Hurricane Rita

[Pam]

Here we go again. Prayers going up for those in the path of Rita. My brother-in-law lives in Key West and is not evacuating. He spent a week in a gymnasium last year during one of the hurricanes and said he would never do it again. He said he is already having some wind and a couple of very heavy downpours. :(

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

Just great, and my dad is in Florida all week!:( Prayers are on the way...

[sammy101]

It might hit houston,so we might have to evacuate:( i'm not too excited about that.But were prepared if we have to.
Prayers for everyone:(

[Kfamr]

I'm singing "shoe fly don't bother me..." right now...
I hate the weather sometimes. It's an amazing thing but so devastating.

[jesse_3]

No! Not again! Prayers are definetly on the way for anyone who might be hit by Rita.....

sammy101, Kfarmr, and your dad too, Buddy Blaze Lover, I will definetely be keeping you and all of your families in my prayers..

Steph, Jesse, Splinter

[*LabLoverKEB*]

This is just awful!
My prayers and good thoughts are on the way.

[sandragonfly]

:( :(

hurricane rita? do you mind, I beg, could you please go the other way?? yeah, you're amazing but not over us!!

all of those who rita thinks she'll hit...fur or skin, will be in my thoughts!!!

(((hugging))) ...
..gina & her worried ark

[K9karen]

Fingers, toes and paws crossed again for everyone's safety. I count my blessings. None of that stuff here for ages.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

Will be thinking of you all

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I'm in central Florida, a little south-east of Orlando. We're not suppose to get anything major from this storm here, but as I type this it's pouring down rain.
I'm praying for all of those in her path.

[Corinna]

Prayers for all Dukesmom hasn't checked in How are you Val?

[Laura's Babies]

This year and last has been the worst I can rememebr EVER for hurricanes! Florida has already been through the wringer with them, taking the brunt of the worst last year. Sure makes me want to move NORTH! But each region has it's own problems, at least with hurricane, you get plenty of warnings where you don't with tornado's, some floods, earthquakes and other things.

My brother was in Oakland California when that big earthquake hit there in 89, they packed up and moved to another state with in 3 week after that earthquake, and now on the west bank of New Orleans in Gretna. Gretna is getting a lot of really bad press for turning those evacuees away on the bridge after the storm and he was one of the "law enforcement officials" that met them. I haven't been able to get through on the phone to them yet to get the whole story. Even before that bad press started he has said, he was in the Navy for 20 years and NEVER went through anything close to what it was like during and after that storm and he hopes he NEVER has to go through that again. I was betting that they would leave and move to another state again BEOFRE all that bad press started and this clinches it. His son is packing up to move to the northwest and I am afraid they will follow too.

They are concerned in New Orleans about the levee's now, already weakened by Katrina and if we get any rain from Rita, the levee's could break causing even more floods in New Orleans.

I will be SO GLAD when this hurricane season is OVER!!

[catnapper]

My SIL is not on the Keys, but IS on the coast line, and she's preparing to hunker down.

Gosh, I get so worried wheneverI hear a hurricane is coming!:(

[lvpets2002]

:( Oh yes here we go again & this one is to visit more than one state.. Me & my girls send lots lots of whisker prayers & huggss..

[PJ's Mom]

Originally posted by lvpets2002
:( Oh yes here we go again & this one is to visit more than one state..

I heard on the radio this morning that it will hit us by Saturday. The rain will go all the way up to Dallas. :eek:

[Daisy and Delilah]

My thoughts and prayers are with everybody in Rita's path. We're getting occasional squally rain and wind here. It's very sporadic. I call it "hurricaney" weather and we have "hurricaney" sky. Be safe all:)

[sandragonfly]

how is rita today?? :(

still thinking of you all!

[RICHARD]

why is it that that there are hurricanes and not himmicanes?

And why are the ones named after women the most destructive?:confused:

[Karen]

Originally posted by RICHARD
why is it that that there are hurricanes and not himmicanes?

And why are the ones named after women the most destructive?:confused:

Perhaps the women are just better organized. Just kidding - ask anyone in Miami, Hugo and Andrew in particular did an awful lot of damage.

Male or female, they're always worse when they don't hurry-cane.

Our prayers are with everyone in Rita's path. Stay safe, evacuate if they tell you to, okay?

