Don't panic

The "How to survive Rita" manual should come with the above warning (made popular by Douglas Adams) printed in bold letters across the cover.

Residents of this (truly) sleepy town are looking for safer, stronger buildings willing to house them for the night. Ironically, I can think of only one building that has all the qualities I would look for in a refuge. And I just left it back home in Houston.

All in all, I am very happy that I made it here in time. The last place anyone would want to be when Rita arrives, is a freeway with bumper to bumper traffic. Unfortunately a lot of people are going to find themselves in exactly that situation. If only they saw the danger lying in wait for them.

The reason I left that safe, comfortable apartment back in Houston was that everybody was making it really easy for me to do so. The freeways were still allowing cars to move more than an inch a minute. Schools and offices were shutting down. Program directors at Baylor were narrating their near-death experiences trying to nail down the roof of a neighbour's house at the precise moment that Allison hit Houston. And I had an opportunity for a comfortable journey over with an interesting friend. I would have been stupid to not pack my bags and leave.

However, I think I would have made it just fine back in Houston. Life would have thrived, albeit not without a little inconvenience.