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Sasy -> My Bout with the Rita nightmare (9/26/2005 9:35:58 PM)
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Seems like some of you might have been worried about me missing so this is what I sent out to my firends ( BTW Rita DIDNT hit here I dont know whether to laugh cry of be happy)
Wednesday, September 21, 1:16 PM
Didn't plan on leaving the island at all let alone this early. The traffic reports show it is already a nightmare. The traffic on the causeway is already horrid, can I go home yet? I find myself already I n tears wondering if I will have anything to come home too. I wonder if it even really matters, my thoughts go to my friends that came to my rescue to get me off this island and out of harms way, So 4 cats, two dogs, a cockatiel two teens and two adults set out on this well for now I will say journey.
3:41 PM
Well, the first of two cars is down the tubes, Back to Galveston to drop an ailing car only to stop where we had to pick up another and have it pretty much explode a couple minutes after we stopped. Loaner van shoved fill of first cars contents and off again. As we leave out we see 7 buses ready to go, if I would have had enough kennels I might have considered that option. Least the traffic on the causeway has thinned might not be so bad a trip.
3:51 PM
Well, so much for the smooth sailing around exit 17 we began inching our way up Highway 45. Oh my God it is so hot, I can see the man in front of me in his rear view mirror he is beet red, looked in my mirror so am I and so is my son. Call from a friend who left before 1PM she is only at mile marker 43, this is going to be a long damn night. I wish I had filled my coffee cup before I left.
5;08 PM
I have made it two miles since hitting traffic two miles an hour, or there about, I have faith this has to break up soon.
7:17 PM
Any one want to go shopping, Baybrook Mall looks a little empty.
Thursday afternoon sometime who knows when,
Well, my second car had to be left on the highway at some point last night, I am not even sure I can remember where. Twenty-four hours later and I have made it a total of 57 miles from home. I am dirty, grimy sweaty sunburned and I want to go home and get a shower. I am worried about my animals my old dog is lethargic, the others do nothing but pant, cant keep enough water in us or them.
I am sure my bird is going to die, beginning to wonder if the heat will claim us all before we get someplace safe. This is horrible, trying not to cry I cant let the kids see it. They are already getting scared as it is.
Friday 3 AM
Somehow we finally made it into Huntsville, this should have been a three hour trip. Cars have littered the highway the last 20 or 30 miles the cars have lined the road like seaweed on the beach.
I want a shower, God please let me find a shelter, again trying not to cry I cant go to a shelter I don't have enough carriers.
We have been hearing about gas trucks and seen nothing, they tell us water is being handed out on the highway, we have got through the two cases my dad sent plus those we bought along the way. Finally we get a touch of hope I beg for water for the kids and my animals, I was given two bottles. My son gave his up for the animals. We had seen people's animals dead in the back of trucks in cages and people burying them on the road sides.
I give in and start looking for a truck stop, it cant be as bad as the way I feel now.
The streets of Huntsville gridlock, I call my brother who has the bible of maps he routes me out the back way and warns me again gas is short take the first line I find. Lovelady, wait maybe Trinity, oh hell who knows or cares. I don't know when we last ate or what it was. Somewhere on the back roads we found a gas station, 2 hours later we have gas and some junk food in us one neighbor and her children brought out water, iced tea, candy for the kids. I don't know her name but I wished I had gotten it we were in dire need of a drink of something.
I really don't know what time it is I am not even sure what day it is any more. All I know is my pets look really bad my old dog doesn't even want water anymore. Tears or sweat no one can tell any more, my face just streaks more with grime from the road.
Oh no this cant be happening they are diverting us on the BACK ROADS. I am being pushed through winding roads I cant take this we haven't slept since......... Tuesday night.
YAYYYYYYYYYYY a jack in the box in the middle of no where. I don't know how much we spent nor do I care, we literally pig out, I feed the animals that will eat anything of mine they want. At this point I know when I can settle somewhere the old dog will have to be put to sleep she is dying before my eyes.
I don't know when we got into Garland, my hotel was a crack& whore house we couldn't go any further we slept in the Taco Bell parking lot.
This is the part I tried to journalize, from here on is parts I wish I didn't remember. I know I am not the worst case, but this was horrible, at points I wonder if facing the storm wouldn't have been easier. I cried all the time at this point. In Garland we were treated like vagrants we couldn't even find a place to wash off. I had money but the only hotel that was left was 189 dollars, there was NO way I could afford it. I called my aunt (who told me there were already to many in her house) and told her I couldn't stop by, We headed in to Arlington about hell I don't know the sun wasn't up yet.
We were given a vacant apartment to stay in by my husbands company thank goodness they aren't just local. The AC was broke, at this point I didn't care. The floor was clean and we could sleep safely. there was a BATHTUB, I didn't know how much someone could want a bath, I was pretty sure the first bather was made of champagne.
By the way the 211 system for hurricane assistance was pretty useless, 90 percent of the hotels were full and the other 10 percent most folks couldn't afford, well again though I tried them I need help with my animals desperately, after several hours of being told no I laid in the floor and cried.
I called a couple friends who turned out to be only a few miles away came to our rescue for things from Directions to helping my husband take my dog in to be put down. I also relinquished two cats because they had been so traumatized. My friends also took my lab, ya know even when you know something is better and the right thing to do it doesn't matter, you still cry, and continue too. Some people an animal is a thing an object nothing more. In my house, they are people and you don't know how empty my house feels. And you don't know how many times I have reached down to pet the pup that is usually nuzzling my leg. I KNOW he has a good home, but I know I ache for him.
Well, Sunday night, (Well, I think it was Sunday) was hard as I left my dog but dinner and the company were both GREAT and a welcomed break from this nightmare. Some where along the way we lost half my son's school clothes. I am hating all this more everyday,
After dinner that night and back at the apartment, and a couple more hours of tears, I woke my spouse up and told him we were leaving in the morning I got up and packed quietly and in the dark. I made a call to another friend about 5 this morning I think, and then it was coffee and back to packing, woke the kids before daylight and told them.
Waffle House and home that was the plan ..... I rolled in here just about dark, this island never looked so good.
Do I expect any one to feel sorry for me..... no not really, I guess maybe I just want you all to see how out lives can change with the change of the wind.
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