Hell hath no fury...like Rita!

I've got a sister who lives with her small family between Houston and Galveston. They've been ordered to evacuate - which they've already done - and leave their house exposed to the elements. The lines for plywood were too long at the Home Depot (hours of waiting with irate crowds for a few sheets) so they've put out sheets and plastic under the windows on the inside in order to facilitate clean-up after the storm. But looking at this storm in the Gulf, one gets the impression that sheets and plastic just may not cut it. A category 3, her husband told her, would do immense damage to their home. A category 5...well, the house may no longer be there. The kids left with relatives on Tuesday night and they joined them yesterday. To top it off, my sister is pregnant with another boy; she's in her 9th month. We have a name in our family that goes back a few generations, Storm. Now might be a good time to pull that one out!

If you care to feel official, take a look at the following website (Weather Underground). It's the one that the NASA officials use to track the storms. I find the link with the computer predictions particularly useful.