Rita Watch: Advisory 14

From the looks of it at 2:25 pm the storm didn't wreak the devastation that Katrina did in Mississippi. I have just watched a video taken in Beaumont this morning, and I'm glad I'm not there, but it looks much more manageable that what Katrina left behind. However, reports from Sabine Pass and southwestern Louisiana haven't really come in yet. There are reports that people in Louisiana had called for rescue, but couldn't be helped because of the severity of the conditions.

The Governor is asking everyone to stay where they are, and not try to come back yet. The in-laws went to Target to get some dressier clothes so they can go to church tomorrow.

The dogs are quite content now, and aren't pacing all over. They're doing what dogs do best, that is they're laying around napping.

Rita Watch: Advisory 13

A reporter for KHOU-TV, who is in Beaumont, spoke with a police officer there in one of the neighborhoods who said, "There's looting all over the place." The officer also said that they've arrested a few people, but there's no appropriate place to keep them. Maybe the jail is no longer operational.

Large areas around Houston are without electricity. Kingwood is without power, and has many downed trees.

The eye of the storm (or what's left of it) is near Lufkin in East Texas with 100 mph winds. Lufkin is in a part of East Texas that is almost all pine trees. When I was about 8 or 9 years old we used to visit some friends, the Boyds, in Lufkin. What I most remember is that I would sneeze the entire time. I'm allergic to Lufkin. In spite of that, it's beautiful over there.

The mayor of Houston says that it's not a good time to come back. Reports are that there's no gasoline available. They're afraid people will have the same problems they did on Thursday and Friday.

The six dogs and six people made it thru the night without serious incident. Mo the sheltie continues to pester Sandy the 15 year old cocker. He must have a learning disability, because he always gets in trouble but he won't stop.

Rita Watch: Advisory 12

Reports are that a fire has broken out on the Strand in Galveston. Three building are reportedly engulfed in flames. The Strand is a historic area in downtown Galveston with lots of shops and restaurants. So far, the cause is unknown. Firefighters are having to deal with high winds which are fanning the flames.

Rita Watch: Advisory 11

Unless Rita makes a sudden lurch to the west, Austin won't even get any rain. The forecast for tomorrow is a 20% chance. Houston could see some flooding from heavy rains, but it looks like Houston will be on the safe side of the storm. Right now Rita looks like she's going to come inland almost right at the mouth of the Sabine River which is the state line between Texas and Louisiana.

For cities that are inland from the beach, the real problem will be tornados. Hurricanes set off lots of tornados as they start to pass over land. According to an AP story, a meteorologist in Lake Charles, La. said he could not keep count of the tornado warnings across southern Louisiana, "They were just popping up like firecrackers." This hurricane will probably also cause a lot of flooding, and East Texas (no that's not eastern Texas. Only furriners would say that.) is a place that already has all the rainfall it needs. Lots of pine trees in East Texas. In fact, Texas has a pretty large lumber industry, and it's located right where Rita is headed.

Well, in about 8 hours Rita will be on Texas soil. We sure are a hospitable folk aren't we? We can put up with some really rude visitors.

Rita Watch: Advisory 10

Get out your Sharpies, folks! The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, has told those who have chosen to ride out Rita to "write their Social Security numbers on their arms with indelible ink." Notice she said arms. I guess that means to write your number on both arms, so that if you should become dismembered they'll know which arm goes with which body ;-)

Get on your knees, folks! The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, said "Be calm, be strong, say a prayer for Texas."

Based on our leaders' remarks, it ain't lookin' good.

Last night I read in a Swedish tabloid called Aftonbladet that another tabloid The National Enquirer has reported that Hurricane Katrina has made our President take to the bottle again. Now, with Rita coming he may go back to using cocaine.

Like I said, it ain't lookin' good.

Rita Watch: Advisory 9

The in-laws are at my house napping along with their four dogs. They left Houston at about 3:30 am and had no trouble getting to Austin. They went on "back roads" until they got to Hwy 71, then they came on in to Austin.

The four visiting dogs have met the two resident dogs, and it is reported that they got along just fine.

I heard reports that some levees in New Orleans have given way, and the Ninth Ward is flooding again.

We have finished (I think) getting the training and support material ready for use next week. It's going thru some final reviews right now.

I was reading some comments on the evacuation in which one person said, "Rick Perry makes George Bush look like a Rhodes Scholar." Now, that's tough talk! Funny...really funny...but tough.

Don't Mess with Texas

Rita Watch: Advisory 8

It's a sunny day here in Austin, and traffic was sort of light. That's a little mysterious, because with all the horror stories about traffic around the state I expected more than what I found.

Hotels and motels line I-35 for most of my drive in to work. Just from looking at the parking lots, they're all full. However, only one had a sign saying "no vacancy."

I read this morning that about 20 elderly people were killed in a bus fire near Wilmer, Texas. They were part of the exodus from the coast. Officials suspect that oxygen in use on the bus played a roll. That's one of those terribly sad unintended consequences. Rita has already claimed some lives in Texas, and she's not on land yet.

