Rita your no Carla

Hurricane Rita didn't live up to it's fearsome reputation, it only delivered a wallop to a limited area and a somewhat small population. The possibility of a catastrophic hit on Houston was almost too hard to think about. People in Houston took the forecast of dark gathering clouds very serious and 2.5 million people evacuated the area. Once again my home town was in the path of the massive evacuation just as it was 44 years ago durning the evacuation for Hurricane Carla. People fleeing Rita were housed in the same building that they were housed durning the Carla hurricane. In 1961 the building was a National Guard Headquarters, now it is a City Civic Center.
The respect I have for hurricanes was formed in 1961. Hurricane Carla struck the lower Texas coast on September 11, 1961 and was one of the most powerfully storms ever to hit Texas. Carla was a true category 5 storm with winds exceeding 175 mph upon land fall and tide of 18.5 ft above normal high tide. Rita was a spit in the wind compared to Carla. Rita's winds were 115 mph with tide of 8 ft, it was barely a category 3 storm.
On September 11, 1961 I was living some 385 miles from Carla's land fall. My small town got thousands of people trying to out run the large and furious storm, just as people were trying to do last week with Rita barreling down on Houston. On that September day in 1961 the leaders of my small home town put out a cry for help. All people able to take evacues into their home were to go to the National Guard building and gather as many people as they could shelter. Dad brought a couple home and they stayed with us a couple of days. Last week my brother helped out a large family who were stranded in the evacuation by giving them a place to clean up and rest before they continued on their evacuation process.
Forecasters are always so ominous in their prediction of a catastrophic storm each time a hurricane approaches land. Too many people view the warnings as a false alarm, that it will not be as bad as officials and media predict. Rita could have been one of the worst storms to ever hit the Texas coast but it changed course and somewhat fizzled out soon after it hit land just as many storms do. Rita's only legacy will be the massive traffic jams caused by all the evacues leaving Houston and the lack of gasoline along the evacuation route.
Will so many people flee a storm ever again? I really do not know! If you were to ask God what he would do he would say "Evacuate stupid". Some people said "Rather have a Margi-Rita" and rode out the storm, never thinking of evacuating. I know what I would have done. I would have packed a bag as fast as I could as left a note on the door with a quote from Red Buttler "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn" Gone with the Rita wind.