Friday, September 23, 2005

Signing Off

Well, before I lose power tonight, I thought I'd post once more. Fortunately for Houston, Rita has moved to the east and downgraded to a Category 3 storm. It's going in at Port Arthur, so keep those people in your prayers. Not that we're out of the woods; we're still expecting hurricane force winds, but the amount of damage from under-100 mph winds is far less than 125+ mph. I'm very thankful to God that we'll be spared the full fury of this storm, and even those that are getting it will be spared what it could have been.

I think our local and state leaders have done the best job they can under the circumstances in evacuating people and calling a state of emergency early enough. However, we still have room to improve. The highways became parking lots (literally). So far, 33 people have died in their cars because they couldn't go anywhere. That's not including the bus that caught fire just south of Dallas. This is unacceptable. I'm not blaming the officials for these deaths, but there has to be a better way. There just has to be.

Houston is a ghost town. If I could afford the gasoline (both price and its actual use), I would have gone around just to see how empty the city is. I'll trust the pictures on the news, though, that showed empty streets. No birds chirping. And as I went to my car to get my last supplies (cereal and pudding), that was an eery, ominous stillness, the so-called calm before the storm.

Again, I appreciate and covet your prayers.

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