The wind is out of the north north-east. Very unusual for this part of the state. We're on the back side of the storm and this is some of its leading edge.

My sister-in-law and her husband called saying they were near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. She said they had driven 60 mph all the way, and had no trouble. From the sound of it they probably went west on I-10 to Columbus, then north on Hwy 71. Strange that there was no traffic. That contradicts the stories I've heard on the radio and read on the web.

Rita Watch: Advisory 7



The Texas Department of Transportation has opened up both sides of almost all highways out of Houston and Beaumont to outbound traffic. Even with that it's still taking people 10 to 12 hours to travel what would normally be a 2-3 hour trip. Tanker trucks are delivering gasoline to people who've run out of gas on the highway. I've heard stories that people are turning off their engines and pushing their cars to save gas. The traffic is so slow that they only have to push the car 2 or 3 feet (about 0.5 to 0.75 meters) at a time. Hell of a way to get outta Dodge!


Traffic in the Capital City is heavier than normal, but I got home after work at about the regular time. I spent almost all day writing up and/or editing training for Hurricane Rita disaster claims. Our Tele-Centers are giving the training in sort of small groups. So, we're busy trying to come up with the next needed thing before they get through delivering the most recent needed thing. I think the new word for that is just-in-time delivery.

My boss's boss, let's call him Bob, was on a conference in his office with our Network Coordinator, let's call him Ernie, when he had to take another call at his secretary's cubicle. That call turned into a conference call too! So, he's standing in the cube with another person, let's call her Pat, talking on the speakerphone, while the other conference call with Ernie continues in his office. Things have gotten a little out of hand.

I learned on the way home that Rita has taken a turn toward the east, and is probably going to have landfall closer to Beaumont/Port Arthur than Galveston. The Goddess figured that her sister, the husband and the four dogs wouldn't come. They called about 6:45 tonight to say that they're leaving Houston at 2:00 am tomorrow morning and will be here when they can get here. We don't know when to expect them with all the reports of heavy, heavy traffic.

Rita Watch: Advisory 6

It's true that you can't believe everything you read. Take this for example: Texas evakueras - nu tar man inga risker. That was a headline on Expressen.se which is a Swedish newspaper website. It says something like: Texas is being evacuated - no one taking any risks now. Well, uh, no...not quite the whole state is being evacuated. Texas is a little bigger in territory than France, and has a population of about 20,000,000. That would be impossible to evacuate!

Although there are reports that it's taking 6 hours or more to go 10 miles. I read from one source that Texas has requested help from the Pentagon to get gasoline to people on the highway who've run out of gas and are stranded. Whew, I filled up yesterday!

Rita Watch: Advisory 5

All the experts are saying that Hurricane Rita is a catastrophic hurricane. I began to wonder just what that means. I know it means bad, but compared to what? I checked with the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory for definitions. Here's the description for a catastrophic hurricane:

Shrubs and trees blown down; considerable damage to roofs of buildings; all signs down. Very severe and extensive damage to windows and doors. Complete failure of roofs on many residences and industrial buildings. Extensive shattering of glass in windows and doors. Some complete building failures. Small buildings overturned or blown away. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Major damage to lower floors of all structures less than 15 feet above sea level within 500 yards of shore. Low-lying escape routes inland cut by rising water 3 to 5 hours before hurricane center arrives. Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5 to 10 miles of shore possibly required.

The different terms are: Minimal, Moderate, Extensive, Extreme, and Catastrophic. Wouldn't you know it's just like Texas to go for the biggest one?

Rita Watch: Advisory 4

The traffic this morning was especially heavy. I don't know if it has to do with the evacuees from Houston, but it sure was bad. I think the Houstonians that have come to Austin are so used to sitting in traffic for 2 hours each morning that they got up and just drove around.

Right now our Tele-Centers are training all of our temps on how to take a DUA claim. I went thru our materials this morning and decided which parts we should emphasize, and which parts we could skip.

Network operations shut down the Houston switch completely this morning as a precaution. The building it's located in is in a flood prone part of town.

The Goddess went to the grocery store last nite. The tuna and water were completely sold out. She bought a bunch of stuff that doesn't require cooking, because we were told to prepare for no electricity. The funny thing is that our stove is a gas stove! We don't need electricity to cook! She forgot that while she was at the store. She was thinking we would have to cook outside on our grill. Duh!

Fill up the water jugs!

Rita Watch: Advisory 3

The place I work had hired about 100 temporary employees to handle telephone disaster unemployment claims from Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina. We have just this week seen the call volume drop a little. Management was going to lay off all the temps today. Rita changed their mind. They've decided to keep the temps on and train them on taking Texas unemployment claims. That's where I come in.

Our regular training for CSRs is 8.5 days long. That's work days, mind you. So, if we trained them in our normal way, they wouldn't be ready to take calls until about the end of September. I got the assignment today to whittle our regular training down to just the basics for taking a claim. We need to have them taking calls on Monday. See, it's like this. If you want to file for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) you have to apply for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) first. DUA will pay only when you're not eligible for regular UI. That's why we're having to train these temps in how to take a Texas claim. Three days training to send out millions of dollars. I'm not kidding - we paid out 1.9 billion dollars in 2004.

