive numbers of people have overlooked one of the paths out of harm's way.

One real unfortunate and tragic situation that is developing during this exodus is that the friendly government officials who were "helping" the people from Baytown (see photo of map) sent those people east on Interstate 10 towards Beaumont. Well, I've heard from several seasoned Texas hurricane survivors that it's worthwhile to make a guess that a Gulf of Mexico hurricane that appears to be drawing a bead on Texas is going to go north, and it's reasonable to speculate that such a Gulf of Mexico hurricane is going to go east (in each case of the initially-predicted landfall location). But it is not at all reasonable or worthwhile (and it is probably actually dangerous) to gamble that a Gulf of Mexico hurrican that has its eye on Texas is going to end up going south or west of the initially-predicted landfall location. Those poor souls from Baytown that followed instructions and are in their cars on Interstate 10 trying to get to Beaumont or trying to get into Louisiana are in a dangerous situation. Let's hope and pray for them that they get off the roads and into shelter before the storm hits. On the other end of the spectrum, Corpus Christi evacuated more than two days ago (those folks headed north to San Antonio or west to Laredo, I imagine). Corpus Christi is now not even expected to get any rain out of Rita.

So ... I've been absorbing all this information and crunching all this data and trying to figure out what I'm going to do to make this hurricane experience as safe (and interesting!) as I can for my family. And I'm thinking starting off to the southwest is sounding like a good bet.

Cross your fingers for us. I'll try to send a final bulletin from the news desk here in southwest Houston before we get on the road. Blogs from the road will be sans pictures. So prepare to use your imaginations.

Cheers!