All indications are for Hurricane Rita to make landfall tonight northeast of Galveston, probably near Beaumont/Port Arthur (motto: "We Take the Hit for the Good of Houston").
Here west of Houston, warnings are for possible hurricane-force winds (60-65 mph), rainfall of 4-8", and random F2 or F3 tornados. Still bad news.
Clouds are now rolling in from the north and gusts are blowing. Nothing too dramatic yet -- Rita is waiting until dark. Bedlam Manor is as secure as we can make it. I did turn off the electricity to the backyard deck, so we won't have live wires to deal with if the deck blows down.
Oddly, an ice cream truck just rolled down our street. Now, that's capitalism.
In Houston, Metro's police chief says they are making a final sweep of Houston-area roadways to pick up any last remaining stranded motorists. KHOU just reported that an offshore "platform" (probably actually a drilling rig) is adrift with 50 people on board. I can believe a rig could be drifting, but would be shocked if a rig owner left anyone on board, much less 50 souls.
There'll be more strange news as the night rolls on. Will try to blog occasionally as long as we have a landline.
Spare everyone in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana a prayer.
Posted by Alan at September 23, 2005 04:13 PM