[lifesaver]

Originally posted by carnation
Aiiiiiii. My sister and uncle and aunt are in Sugarland, most of the other relatives are in the Houston and Brenham areas....

Yeah, my family is in Sugar Land.

As a family, we are going to make a decision on what to do on Wednesady. My sister said everyone in Houston was freaking the PHUCK out. So here’s how it breaks down for me and my family.

In the next 24 hours my brother in law will need to make some decisions (cause he’s the one in charge there), which will guide what we do. All Houston police have to work their regular shifts plus overtime, which is 40 hours per week regular and 20 Hours at the shelters. Tomorrow (Tuesday) he is working 8Am to 2AM. He on Wednesday is working 10Am to 2AM. He clearly wont have time to take care of the house and the family. On Wednesday morning, he’s gonna go to Lowes and try to get Plywood and Screws. If he can’t (or it's unavailable) he’s going to let me know and I’ll get it all here in San Antonio and throw it in the back of my truck and drive to Houston (a three hour drive). I’ll help my sister secure the House (again, they only live 30 miles from the coast so It’ll be lifesaver with the circular saw and drill) by boarding up the windows, draining the pool halfway, etc. We’ll load up the Tahoe of their important, non replaceable items and at the same time, do the same for my moms place. (She’s in an apartment, so we wont be boarding windows, but we’ll be loading up the non-replaceable items in my truck and I’ll drive her to San Antonio as my sister and my nephew follow). We will hopefully leave Houston sometime on Thursday. If a lot of other people are leaving at the same time, it will take us forever to get to SA. During the peak evac of Ivan and Katrina, the drive to Houston on I-10 was about 18 Hours of what is a normally 6-8 hour drive. I imagine the drive from Houston to SA will be similar. There are plenty of alternate routes we can take. 290/183 to Austin, to 35 to SA or 59 Outta Houston to the SW to Beeville and then I-37 North to SA., but I wont do I-10 if it’s a cluster phuck. It’s a 3 hour drive that I can easily see turning into a 10 hour ordeal. No me gusto.

My sis will be bringing the cats, so I have found a place here locally to board them. If Freeport takes a direct hit, then they will be here for a week or two because they will have no electricity. It took a week to get the lights back on in some parts of Hattiesburg, MS, and they were two hours north of NOLA after Katrina. So I imagine the family will be with me for a week or so. My sis wont go back to Houston with the nephew (who is 4) if there is no power (she wont have to work anyway). She wont be out of any cash, because both her and her husband work for the govm’t (she’s a teacher) and they will still get paid. I have enough in savings tho to cover them all in food and gasoline and such. All my friends have already offered to host dinner different nights that they are here and this weekend there is a wedding that I had already asked my sister as my date (it’s a mutual friend) and they have extended the invite to my mom and nephew.

If the brother in law doesn’t need the plywood, then on Wednesday I’ll just grab a Southworst flight to Hobby (Houston) and we’ll drive mom’s old ass Volvo instead of my truck to SA with the sister and nephew in convoy. I have a three bedroom Condo that only has a bed in one of the guest rooms (besides the master where I sleep). I’ll go to Foley's and buy a new bed for the empty room. I don’t want anyone on the futon downstairs. Its not real comfortable and the downstairs is real bright in the AM. No one can sleep down there.

My mom can take the time off work (they’ll give it to her anyway) and the sister can get the time too. They don’t wanna stay there even if it is only a cat 1 or 2 because there are a lot of trees around their property and my sister doesn’t want my nephew asleep in a bed and then a tree falls through the roof into his bedroom.

This is just kinda wigging me out. I’m the youngest child and I’ve never had to be the one who has to ‘have the plan’ and tell everyone what needs to happen. But they are my family and I have to take care of them. I have had a pretty good month professionally, so I can afford to do so. My sister will probably fight me on expenses tho, but whatever. She is better off than my mom. I’ve already had to reassure my mom that this whole deal is on me and that she needs to be realistic about her situation. I want her to understand that the likelihood of her loosing anything/everything is small, but that’s what everyone in NOLA thought too, but you still have to prepare. I told her to prepare to take what she couldn’t replace. I told her to pretend that she knew a house fire was coming and she had a few days notice and that she needed to make a list of what she wanted to rescue if she had the chance – cause while I was there I wouldn’t have the time to help her make decisions. Now Is the time for her to do so. I also calmed her down by telling her that the likelihood of her loosing everything was slim and that unlike tornadoes, we have advance warning for Hurricanes (its all of our first one). I reminded her that she lives in an area that is 70 feet above sea level and she’s nowhere near a creek/river, so flooding wont be an issue. Her biggest worry will be the hurricane force winds and/or tornadoes. But again, she has the insurance, so what she loses, we can replace.

Its just going to be an adventure. We’ll know by Wednesday AM where this thing is going to go. If it looks like Beaumont/Port Arthur, or the victora area, then they might ride it out there. If not, then I am on my way and I’ll probably have some guests for a time. Since I own my own company, I’ll put them all to work while they are here. I’ll pay them for their time, but I have no problem offering them both positions. (I’ll probably have my mom do my filing an office work (she’s a genius at that and can watch the nephew and lord knows I can use the help) and my sister can go out on accounts and marketing – if she wants to.)

I’ll keep ya’ll up to date.