We evac'd Houston last wednesday and can say with much happiness that I am sitting pretty here in my former state of West Virginia and will be returning this coming weekend

logem from Spring/Klein here.

We evacuated to Dallas on Thursday morning because my wife is VERY pregnant and having sporadic early contractions which are mostly stress related.  We left Klein at Thursday 6:30 AM and made it to Dallas in 10 hours using backroads.  We stayed between I-45 and Hwy 6.

We returned yesterday, leaving North Dallas about 9:00 AM using approximitely the same route.  We made it home in 6 hours.  We left before the announcement to delay return to Houston, so we continued home.  Since I bought 2, 5 gallon gas cans in Dallas, I wasn't too worried about gas.

Next time, I'll still leave, but will make sure I have gas and leave early.

Good luck to anyone else attempting to return home.

M.L.

I'm here in Orange.  We had lots of wind and damage from trees.  Lots of damaged homes and business.  Some looters.  It looks like a f**king war zone.  So far no shootings.  Some looters were spanked.  I'm living at the police station and this is the first time we had the net.  Were working 12 on 12 off.  Cleanup started today.  About 90% if the city is impassable.  Water will be out for 2-3 more days, so no working restrooms.  I hope everyone is safe out there, don't know when I will be back on the site.

ScubaTexas

Quoted: I'm here in Orange.  We had lots of wind and damage from trees.  Lots of damaged homes and business.  Some looters.  It looks like a f**king war zone.  So far no shootings.  Some looters were spanked.  I'm living at the police station and this is the first time we had the net.  Were working 12 on 12 off.  Cleanup started today.  About 90% if the city is impassable.  Water will be out for 2-3 more days, so no working restrooms.  I hope everyone is safe out there, don't know when I will be back on the site. ScubaTexas

Good luck and God Bless!!!!    

Just heard from Capn_Crunch.  He is OK, and has food and water.

Not much of a hurricane here, but we had some trees down & lost part of my fence. The worst part? Power was finally restored on Monday at about 3:30 PM. I was one of the lucly ones who still had a generator and a window A/C, even had DSL running on the laptop.

The upside was getting to "protect" the 'hood from looters. Man, that part was fun...

My sympathies go out to East Texas / West LA. I went through Alicia in the 80's and remember just how scarry it can be.

West Conroe - We got off light. Some minor roof damage and a few tree limbs down in my 'hood.
Definitely were blessed here. Our thoughts and prayers to those east of us.
Oilfieldtrash - over and out...

Quoted: Quoted: WTF?  Tim I give you a -10 rating for your preparedness rating.  You can't dip into your SHTF stash until the SHTF.   But I am hungry....

Timinator is ALWAYS hungry

Katy area...doing fine. A couple of branches off the tree out front. They fell right where they get picked up by the trash man

Update:

We picked up a generator from Texas City in an expedition to get gas yesterday. Phone lines are screwed, I'm getting a 4.8 KBPS connection that is finicky at best, so I'll make this short with overall sitreps.

We've got unconfirmed reports of looting at the pharmacies in Buna, as well as dozens of other reports of the same. I don't see how it's possible, the National Guard is stationed in Buna.

FM1013 is blockaded at FM1005 to thru traffic, only residents are allowed in. Why? Spurger is supposedly the new looter capitol of Texas. I live on FM 1013, 6 miles out of Kirbyville.

Kirbyville is in BAD, BAD shape, Main Street is levelled.  Our Chief of Police has been going ever since two days before the storm hit. Salvation Army, Red Cross, FEMA, TX National Guard, are all helping out, as are local Police. We have seen NO presence from the county. None, Nada, Zip. The Feds are doing their jobs, busting their asses, as are our local Police force and the DPS troppers.

Jasper is NOT in terrible shape. They got tree damage, but that's about it. Kirbyville and Buna are in bad shape due to wind and tree damage. Most roads in and out of the area are passable, save for areas that have been blockaded. We had 100+ trees down across the road, plus most of the light poles between here and town. 4-6 weeks with no electricity.

Woodville is in pretty good shape. Ivanhoe caught a lot of tree damage. Dad said that there are only a handful of houses without a tree on them.

We've heard that Beaumont, Vidor, Evadale, Orange, Port Arthur, Port neches, and Groves are all in bad shape.

We've got food, water, ammo and fuel, enough to last a good while. We're staying safe, so you guys should too. I live here, and can tell you that all of the evacuees where not good folk, just like when NOLA folks flooded our area.

We've got neighbors that have ran a genset since the lights went out at 1900 on the 23rd. Where do they get the fuel? They never had it before? Oh yeah, that might explain the reason why our other neighbors (DAMN good folk, Principal of KHS and his lovely family, they're lifesavers) had Fuel stolen from all of their vehicles and cans on night one after Rita. Coincidence? Maybe. We've caught them stealing fuel when there was no hurricane, so chances are... We're now running a community watch between them and us.

We lost 9 or 10 trees, including 6 or 7 100+ year old oaks. We have 1 or 2 trees left standing in our yard proper, and we have no damage to our home, or the shop. Unfortunately, my bugout trailer (Mobile home for you fellow Texans) sustained wind damage, and subsequent rain damage/mold. I wonder if FEMA will help out with that

Oh yeah, we got mail today, for the first day. Plenty of pics to follow when we get power back up.

Anyhow, just wanted to let you guys know that all is well in SETexas for my family and myself.

I probably won't get to see any replies to this until we get lights back because we're conserving fuel,  so if I don't get back to you ASAP, gimme a few... Weeks, that is.

-Cap'n