Returning home

They have come up with a scheduled return for people coming home.  Tomorrow people north of I-10 and west of I-45 can come home.  Monday people south of I-10 and west of 35 can come home as well as people within the 610 loop.  It goes on from there.  I wonder how they will enforce it????

Hope the plan works, they need to get that word out and soon. 

Top Winds

Looks like our top sustained winds were 47 mph.  That puts us with solid tropical storm force winds.  Certainly could have been much, much worse.  We are still getting near TS force gusts, but it is steadily dying down.

Driving Tour

Just got back from a quick drive around the far west edge of Pearland.  Wind damage seems mostly minimal with a few trees and a few signs damaged.  The areas east of 288, like Silver Lake and Country Place, seem to be without power.  We still have power on this side of the road.  I posted a few pictures of the trees down, some store fronts boarded up, and some minor damage from around the area.  There are a lot of people driving around, but all of the street signals are out.  Lots of police out and about as well.  The roads are clear, i did see one tree that looked like I was across the road, but had been cleaned up.

Schools out for Wind

Well not exactly, but the mayor has asked all business to stay closed Monday and Tuesday to allow for an orderly return of citizens to the Houston area.  More importantly though to allow emerency vehicles to get to east Texas and to the areas around Houston that need help.  Schools for many districts have been cancelled through Tuesday (Alvin and Pearland are not on the lists currently however).

The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for today in the entire Houston area.  Gusts will stay the same around 40 mph for the rest of the day.  

As I have throughout the storm I am watching News2Houston.  They were the only channel with continuous coverage of the storm since Wednesday, ABC and CBS have since switched, but to late to the game.  The coverage has been good.  They are reporting serious gas shortages, there is no gas with most stations down here saying it will be a day or more before they are refueled.

Brazoria County Press Release

Brazoria County has lifted the mandatory evacuation as of 12:00 pm today.  The full text of the release can be found on the Brazoria County Website.

Pearland Status

I have seen a couple of coments here relating to the conditions in Pearland. At this point we still have not left home other than to look around Shadow Creek Ranch. I have heard from someone that loves just east of Country Place and they tried calling there answering machine. It did not answer so they assumed no power. I have not heard of anything else yet. We will drive through at least the west part of town in Pearland, near 288, in the next few hours.

The following statement is on the City of Pearland website:

The City of Pearland Office of Emergency Management (EOC) is reporting very minimal damage from Hurricane Rita, based on a daybreak assessment conducted by City personnel.

As of today, no flooding was reported from the storm. A few neighborhoods reported sporadic power, which has also affected some traffic signals. Center Point Energy is asking citizens to avoid electrical conductors that may be lying in low areas.

Residents may return back to the city at anytime, as travel conditions outside of Pearland allow. Please tune in to the news in your area to make sure travel conditions are safe.
Call 281-652-1600 (the main number to City Hall) if you need to speak to someone.

People are starting to head home, the traffic is getting bad.  The mayor of Houston has asked people to stay away, but peple are not listening.  290 is already backed up…this could be pretty bad, again.

9 am – still windy

Its now 9 am and it is still blowing, with some sizeable gusts.  We have been awake for about an hour now, watching the TV and seeing what we missed.  I posted a couple more pictures to Flickr of the trees blowing (can you take a picture of that?), as well as the leaves and other stuff gathered in our car port.  Looking around the neighborood it would appear that there is no damage.  We plan to get out this afternoon at around 1 or 2 and see what Pearland looks like after the storm.  We are supposed to be outside of the TS force winds around noon.  Just guessing based on the storm bands that came through most of Pearland should be good.  Some wind damage is possible, but it rained so little here that flooding should be a non-issue.

It may be messy

My subdivision is mostly under construction, and there is a lot of construction “stuff” lying about.  Fortunately, the builders did remove the majority of the items that were lying around.  One thing, well three things, that did not get removed were the portable toilets.  They have fallen over now, and I am sure that cannot be a pretty picture.

All of my trees are still standing, as are all of the trees around the neighborhood.  Of course, with new construction we don’t have many trees above 15 feet tall. 

Its windy, but tings don’t look to bad outside.

4 am update

I just got up for the second time since about 10:30 or 11:00.  The first time I woke up, a couple hours ago, it was raining pretty good and we had some steady winds.  We had lost power around 1:30 or 2:00, but when I woke up it was already back on.  I got up, looked out the windows around the house, and all seemed well.  We have no noticeable debris around the house.

I just got up again, I think another band of the storm is coming through.  The wind sounds much stronger now, I would guess 30 is our current level with gust to around 50.  The rain has gone, it is just very very windy.  Still I don’t see much of anything flying around outside so that is good.  I can hear something rattling or maybe banging on the roof.  We may have a loose cap on one of our pipes/vents on the roof.

I see that Sabine Pass was the landfall point around 2:30, glad it is on shore and can begin to weaken.  They are reporting a couple of fires around the area, which are difficult to fight with the winds.   I have also heard that a building collapsed in Galveston.  They are reporting it is the Yaga (sp?) Cafe.  It looks like an entire wall collapsed.

Melissa and Iain are awake now.  He is having a midnight snack, and we are watching the news.  The wind has just dropped significantly…guess that feeder band has started to pass by.  Time to wait for the next one.  We are safe, the house seems fine, we will watch TV for a bit and then head back to bed again.  I may take a trip outside and look around quick.

Wind, sprinkles, and sleep

It is windy here. I think the frequent gusts are reaching 30 miles per hour. I live in Shadow Creek Ranch, which has a LOT of construction, and I am not seeing much debris flying around which is good. It has pretty much stopped raining. Every once and a while it will pick up for a few minutes, but then it dies quickly back down. I think tensions are pretty much relaxed at home, and my wife and son have gone to sleep, I am waiting to see if some of these bands make it here, and then I am going to bed also.

Channel 2 news is reporting that the dry air from Texas is being pulled into the storm. The dry air is causing the rain bands to weaken and dissipate before they get to this part of town. They predict it will continue. We have seen the power flicker once or twice, but otherwise we have had power the whole day and night.

It looks like the big news for Texas will be getting the 2.7 million people back into town. They are hoping to keep the schools and business closed a few extra days to allow people time to slowly return, but they still think traffic will be just as bad coming back as it was leaving. I am very glad the storm was not bad here…but I am VERY VERY VERY glad I didn’t spend any more time in traffic, and am very glad I don’t have to fight my way back.