DNC Worldwide

This might be the most important journal entry I will ever write to date, and certainly the last I will write for the next few days. Hurricane Rita, at Category 5, the 3rd strongest hurricane ever recorded and getting stronger still, is headed right for Houston. It is scheduled to get here late friday night/early saturday morning.

As of yesterday, all coastal counties and the rest of Houston is under a mandatory evacuation. As a matter of fact, most of my neighbors have already left. The ones left were boarding up their houses or packing up as much as they could fit into their minivans as of 4am this morning. I know this for a fact because I did not sleep last night. All I could do was watch the news and come to the startling realization that this thing is headed right for us. Current projections show Rita and her 120 mph winds going straight over the city of Sugar Land, where we live. Along with her, she brings the possibility of a total of 200 scattered tornadoes, any of which could tear a house roof off at any second.

Although getting out of town is a priority, and I will do so and head to higher land (my brother’s place in San Marcos) sometime this morning, I did as much as I could to weatherproof our home. Material objects aren’t everything so what I am taking with me are mostly albums, cherished family posessions, and what little other valuables I can manage to take, along with my two dogs.

I am not one to be scared of anything, but right now, I am not afraid to say that I am. Although most of my friends and family are already leaving, I cannot say for absolute certainty who might stay, or who might suffer the calamity to their homes or godforbid, their health. All I can do is simply have faith that everyone will be okay.

I ask that all of you guys not affected by this tragedy to pray for the safe passing of this Hurricane Rita and those affected by her. Houston has done so much, arguably the most, to help the victims of devastating Hurricane Katrina that ravaged New Orleans and her citizens in the past few weeks. Now, after giving so much to that tragedy, we are getting one of our own. One that could wipe our coastal cities of the map. Ironic it is but such is life. I do not ask much of anything from God, but if anything, I pray that he keeps all of my loved ones, especially those closer to the coast, out of harm’s way. Thank you. Amen.

Mike Calimbas

This entry was posted on July 17, 2008 at 10:10 am and is filed under Weather. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.