This morning I was on the phone with my good friend Shane and his wife Suzana who live in Houston. I was curious to know what their plans for dealing with Rita and I wanted to make sure they were ok. Their story is not different than what you are hearing on the media, they tried to leave the city but couldn’t. They have a car, they have the resources and the willingness to leave the city but the logistics were too much to handle.

They tried to evacuate yesterday. They were on the road for 10 hours and had only travelled 45 miles from their house (see the map). With little gas left, they found a gas station which had gas available and had to wait for 4 hours and luckily were able to get some gas before it could run out. 14 hours into the adventure and only a few miles away from home, they decided to return back home and ride out the storm there. It took them 30 minutes to get back to their house!

This is not just their story though, this is the exact same situation that a lot of people are in. It appears the system has failed again by not providing the logistics necessary to evacuate 4 million people in such a short span of time. I am not saying this is something easy to accomplish but I would’ve imagined some lessons were learned during Katrina but does not look like they were executed to help people from Houston and nearby cities.

Shane and Suzana, our best wishes are with you and please stay safe.

update: I have been chatting with Shane over IM and he sent me some photos from last night and one that he took this morning sitting there on his boxers.

Top speed of the day

Just 30 miles in more than a 1/4 of tank. (note to self: find an open gas station).

No more gas available

Waiting for gas.

I-10 to San Antonio

Good Morning Rita

Taken this morning (9/23) – the calm before the storm?

Food kit is ready!

The 10 hour adventure map

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