[CamCamPup33]

Hurricane Rita BARELY missed us. We got tons of rain and wind today, nothing too serious. It's supposed to reach a catagory 4 hurricane by Thursday. Everyone in it's path, be safe & evacuate if suggested!

[Felicia's Mom]

Prayers being sent to all in Rita's path.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

Originally posted by PJ's Mom
I heard on the radio this morning that it will hit us by Saturday. The rain will go all the way up to Dallas. :eek: Our town is 90 miles south of KC. Our local weather shows we will be getting 3 or 4 days rain thanks to Rita and another rain system coming in from the west, starting Saturday, they think. Sometimes we get fairly strong winds too if the hurricanes hit Texas just right. I sure hope not.

Prayers for all in Rita's path.

:(

[luvofallhorses]

Not another one!!! :( My thoughts & prayers are with you in Rita's path. Please stay safe!

[Pam]

My brother-in-law is fine. He went to a hotel on Key West that was built to withstand a Category 4 storm. They were really lucky and just got some heavy rain and wind. By the way, they just announced that Rita is now a Category 4! :eek: Prayers heading out for all of my PT friends who might be in Rita's path.

[dogzr#1]

Eeek:eek: a catagory 4 hurricane. I really hope that it moves away and or weakens. Where we live all we will get is rain but people in Houston will get hit really hard. Everyone in our prayers:(

[Kfamr]

The Gulf is an evil place for a hurricane to be. With such warm waters it's like a feeding ground for storms. :( I hope, hope, hope everyone goes to safety.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

Prayers heading out for all of my PT friends who might be in Rita's path

Same goes for me - will be thinking of you all

[Daisy and Delilah]

Everyone in the path of this storm: Please get to a safe haven asap. My thoughts and prayers are with you all:( :( :( :) :) :)

[PJ's Mom]

Rita's been upgraded to a category 5 storm. :o

[ramanth]

Katrina was a Cat 4 when she made landfall. This does not bode well for Texas. :(

Everyone be safe!

[popcornbird]

Goodness...a 5. :( Is this going to be even worse than Katrina? So scary...:(

[Sirrahsim]

go away hurricane!! I'm flying into Houston thursday night!!

[dogzr#1]

Eeeek:eek: Well at least it isn't goin to hit us. Well I hope everyone will be safe in her path. My aunts are living in Houson so I think that they might come down here. Prayers have been sent to everyone in her path:(

[PJ's Mom]

Originally posted by dogzr#1
Eeeek:eek: Well at least it isn't goin to hit us.

We're expecting tropical storms full of flooding, tornadoes and wind. You're not supposed to get anything? :eek:

Missy, it's not expected to hit until Friday afternoon, so hopefully you can get in and out of Houston before the storm hits. Good luck.

[Kfamr]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE EVERYONE get to safety. Make sure you bring your pets, everyone in your family. Let Katrina be a lesson. This crap isn't a joke and Rita still has quite a bit of WARM gulf to cruise in. She will more than likely get stronger and stronger out there. We aren't even that close to where she is and we are getting some NASTY weather.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

One good thing, some shelters are opening that allow pets!!! and there are buses taking people out who can't get out on their own.

I think 5 is the strongest storm on the scale. The weather channel says it may drop to a 4 right before it lands, just like Katrina did. I sure wouldn't want to bet my life on it no matter what.

[PJ's Mom]

Originally posted by momoffuzzyfaces
One good thing, some shelters are opening that allow pets!!! and there are buses taking people out who can't get out on their own.

Exactly. We seem to be doing all the things New Orleans didn't do. :(

[CamCamPup33]

Cat. 5! Everyone, if you are in the area in which Rita's planning on hitting, get out as soon as you can! Watching the news, it still has some warm water to go into, but then RIGHT before texas, theres cool, shallow water. So, i guess there is a slight chance for it to weaken. Let's hope it does. Andrew is certainly a lesson of what a cat. 5 can do. I remember being in Andrew, we were in the eye of the storm, and it was SOO scary. If youre in that area, please stay safe, and update when you can.

[molucass]

We live in Southeast Texas, (near Beaumont which is an hr. and a half from Houston).

From the "projected path" of the hurricane, we will be on the bad side of it.
They haven't told us to evacuate except for a "voluntary" evacuation, but several counties around us are already being told that they have a mandatory evacuation..

I'll be praying for everyone else in Rita's path. It's already a Cat. 5.

I have a lot of relatives that live at the beach where its supposed to hit pretty badly... We haven't been able to get a hold of them, but I really hope they evacuated like they were asked to do.

