Williamsburg, VA (1529 miles from Seabrook)
After a stressful and restless two days apart, I picked up Susan at the Richmond airport this afternoon. We’re together, and whatever else happens back home in Seabrook, at least we have each other. I do not know what, if anything, we’ll be returning to, but whatever happens, at least we have the important things covered.
This morning, Rita looked as if she was headed into Matagorda Bay to the southwest of the Houston metropolitan area. This evening, the projected track takes Rita into Port Arthur to the east of Galveston Bay. Tomorrow morning, things may look different yet again. It would be very easy to hang on every nuance and rumor, looking to gleen something, anything, that would yield some information about whether or not our home will survive. Facing the reality of losing everything is not for sissies…and I have to admit to not feeling very strong at the moment.
The problem with wishing that Rita will go elsewhere is that someone’s going to lose a trailer somewhere. We all want it to go somewhere- anywhere- besides where we leave, but that just wishes the problem on someone else. Although I’m all for a NIMBY attitude when it comes to a storm of Rita’s fury, I also don’t want to wish this on anyone else.
The truly ironic part of this whole scenario is that Rita is paying a visit on the one weekend we hand long planned on being out of town. I finally have the chance to get the hell out of Texas, and it’s in front of one of the most powerful hurricanes in recorded history. We could have been crawling out of town with the several hundred thousand others trying to leave Houston, but we were able to get out relatively easily. I’d feel guilty, but it’s not as if we planned this because we knew there would be a hurrican coming to town.
Beyond anything else, Susan and I are safe. That is what’s truly important. The rest are just things, and things can be replaced. It would not be a pleasant or easy process, but life is suffering and suffering is life. I have no idea how I will react if our home is destroyed. It’s easy to be sanguine now, when the possibility is still largely an academic exercise. Within 36 hours, it will no longer be an academic exercise. Who knows what will happen, and/or what we’ll have to deal with? We’ll find out when we find out. Until then, I’m going to play in the William & Mary golf tournament tomorrow, and I’ll feel like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. What else can I do? I’m already scared and stressed out…and it’s not as if worrying more will appreciably increase the odds of our house surviving, right?
Stay tuned….
Do continue to keep us all informed. You are possibly at the center of the next national disaster and information is scarce sometimes. I'm pulling for you, Jack. I look forward to the day we can debate Bush again soon...:-D
Bush sucks ;)
Three cheers for Seabrook!
Good luck and even though you're a Buddhist, I'm praying for you and that you don't lose everything.
Dittos northstar, and best wishes for safe travels. Rita hasn't pulled her trigger yet, but it's looking more and more like we may dodge her bullet. Between 3AM and 9AM the projected landfall shifted about 40 miles to the east, and the accuracy percentage for the cone of probability increased from 75 to 80 percent.
This is good news for Seabrook and other bay side communities, as it puts more land between the storm and Galveston Bay.
Please pray and/or send good positive energy & thoughts to the folks in the Golden Triangle. They may need all they can get.
I trust that the cats are cared for. Mine are quite puzzeled over all the preperations here.