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WOW! Thats one of an ordeal.
I'm glad for your safe, that you're back home, and no damage occured.
And more importantly, congradulations to both of you on your Wedding!!!
Spurs_Fan_in_Exile (hereafter referred to as J) and I are getting married Saturday in New Braunfels. We live in Houston, and of course were worried about Rita. Because on Wednesday, it was a Cat 5 looking to be a direct hit, we decided that while we'd be fine in our apartment, we weren't certain that we'd be able to get out of town in time for the wedding if there was severe flooding.
So we decided to leave. With our cat, who does not travel well. It took hours to prepare the apartment, we had to kill all of our plants, because we didn't have a secure place for them. We had to pack for the wedding, and relocate things in the apartment in case the glass broke (just after we'd finally gotten the place into shape, damn it). I finally crashed about midnight (since I was the primary driver), and we got up just before five. We were on our way at 5:30 exactly.
We live on S. Gessner in Houston, and were supposed to take I10 to 46 to NB (my mom's house). Now, S. Gessner is pretty far out (next to the beltway, the outer loop of Houston). We got to the highway in normal time with a full tank of gas. From there it took about forty minutes to get on the highway. Once we did .. . we sat.
We sat for hours. At one point, we traveled 3/10 of a mile in two and a half hours. It took us 12 hours to get to Katy. We got to Brookshire after 16 hours, and that's when we had to pull over because of low gas. It's also when our cell phone began to die. Now, it normally takes us 20-30 minutes to get to Brookshire (22 today). We were on the road forever, and we ran out of gas. The heat was stifling, we had to turn off the air conditioner for fear of overheating. There was no way to get off or turn around. The cat began overheating and panicking, but refused to drink water (he was panting heavily, drooling, etc). We let him out of his carrier, and he climbed all over, on me at one point. We kept dousing him with (warm, as we forgot ice) water, to cool him, and he scrambled up my arm to avoid that, as he hates water. Unfortunately, there was no way to scramble, but dighis claws deeply in, at which point I completely lost it, and screamed in severe pain, and began sobbing hysterically. It took nearly an hour to get calmed down, fortunately J was driving at the time and much, much calmer than I was.
We managed to let my parents know where we were, and they in turn let's J's family know. Everyone (including the radio) kept telling us it would be fine - they were sending tanker trucks out and DPS out and filling people up with gas. Sure. They never hit us . . . apparently, if we'd made it to Sealy, we would have found them, but we didn't have enough gas. No matter - after we pulled over and turned the car off, it died. Battery went caput.
Nine hours later, attempts to flag people down (one group stopped and let us use their cell phone while waiting for the rest of their convoy to catch up) to give us a jump, fitful sleeping on my part, anger on J's part and a now remarkably resigned and calmed cat, we tried the cell phone again and managed to get a call out to J's brother in Houston, who kindly (at 3 in the morning) came out, gave us a jump and gas and guided us through back roads back into Houston, and 25 hours after we left, we arrived home. We showered, bathed a very angry cat, and slept.
In the end, we didn't even get rain at our apartment, but that nightmare did mean that we didn't have to deal with traffic coming back in, and that I got a full two and a half weeks off work because the university was shut down until I went on vacation for the wedding/honeymoon. So that's cool. Because we had initially planned to stay, we had plenty of supplies, and were able to get gas Saturday by waiting patiently in line for about thirty minutes.
But never, ever, ever again.
We can't wait to move back here, were hurricanes don't happen. But all is well that ends well, right? Hopefully the tuxes will arrive in Houston (we'd asked them to be sent to SA when we thougt a hurricane would hit us, and they are trying to get them back in time), but if they don't . . . , it'll still be a great day. Compared to that nightmare, everyday is a wonderful day. Definitely took the worry out of the wedding for me!
WOW! Thats one of an ordeal.
I'm glad for your safe, that you're back home, and no damage occured.
And more importantly, congradulations to both of you on your Wedding!!!
Thanks!
BTW, love you avatar.
oh man that sucksI feel your pain as I had a similar experience. except it took me about 6 hours to get to Katy and that is where I gave up and stayed the night in a hotel. If not I'm sure I'd be out on the road many more hours like you and so many. I know exactly what you mean though about the crying out of frustration, I cried as I called my family members on the phone. I also had a pet with me that was hot and panting. it was a nightmare. I'm glad you made it home though and everything was OK. I also ended up back home. it's like all of this was done for nothing. My car is still in the shop after breaking down during that ordeal, it'll be over $1,000 to fix it plus the tow that was $120 and while we're at it lets add the hotel tab of $125.