I heard on the news tonight that Hurricane Rita will still be a hurricane when it reaches Austin. That means that winds will be 75 mph at a minimum. We heard to store up water, and be prepared to go without electricity for 48 hours. What?! The Goddess without air conditioning? 48 hours?! Six people and six dogs and no air conditioning? Somebody send me some Rohypnol! I don't want to use it to rape anyone, I want to check out until it's all over.

Rita Watch: Advisory 2

One of my co-workers was on a conference call with 300+ agencies here in Texas. The director of the Governor's Emergency Management Office said that Texas shelters have never discriminated against pets and their owners, and will not do so now. Yay, Texas.

Rita has upgraded from version 4.0 to version 5.0 this afternoon. Do you think Bill Gates could get something out of that?

Found out this afternoon that the Houston metro area has a population of about 5 million people. Half of them are coming our way! Look out!

Rita Watch: Advisory 1

Hurricane Rita is in the Gulf of Mexico taking aim on Texas. Even though we’re basking under sunny skies today, the future portends to be cloudy. I’ll be making notes in the next few days on what happens regarding Rita here in the Austin area. Austin lies about 200 miles inland from the Gulf Coast. Rita’s forecasted track will pass directly between Houston and Austin. If that forecast holds Austin will be on the western side of the storm which is the safest side. If she veers a little to the south before making landfall, we'll be in deep shit.

Activity here at TWC has been steady but purposeful. We have been in emergency mode since Katrina, because we are coordinating the telephone calls for Louisiana’s unemployment claims and disaster unemployment claims. Some meetings about our emergency response to Rita have taken place, and some measures to secure the telephone switch in Houston have been implemented. We have heard that officials in Galveston and Houston have strongly urged everyone to evacuate.

If Rita does not change course by Friday, my sister-in-law, her husband, and four dogs will be coming to our house. That will make an equal number of dogs and people at home: six of each. Oh my!

Even More Traffic to Report


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Now things start to make sense. I had forgotten that the Dalai Lama was going to speak in Austin today. That's the reason for Homeland Security being in town. After work today as I was leaving the parking garage, I noticed motorcycle cops at every intersection and even driveway entrances. Austin often has dignitaries, so I started trying to remember who might be here. I went another block only to see more of the same. I then remembered that HH the Dalai Lama was here. I was on 15th street facing east, and waiting for the light. There was a loud siren, and the cops rode into the middle of the intersection and stopped traffic.

A few minutes later here came the motorcade. A long line of motorcycle cops two abreast, then white police cars, then black cars with very heavily tinted windows. I did see into the back seat of one with a little less tint and saw a guy in a suit whose face looked a little familiar. I don't have a clue though who he was. Then here comes this big black SUV with some kind of stuff on top that looked like one of those aerodynamic wedges. It was probably communications equipment. As the SUV passed I saw in the window just behind the driver. There was someone sitting there with that famous maroon color over the arm. Couldn't see a face, but it may have been HH himself! Of course it could have been some minor priest in his entourage, but I'm going to believe it was HH himself. I would say I saw him for maybe 0.1 of a second. Not much to write about is it? But, I have nonetheless.

More Traffic

This morning on my daily commute I actually saw a police car from the Department of Homeland Security. Yes, a police car. It was a white sedan with the lights on top and the wording painted in blue. It said Federal Protective Service on the door with Department of Homeland Security on the front fender. Never saw one of them before. Hmmm...must be one of those secret FEMA concentration camps around these parts.

BTW, if FEMA has set up concentration camps all over the country to imprison us all in (according to conspiracy theorists), why haven't they used them for the 1.5 million evacuees? Putting them in camps would have been easier for FEMA to keep the press away. Wouldn't have had those pesky reporters showing pictures of dead bodies at the Convention Center.

Trucking on I-35

I'm going to work this morning and I come upon an 18 wheeler driving erratically. He was in the middle lane weaving over to the left until he hit the traffic buttons, then he'd go right until he hit the buttons on that side. I followed him for about 3 or 4 miles, then I called 911. I turned him in to the police. Normally, I wouldn't do that, but this guy was making the traffic worse. Everyone was slowing down when they caught up with him, then they wouldn't pass because they were afraid he was going to hit them. I pulled up even with him and he was either yelling or singing real loud. I think he may have been awake with some assistance, if you get what I mean.

Don't know what happened, because I exited to go to my office. Ahh...all in a day's work.

If I Only Had That Kind of Face!

Well, now it's gonna be possible to get a new face. What?! Yes, you too can have a face transplant just like the movie with Travolta and Cage. Maria Siemionow M.D. is going to be the first doctor to attempt a face transplant from one person to another. She says it's for people that have been burned or otherwise disfigured, but really how long will it be before Paris Hilton has it done?