[Uabassoon]

Originally posted by PJ's Mom
We're expecting tropical storms full of flooding, tornadoes and wind. You're not supposed to get anything? :eek:


My mom is in Brownsville, and she said they are expecting lots of rain and such over there. So Harlingen should get something. I just checked the Brownsville Herald online and it says they are expecting to get the broad end of the hurricane.

[Uabassoon]

For those of you in Texas I wanted to add this. I saw this on the Brownsville Herald.

"Although pets would be allowed inside shelters opened by the state, allowing pets into shelters opened by cities would be up to the discretion of city officials, Hinojosa said."

Herald article (http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ts_more.php?id=67198_0_10_0_C)

[dogzr#1]

Yea well we are only going to get some rain and a little bit of wind. Well we just needed rain, so I'm thankful. Prayers have been sent to everyone in Rita's path. It is down to 899mb!

[popcornbird]

I have a bad feeling about this storm. Its headed for Houston...one of America's biggest cities, and CNN is now saying its the 3rd most intense storm ever recorded in HISTORY. This looks worse than Katrina, I'm afraid...:( Everyone in the area, please, PLEASE...get out of there, and stay safe!!!

[daisyshuman8]

Oddly enough my grandmother's middle name is Rita and her daughter's real name is Rita but goes by her middle name, Jeanne (also a hurricane from last year LOL). She lived in Melbourne,FL last year and was battling hurricane Charlie I think. She moved to Baton Rouge in March-she said it seems hurricanes either follow her or are named after her. There's also a Catholic grade school in my city named St. Rita and an old teacher and principal of mine work there. Very very weird!

But on a serious note, anyone in Rita's path-let Katrina be a lesson for you. Evacuate and be safe. I don't know how serious she will be but the way the news is describing her, she looks like Katrina's twin.

[K9karen]

I heard that that only pets that can be carried will be allowed on the busses. Is that still true? I never remember so many hurricanes in one season, at least ones so horrific. The weather is changing so badly, all over the world (Global Warming?) Rita IS, as I write this, a catagory 5 now. Thank God we learned our lessons from Katrina. I hope everyone stays safe.

[ParNone]

hi y'all,

My family lives on the south side of Houston, not too far from Galveston. So I went across town around lunchtime to help'em pack up and head to my house, which is on the north side of Houston. It's normally about an hour drive. Coming back home, I got stuff in traffic hell. It took me 6 hrs to drive back across town. It's bumper to bumper, 2 mph. Trying to evacuate 4+ million people is just an impossible task.

We're gonna stock up on stuff tomorrow. At the rate of traffic movement, it'd take us like 30 hrs to get to someplace like Dallas. I do have an Aunt and Uncle that live 30 miles further north from me. So we could take the back roads and get to them on Friday morning, before the storm hits, if we had too.

Par...

[jennifert9]

I hope everyone gets out safe...To all our Texas Pet Talkers and their friends and family...if anyone needs to get out and has nowhere to go, my home is open.
It's just a 2 bedroom apartment but anyone is welcome...if you can get to Pennsylvania...I will email my phone # and directions if anyone needs them....

My prayers are with all of you. Please stay safe.

[Pam]

Oh Par, you will be in my prayers. You all stay safe now and report in after this monster passes through. Anyone know if Aly is in Rita's path?

[Karen]

Austin, where Aly is, is further inland. They will feel Rita, but don't have the storm surge worries the coastal cities have. Austin is 160 miles northwest of Houston. Still much of Texas is pretty dry, and even inland is not equipped to take the quantity of rain that Rita will bring. Their dirt isn't the sponge-like stuff we have in the Northeast (for better or worse!)

Everyone stay safe, okay?

[K9soul]

Everyone in Texas is in my prayers. Please stay safe.

[Corinna]

Kay ann I see we still haven't seen a post from Val is she ok?
Prayers still going out from heere to all the people having to put up with this .

[PJ's Mom]

Originally posted by Karen
Austin, where Aly is, is further inland. They will feel Rita, but don't have the storm surge worries the coastal cities have. Austin is 160 miles northwest of Houston. Still much of Texas is pretty dry, and even inland is not equipped to take the quantity of rain that Rita will bring. Their dirt isn't the sponge-like stuff we have in the Northeast (for better or worse!)

