A personal note on Rita

For those of you who've come and read my blog recently it's pretty apparent that I keep an eye out for natural disasters... most notably weather. I've always been fascinated by bad weather, hurricanes most of all. And I was watching the devlopments of Rita with some interest. Its a monster of a storm, its impressive in a very violent type of way. But as the storms track gets updated this storm has become a bit more personal. Originally a low pressure system was supposed to pull Rita westward missing Galveston and Houston, but now that doesn't seem to be the case.

This is where this Category 5 monster is starting to get personal. I've got a bunch of friends living in Houston, some of them in regions that have just recently been told to they've got mandatory evacuations. But in talking to them on MSN I'm getting news fed in from down there pretty much live. The evacuations are causing traffic jams that are upwards of 33 hours of wait/drive times till you get to safe locations. A whole 24 hours before the storm hits my friends region is being asked to evacuate... to spend 30+ hours trying to get to safety. This is stupidity in the making and a disaster waiting to happen.

So my friends are going to ride this monster out in it's path. Thankfully the storm is showing signs of weakening, ever so slightly and for their sake I hope this trend continues. The 3rd strongest storm on record is about to hit one of the most populous areas of the US, I hope this hurricane season will prompt the local, regional, and national governments in the US to put some measures in place to protect these regions.

Good Luck to all those people in the path of this monster!