Sunday, September 25, 2005

Thankful

The sun is shining and the air is still. Rita dropped very little rain on this side of town but the wind blew off and on in bursts yesterday. Our power would be ON then OFF, ON then OFF, then ON then OFF. We turned off everything electric except for the AC. It is new and the condenser is still under warranty so if it died I figured we could get a new one. It was strangely quiet and actually pleasant after listening to the Rita-Rita-Rita news 24/7 for the last few days.

I used the time to read two books, The Perilous Gard and Chicks with Sticks (It's a purl thing) which was a luxury and a relief. When we looked at all the projections Wednesday night, Rita was headed straight for us as a cat 5. I am grateful it moved away from us even though it has meant misery for others.

The evacuation was agonizing and we WILL do better next time. The officials will learn much from this experience. The resounding theme here was, "We are NOT helpless" and "We will NOT be like New Orleans."

Here in Katy, our school district took in 1100 people who were stranded along the Katy I-10 freeway and housed them in the recently completed Merrell Center. Katy Christian Ministries fed them and housed all the pets next door at the FFA barn.
One woman with a son on a ventilator said, "They have treated us like kings and queens." Local people rising to the challenge, it makes me proud. [Petrified Truth links here & here]

So ultimately, that is Houston, it not always pretty, it is not always elegant but we get the job done.

3 comments:

Kelly said...

I'm very happy to see you and your family are okay!

Michele said...

Hear, hear !! Major relief over on this side of the Atlantic...

Norma said...

Sounds like you'd done this before. One of the better lists I read.