Depending on where the storm hits, we're looking at something similar to a tropical storm...heavy rain, lots of wind and a few sporadic tornadoes. Luckily we're really dry, so it should take a bit of rain before we see any flooding.

[Daisy and Delilah]

This storm has to be one of the largest I've ever seen. I'm almost on the beach side on the east coast of Florida(central) and we've been getting foul weather for days. I still can't believe the rain bands are this far out and pretty rough at times. Everyone, needless to say, take every precaution necessary. I'm worried about all of our Pet Talk family and I will keep all of you in the path of this thing in my thoughts and prayers. STAY SAFE!!!!

[molucass]

We are definitely evacuating now. Not sure where we are going, but we are leaving.
It's a mandatory evacuation now, and we are supposed to be in the eye of the hurricane.. They said its a Cat. 5+ and its going to hit Southeast Texas hard.

[PJ's Mom]

Originally posted by molucass
We are definitely evacuating now. Not sure where we are going, but we are leaving.
It's a mandatory evacuation now, and we are supposed to be in the eye of the hurricane.. They said its a Cat. 5+ and its going to hit Southeast Texas hard.

It's probably best that you do. Stay safe, and check in when you can.

[JenBKR]

Prayers to all in Rita's path. I hope she calms down some before she hits land :(

[Ginger's Mom]

Yes, everyone please get out of there. Prayers going out.

[DJFyrewolf36]

Please be safe everyone! Prayers on the way...

[anna_66]

This just makes me cry that this is happening again:( I hope and pray that it fizzles out as it heads close to the coast, or even more so I hope it turns and heads out to sea.

But please, everyone be safe and take care.

I'll be praying for you.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

Fox news just said that 9,000 people in nursing homes will be air lifted out of the area because that's the only way they can get them out.

Hopefully, we at least learned from Katrina.

Prayers for everyone in this monster's path!
:(

[Jadapit]

Everyone stay safe!! My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that is being affected by this. It has to be so scary. I cant even imagine.:(

[PJ's Mom]

Rita has been downgraded to a Category 4. That's a little good news. :)

[lizbud]

How terrible for all the people & pets affected by these
awful storms. Makes you wonder what's up with this crazy weather.

[ParNone]

Hi everybody.

Still here at home. One of my friend's on the south side of Houston is headed this way with her cats. We're gonna have a household full of pets. Hopefully she makes it here sometime tonight. The traffic is so horrendous they asked the people on the north side to wait to evacuate to try to help out the people on the south side that really have no choice but to leave.

People are running out of gas on the freeway. It's just a nitemare. I think unless the traffic clears up by the morning and we're getting the direct hit, we're gonna be better off staying here.

Keep good thoughts for us especially for The Oz man, The Murph dog and The Gull.

Par...

[PJ's Mom]

Here, we're starting to get in some of the half million people who are heading to Austin. Our local grocery store is running out of everything and gas is becoming scarce.

:eek:

Good luck to everyone who is affected by this. We're in for an interesting weekend. :(

[CagneyDog]

Hurricanes are so scary :( Stay safe everyone!

[DogLover9501]

This is all so scary :(

Please stay safe everyone, I'll be thinking of you all :(

[Karen]

You're in our prayers, each and every one of you! Murph, Oz, Gull - no chasing the kitty refugees!

Other East Texans, fill your gas tanks now, as who knows what's gonna happen, or when things will be back to normal.

[sammy101]

Both our cars are filled with gas.
But we might leave for Dallas very early tomorrow.The highways are getting alot better,especially the one we would be taking.We might be staying though,all of our neighbors are staying and we promised eachother we would look out for one another.We're expecting alot of wind damage,and rain.If we do stay,which most likely,we'll be going to my dads office building,less windows and i would feel safer there than at home.Kodie & Lucy would be coming too of course:)
I'll update everyone whenever i can.I'll even try to get some pictures,depends though.

Mayor Bill White looks exhausted:( He looks horrible.

[gini]

Prayers for everyone in the hurricane's path...............please stay close, and stay safe and check in with us when you can.

[kimboe]

Stay close together with friends and family and try to be as safe as possible. :)
I wish you all safe travels and good health!

