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Hurricane Rita coverage: Houston Chronicle - Stormwatchers - Rita Blog - SciGuy Blog | KHOU.com - Rita blog | KPRC | KTRK | Houston-Galveston Emergency Blog Network

Where the refineries are around Houston.

RigLogix map that tracks Rita's path through the oil fields and platforms of the Gulf of Mexico.
New: Rigzone RigLogix Hurricane Rita Reports

11:37 p.m.
As in New Orleans, Houston's problem may not be the landfall but the flooding afterward: 25 inches of rain when/if Rita stalls inland for two days of torrential downpours.

KHOU blog: Gas lines in Dallas, Red Cross to open shelters on highways.

I hope the President stays away today. NYT: After Katrina's Lesson, Bush Is Heading to Texas,

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - Under intense pressure to show that he has learned the practical and political lessons of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush planned on Thursday to pack his foul-weather gear and head to Texas on Friday ahead of Hurricane Rita, trying to make clear that he is directing an all-out federal effort to cope with the storm.

His presence and that of his entourage will simply get in the way of evacuating people who face a potentially fatal deadline.

Road stories: Chief Executive Officer Dropout dropped out of the evacuation:

...At 4 this morning we left in order to run from Rita. We hit gridlock. We had 2 cars and then my daughter’s co worker and her kids came. They had dogs, cats and a truck. So our caravan began. We had reservations in Livingston. At 7 pm we had to pull over. Truck was out of gas and daughter and 1 child and dogs were sick. We pulled over in Dayton which means we are about 40 miles from the coast. We have another 60 miles to go.

We pulled into a dentist’s office area in a residential neighborhood....

It's a great story. To avoid spoiling it, start with Houston Gridlock, then read Getting Help, then hit the main page for prologue and further updates.

Chron's Rita blog: what happens to those without cars, or a chance?

AP: No Way Out: Many Poor Stuck in Houston

5:55 p.m.

5:55 p.m.
KRT:

"I never dreamed a city this size would just simply start running out of gas, but it looks like that is what's happening." -- Walter Nesbitt, 48, from Texas City, Texas

...Lengthy delays also stymied operations at Houston's Hobby Airport, where some people waited four hours to check in....

Houston Mayor Bill White blamed the Transportation Security Administration, saying many of its employees failed to show up for work. Some airport employees said only two TSA workers were at work. The TSA could not be reached for immediate comment.

15 projected paths for Rita, via The Oil Drum
Current NOAA link for this storm.

12:21 p.m.
The disaster before the disaster: Blogger after blogger reports that gas pumps are empty, cars trying to leave Houston are overheating or running out of gas on the highway, making it impossible to get more gas into and near the city. Cellphone service is largely limited to "All circuits are busy." There are 6 million people in Houston, and it's 92 degrees now, headed for 98 today.

Earlier, I had seen a slightly superior tone in some blog posts -- along the lines of "We won't have the chaos New Orleans had" -- but different sorts of dangers face those trying to leave Houston.

10:57 a.m.
Houston traffic cameras. Gridlock on your very own PC.

9:33 a.m.
The Oil Drum is of particular interest: It's a group blog about the petroleum industry and it's checking on the pipelines and blaming global warming for all this.

It's leading now with Rita a 175 MPH Cat 5 (as of 0600z)...Oil Infrastructure in Trouble? But How Much?

Cats hate cars: The Houston Chronicle has invited local bloggers to croos-post to a chron blog called Stormwatchers. Many are chronicling their preparations to evacuate, with pets.

HTown Blogs leads with a list of news outlets and Houston-area blogs.

Blogger Banjo Jones in Brazoria, Texas, writes,

Besides staring into the teeth of a killer hurricane of historic proportions, there is a veritable festival of volatile organic compounds being released right now while the various petrochemical plants shut down. Damn you, Rita. Cough-cough. Just check this list out. Never seen a list of shutdowns like that around here. It jumps to a second page!