Here comes Rita
From my Aunt and Uncle who live in Texas, in reply to an inquiry about their well being.
Yes, unfortunately, we are going to have some consequences of this storm. They are predicting for us to have 125 mph SUSTAINED winds for hours and ~ 25 inches of rain. Mark has been in California all week and just got back last night so we have spent the day securing the house and putting plants and yard stuff away. We just filled about 30 sandbags and that’s about all we can do. A spokesperson for our electric company has said everyone will be without power for at least 2 weeks and possibly longer. We, at some point, will leave to go to Austin and stay with Rachelle and family, but the freeways are absolutely gridlocked and that trip would take us about 20 hours, no exaggeration. The worst thing we can do is to try to leave and be stranded on the freeways. There is no gas, no supplies anywhere and all stores all closed. So, what we have, we have. We’ll be fine and will check back with you when we can. We’re getting lots of phone calls and people are having a very difficult time getting through, so I predict by tomorrow, we won’t be able to call out or receive calls, and our ISP will go out at some point. And then of course, we’ll have no power. They are saying we will start getting winds about 3:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and it’s all downhill from there. Not a good place to be, huh? Thanks very much for checking; I know we’ll be all right. Again, as soon as we can, Mark will give you all a call and let you know, okay? Galveston is going to take such a hit; everyone sure is in our prayers. Whenever we think of fun times in Galveston, we think of the fun time we had with you all a couple of years ago. We’ll have to do that again, right? Stucco-man and all! Hope all is well with all of you. Our love to each of you and all sweet family members.
