How I spent the days when Hurricane Rita threatened Houston
by Neil Miserendino
I was going to write another article to help the readers with their genealogical research, but then I thought that part of genealogy is how we fit in with the events that occur during our lifetime. Therefore, I decided to write about how I spent the days when Hurricane Rita threatened Houston. I hope this will encourage our members to write about their experiences during that week.
Wednesday September 21, 2005 - We received an e-mail stating that the workplace would be shutting down at noon and would remain closed until the hurricane passed. I remained busy gathering emergency contact updates for the people in my group, setting up a remote telephone conference where we would call in each day to report our status and completing the normal day's work. I completed some work; however, after a period of time, there was too much talk about Hurricane Rita, so I decided to clean out some of my accumulated e-mails.
I told my fellow employees that I would not evacuate. I reasoned that it was riskier to leave. My parents had an experience a few years earlier when they tried to evacuate from a hurricane that reached category 5 off the coast of Florida. They had been trapped in traffic for many hours. I knew the traffic would be so bad in Houston that it would be unlikely that I could escape even if that was my decision. I also knew that many of the "pop up" storms that occur in the summertime often cause more damage in one small location than a hurricane. We had just experienced a storm that was driving the wind sideways about a month before. I explained to my co-workers that the "pop up" storm was probably worse than Hurricane Rita would likely be. The only difference was that hurricanes last longer. Yes, it is true that hurricanes damage a larger area, and hurricanes cause more severe damage. However; if you look at one particular spot such as your house, a hurricane is no more likely to cause damage than one bad summer storm that unexpectedly appears and causes havoc.
After I got home, I prepared for the hurricane. My preparations included disconnecting some electrical appliances, moving some papers to plastic boxes, moving items to higher shelves, and gathering important papers together. Later, I tried to contact people who I just met the weekend before who did not have cars As it turned out, they had already left. I cooked some items from my freezer that I would save with my non-perishable food in case the power went off.
Thursday September 22 - I had plenty of breakfast food that would not spoil, so I decided to microwave two frozen dinners for breakfast. In case the power went out and stayed out, I washed clothes so that I could return to work and would not have to do laundry for a week. I cleaned up and moved more items into interior closets.
Friday September 23 - I spent the morning by my phone. We had two "roll calls" at work in the morning. During the day, I went through many old magazines that I had stored and chose articles to cut out and keep that I think are worth saving. I got through many magazines and threw away three medium-sized trash cans of magazines.
Later I visited my neighbors. Yes, there were other people around but not many. There was still not much wind. There was a light rain. The rain started about 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. The wind seemed to be coming from the North as we were on the "clean" side of the storm. For me the winds were even lighter as some of the wind was blocked by the buildings North of where I live. I did NOT expect the water to go out. As for electricity, I told my neighbors, “It just depends on which pole goes down and how the electrical network is constructed” as to whether we would lose power.
If I had electricity, I would try to check in each day. So far, it had been worse for people who evacuated. If the electricity went out, our neighborhood would have a big bar-b-que as everyone would need to cook the meat in their freezers. A small store was open in the morning, but I missed and did not get there before it closed. That was no loss for me because I did not need anything. I wished that I hadn’t thrown out my milk two days before. If I saved had saved it then I could have baked muffins that I had been planning to cook for a few weeks. Sometimes, I keep the ultra-pasteurized milk in a box but I did not have any this time. I would have to go without milk for a few days.
I estimated how long we would have winds above 70 miles per hour. I looked at the latest forecast and it looked as if I am in the far left portion of the storm area and that we would not have high winds for too long.
Saturday, September 24 – About 5:00 am I woke early because my fence gate was slamming out and back. I could have slept one more hour if I had had the sense to wire the gate shut last night. M my neighborhood still had power. The wind was about 30 miles per hour - not very strong. There had not been much rain overnight here either. When I went to sleep and again when I woke up this morning, the radar picture on the TV showed bands of rain. It seemed that I had been in a "calm band" where the rain was very light. I think heavier rain hit downtown which is 20 miles farther from the eye of the storm. Of course there was much heavier rain nearer the eye of the storm. I decided to go for a walk but waited until 7a.m. in case there was a curfew.
On the TV, the newscasters were interviewing someone from CenterPoint Energy. They thought 400,000 people were without power in Harris County. They further stated that they estimated more than 1.5 million people total in Texas were without power. There were 4,000 power employees waiting for the winds to die down enough so that it was safe to start the work of restoring power.
Sunday September 25 - I heard from a neighbor that the HEB Pantry supermarket would be open today. I wanted to assess the damage so that we could make a decision as to whether to start work on Monday or later in the week. I drove around near my work places from Main Street on League City to Ellington Field. The Clear Lake area was relatively untouched; however, due to the traffic jams before the storm, we needed to allow people to return back to town. The decision was reached that work would reopen on Tuesday.