Hurricane Rita

Welcome to Texas! We have been here only a month and are going to experience our first Hurricane. Of course, it just happens to be the 3rd largest hurricane in recorded history. I found out today, the eye of the storm will pass directly over east Texas. Yep, right over our house. We can expect flooding, high winds, power outages and tornadoes. We are well stocked with bottled water and food to last us awhile. We live in a brick house, but have lots of tall trees all around us. One HUGE tree in our backyard too. If that came down on us, the house would be destroyed. All my clinics that I oversee at work are closed, most are in evacuated areas. Despite being in the path, I'm glad I'm not down along the coast. The flight of residents has been rough to say the least. We are on an evacuation route and our city is full of weary evacuees. Shelters are full, lines at gas stations are blocks long, people are camping out in parking lots. There isn't anything on store shelves. Luckily we filled our cars with gas and stocked our cupboards earlier in the week. We are as ready as we can be. We have radios, flashlights, batteries, food water, etc. Worst case scenario is that we will have to evacuate. Luckily our friends in Shreveport have invited us to stay with them, although the storm is supposed to sit over Shreveport for several days. Family has been very concerned, calling us every day. They are even placing our names on the temple rolls today. I'm all for that. I'm not too nervous, but realistic that things can get rough. They say we will probably have sustained winds of 75 miles an hour (making it a catergory 1 hurricane by the time it gets here on Sat. night). Plus expect about 12 inches of rain. We are not in a low lying area, which helps us. But our church is in the flood zone and we have evacuees living in the church from the Texas coast. We also have church on Sunday morning. I wonder if we will be able to get into that neighborhood to go to church. Well everyone, keep us in your prayers. We are in the direct path of Rita, but luckily about 200 miles inland, nevertheless, we are still in the path. We just are going to "hunker down" and ride it out. With all the strong wind heading our way, it may make me homesick for Livingston. To them, this would probably be a slight breeze... haha.