evacuation

checked in on the status/location of most of my family... one of my aunts is "locked down" at the hospital in corpus (i mean: she works there), while her son is headed to san antonio and her husband is staying at the house, boarding it up. (if my recollection of family stories is accurate, that's the same house in which a giant plate glass window came flying in at my grandfather during Camille.) my dad's brother in corpus is staying at least til tomorrow, too, and his son, who works at a hotel on the island, was asked by his employer to stay as long as possible. (his boss has just shot to the tippy top of my list of people i'd like to punch in the neck.) my maternal grandparents, the snowbirds, are in the midwest right now, but their "home," a fifth wheel trailer that they usually take with them, is in robstown, and probably won't fare very well. my paternal grandmother is en route to her brother's house in camp wood-- or at least stuck in traffic heading out of corpus. could be worse, though-- at least they're not stuck in traffic in houston. no word yet on my mom's brother & his family in corpus; hopefully we'll hear by tonight. dad's brother near schulenburg and his family are staying put-- they can expect flooding at the very least, no matter where Rita hits. and my folks, up in NE texas, are solidly in the current projected path. so far their forecast is "only" ten inches of rain. it hasn't rained much at all there this summer, so anything they get will sit on top of the packed ground. my dad's been putting a new roof on this summer, and he's rushing to finish it today. hopefully he won't have to start all over on it next week. meanwhile, will someone please tell wolf blitzer that there is NO easy way to evacuate the entire city of houston without backing up the highway? even if you airlifted everyone out, you'd have the air equivalent of gridlock. there are millions upon millions of people there. it's going to be a little messy no matter how you go about it.