Category: Orphans

It’s 7 a.m. I awoke at 4 o’clock and slowly decided I would stay up. My first glance at the National Hurricane Center’s information on Rita showed what no one around the Upper Texas Coast wanted to see. That is Rita has taken a jog to the right and now is expected to make landfall around Bolivar Peninsula. At its closest that is only about 40 miles away. Obviously, the situation has changed.

A mandatory evacuation for Jefferson County was called an hour ago. It’s a staggered exodus with those in the southern part of the county leaving first and those of us in Beaumont able to leave around noon.

This presents me with an obvious quandary. I am on tap to provide coverage for a publication, yet I am still unsure just where I shall do that. Meteorologist James Brown on KFDM-TV Channel 6 this morning said the storm surge could be as much as 20 feet. I don’t know if flooding would be that bad at my apartment, in which I reside on the second floor of a two-story building. I am not too worried about storm surge but am concerned about wind because we will be receiving gusts of at least 70 mph. But a lot of rain is also likely. Tornadoes are also a distinct possibility. So I have pretty much decided to bail from my apartment. I am still trying to evaluate where I might go.

I had been looking at two separate buildings in which I might be able to stay since I will be working media, more or less. But both are downtown and closer to the Neches River than I would really like to be. I would think a big storm surge at both of these buildings, which are located in the same area, is quite possible.

My other possibilities include Newton or Jasper counties, both a bit north of here. I will just have to do some checking to determine my options. I have a lot to do. Time’s a-wasting! Head for the hills!

Well, not yet but it’s getting there.

That is one hell of an eye in this NOAA photo. It looks as if it is the Great Gulf of Mexico Drain. All ye who pass through get sucked right under and end up in … I don’t know … Tijuana. Watch out for the donkey painted as a zebra. And beware of taxi drivers who ask if you’d like to see the donkey, umm, perform.

I worked for a certain publication today and looks as if I may do so throughout this ordeal provided I have everything I need to do so. (pulse, communications, etc.) Rita doesn’t look so good as a Cat 5 and watching one of my more trusted weather guys, Greg Bostwick at KFDM-TV Channel 6 in Beaumont, Texas, it appears Rita recently took a little jog to the north. It, Rita, needs to stop doing that because the more north it goes the worse it will likely be for us.

Voluntary evacuations are under way here. Mandatory evacuations start at 6 a.m. tomorrow for Sabine Pass. I visited there yesterday to work on a magazine story and to see what it looks like before the storm. I know that’s rather morbid, but you got to be realistic. Officials locally say they still could order mandatory evacuations. Not that it will mean much to me except I may end up roaming the nearly-empty, debris-strewn streets of Beaumont like Don Johnson’s dog in “A Boy and His Dog.”

Looks like it might rain. If only I could dance like Gene Kelly.

Subtitle: Should I stay or should I go?

It would be misleading, well more like a lie, to say that mind is focused on anything other than Hurricane Rita right now. Actually, the answer to the question posed by The Clash circa 1980s has been asked and answered. Unless something drastic changes I will be staying regardless of whether an evacuation is ordered. The question is how bad will the situation get here in Beaumont, Texas? That remains the million-dollar question.

Local officials will likely make a decision on evacuations by noon tomorrow. Galveston already has issued a mandatory evacuation, but they are an island and not 35 some-odd-miles inland as we are. Right now a lot of unknowns exist. Where will the storm make landfall? How big will the storm be? How powerful will it be, a Cat 3 or Cat 4? If it continues on its present track what are we in for on the ‘dirty side’ of the storm? Will I have enough to eat? Are Kenny and Renee really splitting up?

I know that if an evacuation is ordered I will almost surely not be going as there is a very likely possibility that I will be covering it for a publication I have done some work for recently. I’m already down to do a story for that publication tomorrow on preparations for the storm. So, we wait and wonder what we can expect, where I will be going during the storm, how I will communicate with my publication, what will happen to my apartment, what will happen to my truck, and so forth. I did stock up on a few canned goods this afternoon and bottled water was flying off the shelf at the local K-roger’s.

Depending on what happens I will try to keep the blog up and running as much as I am able during Rita’s rampage. I got a busy day tomorrow so I am going to chill awhile. Catch you all tomorrow.

I keep forgetting to celebrate national “Talk Like A Pirate Day.” Today, Sept. 19, is the day. Arrgh, matey, yeel walk th’ plank fer that one.

Two years ago I planned to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day. I even thought about getting a pirate hat and eye patch and talking like a buccaneer. But I had to fly to El Paso on assignment and I thought I’d probably end up getting strip searched and detained since I wasn’t flying Southwest.

I completely forgot about it last year. And now it’s only hours away from the end of Talk Like A Pirate Day. For the rest of the day, however, Arrrgghhh!

Tropical Storm Rita is not quite a hurricane yet. The National Weather Service isn’t quite sure yet which direction it might travel once it becomes a hurricane. Well, welcome to life on the Gulf Coast.

The National Hurricane Center’s “Five-day Cone” pictured here guestimates a landfall that is a bit north of what it was earlier today. Here is what the weather people said in their 8 p.m. discussion:

“THE NOGAPS AND GFDN FORECAST A STRAIGHT WESTWARD TRACK INTO SOUTHERN TEXAS…WHILE THE GFS AND GFDL FORECAST A NORTHWARD BEND TOWARD THE TEXAS/LOUISIANA BORDER REGION. GIVEN THIS UNCERTAINTY…IT MUST AGAIN BE EMPHASIZED THAT FORECAST ERRORS CAN BE QUITE LARGE AT THESE LONGER LEAD TIMES.”

Just what NOGAPS and GFDNs and GFSes and GFDLs are I haven’t a clue nor do I think it is particularly germane unless you are some kind of science/weather/meteorology freak and if so, I can’t quite figure why the hell you’d want to waste your time reading my lame ass blog. What is important is the last sentence. It says: “We don’t really know. We’ll get back to you.” That’s okay though. We’re not dealing with a left-handed batter who bats .345 against a left-handed pitcher with an ERA of 0.1 who always wins at home and when the humidity is below 70 percent. We’re dealing with nature and these people at the hurricane center really have gotten pretty good at predicting this stuff, regardless of what kind of garbage you have been reading lately.

I think the only person you may have heard faulting the National Weather Service during Katrina is U.S. Sen. “Righteous Rick” Santorum, R-Pa., who would run over his mother to privatize the weather service because private weather firm AccuWeather has its headquarters in Pennsylvania.

Of course, I am keeping an eye on the storm. Even if it were to hit where the five-day cone projects we could still see some rough stuff here near the Texas-Louisiana border. It could go south of there, it could go north, or it could just stop right where it is and go in an entirely different direction entirely.

Locally, the TV stations are talking about preparations for the storm. Local officials will probably be making a decision by Wednesday whether we need to evacuate. If, and a big if, that takes place then I will have a range of options dependent on how bad the storm is and whether some publication will pay me to write about the storm.

Until then I guess I’ll just twist in the wind.