Informed Speculation

Rita Gaining Strength

A very distinct possibility exists that some of you may be headed towards my fair city this weekend for the Austin City Limits Festival, the annual three-day musical extravaganza, featuring, among others this year, Blues Traveler, Coldplay, Widespread Panic, Oasis, Wilco, and dozens more. The show will go on, say organizers, even as word comes that Rita is strengthening and likely to hit the Texas coast on Saturday. Austin is pretty far inland, but even so, the possibility exists for some heavy rainfall, high winds, and tornadoes…

So what am I saying? By all means, if you’re heading our way, don’t cancel your plans…but keep on eye on that weather forecast closely…thanks to our good friend Melissa, who not only shared her Crawford Pictures with us, but was kind enough to give me a heads up on the worsening conditions (I hate local news with a passion, and had no clue we potentially faced such adverse conditions)…

Jeff

September 20th, 2005 at 9:45 pm

My first hurricane was Carla back in ’61, a cat 4 that came ashore at Port O’Connor (this was the hurricane that put Dan Rather on the map). Then there was Alicia in ’83; I was out late at a club, and was asleep the next morning as the eye moved over Houston.

I never worried too much about hurricanes before now–I knew they carried the potential for ruin and destruction, but we live 50 miles inland and besides, I always secretly relished a good storm.

This one is different. I’m old enough now, with a beautiful six year old, and a house that almost killed us to get built–I’ve suddenly turned into my dear but very fretful mom. I want no part of this thing; it’s a gut wrenching shock when you see a tree laying out horizontal and realize how many tons of wood is there. And our lot is covered with trees…