After Hurricane Katrina and Rita, hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless across the gulf coast both in Lousiana and South East Texas. So what is FEMA's first priority? You would think that it would be rebuilding the infrastructure required to allow people back, and sufficient housing to allow people back, and as such to allow business' to reopen.

While watching the New Orlean Saints and the Atlanta Saints on Monday Night Football, they had a story about the fact that the Saints are now playing in San Antonio and Baton Rouge. Anyway, as part of the story they showed aerial views of the devastated areas, taken last Friday, where the areas are still uninhabitable.

The story focused on that FEMA were kind enough to take over the training facility for the New Orleans Saints and fix it up so that it is now in pristine condition... is this really the best use of Federal money which should be used to help the unfortunate souls affected by the hurricanes.

ARGH... That does get to me! :)

All the updates that I posted during the onslaught of Rita have now been archived under MY NEWS.

We were lucky, very ver lucky!

The storm officially hit at 02:44 at Port Arthur/Lake Charles. Houston got heavyish winds and some rain, but it could have been a lot worst. We slept in our beds, and even Kio who hates thunderstorms weathered the storm without a problem!

Now comes the jams coming back into town and the fight to get petrol to all stations and to get food back into the shops!

The storm may be over, but the recovery is just beginning.

The worst of the storm is off to the East of Houston, but the winds are picking up and the rain from the outerbands are moving in... looks like we will be spared the worst of it, but there is still some strong storms that are heading our way.

This may be my last post until morning, and I am actually hopefull that we will not lose power... fingers crossed.

Rita is weakening as a storm, but will still hit as a Category 3 hurricane. Still looking like it will make landfall early Saturday between Houston and Beaumont. No rain at our place, just west of downtown, but we expect the wind and rain to start in a couple of hours.

City officials just announced the official Houston 2005 Hurricane Evacuation Plan:

Hispanics use I-10 West to San Antonio

Cajuns use I-10 East to Lafayette

Rednecks use 59 North to East Texas

Yankees use 45 South to Galveston

Longhorns use 290 West to Austin

Aggies use 610 Loop.

Although not quite at hurricane or tropical storm levels, the winds have started to pick up around here.

Taking a final shower, filling up the bath with water to flush the toilets, taking the dog for what could be a final walk for a day or so. All the while, I am on conference calls confirming work effort for projects! :)

Photo pulled from weather.com

Petrol has got to some stations, people stranded on the highways are getting some relief, but there is no plywood left so people are reduced to using carpet to staple over windows, buckets to store water, vaccum cleaners to suck up water! (Yeah, not much use when power goes out, but hey... whatever floats the guys boat!).

Weather is looking pretty fine right now, atleast the crack of sunlight I can see through the window which has been boarded up.

There is a 1 in 3 chance of Rita hitting Galveston and the same for Port Arthur... both would be bad news for Houston. Long and short, we have no idea how bad things will get here as the night progresses.

House is all boarded up. Sleeping in beds tonight, but matresses may be pulled down to the kitchen, which is better protected, tomorrow. Downtown will start to feel the effects tomorrow afternoon, with landfall later tomorrow (Friday). Shops are closed, highways are gridlocked, petrol is none existent... Looks like someone may have dropped a ball in terms of keeping petrol flowing to the stations.

The worst place for people to be stuck in a storm may be exactly where they will be when the hurricane hits unless something happens and help comes. I will keep updates coming as long as I can, but it looks like we may not be hit with the worst of it... Rita is taking a turn to the North... good news for us, bad for other people. Here are some photos pulled from weather.com and the Houston Chronicle website.

I-45 heading North with a bunch of stalled cars

People trying to get petrol before it ran out... common sight across the gulf coast

Latest view of Rita

Lifted from the blog on the Chronicles website (Houston newspaper for those who don't know)

http://blogs.chron.com/stormwatchers/

MOOJITA Scale...

M0 Tornado - Cows in an open field are spun around parallel to the wind flow and become mildly annoyed.
M1 Tornado - Cows are tipped over and can't get up.
M2 Tornado - Cows begin rolling with the wind.
M3 Tornado - Cows tumble and bounce.
M4 Tornado - Cows are airborne.
M5 Tornado - STEAK!