Good to know your apartment was untouched also. We can always be thankful for those things.
I'm with ya.. never doing it again.
Geez, Spurfect, I'm so sorry about your car. It was such a . And they will have a of a time evac'ing the next time one hits. I'll tell you this much - for as long as we stay in Houston, we'll be continuously adding to our emergency stockpile. Slowly, more water, saving our gallon jugs, getting more batteries and candles and keeping stocked on shelf stable food, so that all we'll have to do is simply get some more tuna or cat food.
On the bright side, we can now bond over this, and meet up to watch the Spurs kick some Rocket ass this year, right?
I didn't even think of that, but that's a great idea. The mad rush to buy all that stuff was crazy. I was extremely unprepared and didn't have anything and it was hard to get anything at the last minute. Well I live in Pasadena and that is how long it took me to get to Katy. Normally to get to that same spot it would take me about 45 minutes. And I'm up for watching the Spurs kick the Rockets ass anytime
lol where you growing weed or something...we had to kill all of our plants, because we didn't have a secure place for them.
I wish you didn't have all that hassle.
I live at Texas and Main downtown.
I drove to 290/610 and drove back home.
I then went to specs where I bought some wine, beer and scotch.
My building basically had a 4-day party. Drank all the wine, bottle and a half of scotch (black label johnnie and 12 year glenlevit - the 18 year glenlevit stayed in the case) and all the beer.
Ended the weekend with a huge assortment of phone numbers, room numbers and a lunch date with the city councilwoman to talk politics.
I hope we have a hurricane next weekend too.
Not me, though.
PS I adore Specs.
Tic...Tic...Tic...
You shouldve killed yah cat with ur plants
I hope there's never a hurricane threat there again, then.......don't think if it as a waste of time, but the fact that ya'll were very, very lucky....it was supposed to hit there, right up until the last day.
Congratulations on your wedding!
That sounds like a horrible experience. I'm sincerely sorry. During those days I kept telling myself, I'm so glad I didn't have to do that.
Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me shiver. Horrible!
Congrats.
that sux!!
I'm so sorry you had to go thru all that horribleness.... and then no hurricane!!! UGH!
bright side:Congrats on the wedding!!!!
Damn easjer, that sounds horrible. Glad to see you and your beloved made it through. Congrats on your wedding.
Have you ever thought of buying a car cell phone charger?
I had my brother-in-law come in and my cousin and his family come in. They both took 20+ hours to get to SA. I felt bad for them and all those people who had to go through that. It just proves the U.S isn't prepared for such things. I'm sorry you had to go through that. Congratulations on the wedding and I hope everything turns out to be great for you two.
Yes, but I never had (and it didn't occur to me to do that before hand . . . kinda like the ice . . .), cause we had the wall charger.
My dad said we're going to buy one today. Unfortunately, Jason has the cell phone, not me, and he won't be here until Friday evening. We'll take care of it on the honeymoon.
It's true, I was there for all of this and man oh man did it suck ass. I don't care if the National Weather Service, or a more reliable source like Manny, tells us that it's a Category 12 with Satan himself riding on top of it and that it's dropping anvils instead of rain. I'm going to stay put.
Yeah, this is exactly the sentiment people develop. Go back and read about the evactuation of New Orleans when Ivan was heading for them last year. People got fed up and didn't evacuate this time around, and we all know what a big cluster that turned into.
You evacuate when it looks like a storm that big is heading for you. You just do it. Also, I don't know why people didn't try the back roads. Even if you had never been in an evacuation like this before, everytime they show one on CNN it is the same thing. Bumper to bumper for tens if not hundreds of miles on the main arteries in and out of town. Yet, I'm almost positive the backroads and state highways are never nearly as packed.
It royaly sucks that you guys had to go through that, and I'm sure it was every bit as horrible as it reads, but I hope your newfound reluctance is short lived. Regardless of the hardship, you did the right thing and you would be in the right to do it again if the situation occurs again.
You think you got it bad...My mom gave me 2 cases of chili in case went sour, and won't give me anymore food until i finish it all.
sorry, couldn't resist
Well Manny, yes and no. I mean, we were being told that we would probably be pretty safe where we were. Nowhere near a flood plain, and in an apartment built to withstand Cat 2/3 hurricanes, no trees nearby . . . we'd should have been ok.
Honestly, I wish we'd known of some state roads to take, and I feel foolish for not having looked at that before we left. But I talked to my big super head boss who tried to get to SA for a conference via backroads, and they were just as bad according to him. But I know now of a couple of backroads we can take to Sealy or Brookshire, and if it happens again, that's the direction we'll head.
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