Fabulous Disaster

Many thanks to those who called to express their concern over Houston's impending doom at the hands of Hurricane Rita, the third strongest storm on record to sweep through the Atlantic Basin. Fortunately for residents of the nation's 4th largest city, we suffered only a "near miss," as TV's talking heads are calling it. However, we had to act based on the information at hand -- on Wednesday, forecasters were calling for a direct hit. Thus, I made arrangements to travel to Dallas to weather the storm with friends. I packed up all of my possessions at the condo and moved them to closets and cabinets. I meticulously taped all of my windows with regular cross stripes of masking tape. I placed all of my books among my clothes for safe keeping, bagged all of my electronics in white plastic, and rolled up my carpet and placed it on the sofa. This whole process was exceedingly difficult -- I had just put the finishing touches on my condo arrangement a mere 3 days before. Now all of my freshly-hung artwork and photos were off of the walls and sitting inside my bedroom closet. I honestly felt like I was moving out.

I threw away some perishables from my refrigerator and freezer, and took the rest over to Kraig's for safe keeping. As the storm continued to grow, an immense flow of traffic clogged the only major highway running north to Dallas. Cars began to run out of gas. Gas stations began to run out of gas. Everyone was out of gas but going nowhere. People were putting their cars in neutral and pushing them along the highway -- this is how slow traffic was moving. The drive to Dallas, which normally takes 4-5 hours, was averaging at least 16 hours. I knew that I couldn't leave Houston. At least here I had a place to go. The moment I got into my car, the outcomes became unknown and the potential for danger seemed only magnified. I determined that I would stay in Houston and would weather the storm at Kraig's house in north Houston.

Yet the storm continued to grow, and I continued to freak out. After getting only 3 hours of sleep on Wednesday night, I awoke with a renewed determination to reach Dallas. One look at the traffic report on TV again changed my mind. Additionally, I began to realize that the fun of hanging out at Kraig's house during the storm should probably take a backseat to the ultimate safety offered by Rice University, which had backup power generators, a well with fresh water, and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) stocked out the whazoo. My evacuation plans had come full circle, from Monday's decision to weather the storm at Rice through the mid-week plans to escape to Dallas or Kraig's house to the final plans to make the short trip up Main Street after all.

To make a long story short, I switched off all the eletrical breakers in my condo, left my car in the Baylor parking garage, took my 11 gallons of bottled water up 4 flights of stairs at Will Rice College, enjoyed drink after alcoholic drink, watched a ton of TV, hung out like it was summertime, and slept a lot. Oh, and I watched the thankfully weak outer bands of Rita make little more than a dent on the Houston community. I've since returned to my condo, unpacked and rearranged all my possessions to their previous positions, and resumed my medical studies. As a confirmation that all was back to normal, I received a call tonight from Matt A., who had flown to Austin for the City Limits Festival and wanted me to hear the opening bars of a Coldplay tune. Gotta love this week!

Music of the Moment: "Where Did We Go Wrong" by American Hi-Fi