[ParNone]

My friend got quite a kick out of the kitty mention. She said to tell you though, that would be "kitty evacuees" not "kitty refugees". :)

The kitties are somewhat stressed, after being stuck in the car for 3 hours. So we're keeping them in a separate room from the dogs. The dogs don't even know that they're here. Her 17 year old cat, Two Tone, use to tease Murph when he was younger. Murph and Maddie stayed with her for a month, when I went to Australia. So just in case Murph would remember Two Tone, we're not gonna chance any meetings. :)

The storm looks to be taking an Easterly turn, so as of right now, we're in a good spot. Everybody start channeling "Easterly" thoughts until tomorrow.

Par...

[dukedogsmom]

Par, I'm glad you're safe. But hey, we don't want that thing over here either! I wish it would just fizzle out in the ocean and leave everyone alone! We had it last year and now Katrina for NO and MS. It's just too much. Stay safe everyone!

[ParNone]

Sorry bout that dukedogsmom. I wasn't really thinking all the way back to Florida. I was thinking more along the lines of New Orleans, since it's already evacuated and destroyed. Not realistic to think it'll fizzle, unfortunately.

Par...

[Anita Cholaine]

Sending prayers and good thoughts for everyone there...:( Please try to stay safe... This is so scary!

[K9soul]

I just saw this news story: http://www.nbc5i.com/news/5010437/detail.html

How awful :(

[Kfamr]

I hope all of our PT'ers are safe.

My dad was telling me about that bus incident. :(

[petslover]

I hope all the PT'ers are safe too. Please check in with us everyone.

[Karen]

Originally posted by ParNone
My friend got quite a kick out of the kitty mention. She said to tell you though, that would be "kitty evacuees" not "kitty refugees". :)

I just thought maybe the dogs would be kinder if they thought of 'em as refugees! But I guess they aren't getting the chance to herd them anyway!!!!

[trayi52]

Hope and pray everyone is safe.

Willie

[ParNone]

Everything turned out okay here. The storm was very mild here. With the 3 dogs, 3 cats and 2 small kids here, we were vedy grateful. 12 hours of lost electricity and fraying nerves from all the noise and chaos of 2 barking Collies and 2 loud kids was the worst of it.
Not evacuating turned out to be a very lucky decision.

My friend with the 3 cats was going to evacuate to Beaumont (crazy woman), when the storm was predicted to hit southwest of us. She had reservations at a hotel and everything. Thank goodness we talked her out of that.

I've another friend though that evacuated to Livingston. They got much worse weather there then here, so they need to release water from the dam. There's going to be flooding along the Trinity River from 41'-17'. So now they're evacuating Livingston. Haven't gotten to talk to her, so hopefully everything turned out okay for her.

That's the tricky part about evacuating. You can end up in a worse situation. From what I've gathered from the news, all the deaths related to Rita here in the Houston area are during evacuating, not the actual hurricane.

My friend with the cats is still here and now that there's not so much commotion here, they're calming down. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow maybe. The kitties did good overall, especially compared to the Collies, but the best behaved award goes to Murph. He's been an absolute angel.

He only had one bad Rita incident. I took him out to pee during the beginnings of the storm. Just as he lifted his leg, a gust of wind blew in and tipped him over. :) Didn't get any pics of that, because it was dark, but here he is happy to be out and about the following morning:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/ParNone/murph_hurricane.jpg

Here's a pic of Gull with the damage we suffered from Rita:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/ParNone/gull_stick5.jpg

Hope it turned out just as well for all the other Pettalkers effected by Rita.

Par...

[Pam]

Par, thank you for checking in and even treating us to pictures! ;) I am so glad that Rita was so kind to the Houston area. I would have loved to see Murph toppling over! LOL! Hope the other Texas will check in when they can.

[anna_66]

Par, I'm glad to hear that your all doing ok after all of this. I hope your friend is also.

Sorry Murph, couldn't help but laugh at you tipping over in the wind:o :D

Hope everyone else is ok.

[ParNone]

*whew* cats are hard to take pictures of. They don't do "stay" too well. No go on 2 of the cats. they saw the camera and ran for cover. But here's a picture of Murph's arch nemesis, Two Tone. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/ParNone/twotone1.jpg

Par...

[Ginger's Mom]

Originally posted by ParNone
He only had one bad Rita incident. I took him out to pee during the beginnings of the storm. Just as he lifted his leg, a gust of wind blew in and tipped him over. :)
LOL. And I bet that cute little tail never stopped wagging anyway. :)
Glad to hear that you and everyone at Camp Les survived relatively unscathed. :)

Hi Two Tone, glad you are feeling more comfortable sweetie.