Nope, we're going to ride it out. I think we're far enough inland. My only concern is my skylight.

It seems like the word out of IAH is that the airport will close tomorrow early evening, and remain closed till Sunday. Waiting for official word though...

Well, I changed my outbound segments from PHL-IAH-SEA to PHL-EWR-SEA. I can't change my return on Sunday until the flight is cancelled, at which point I'll have to fight with everyone else for availability. <groan>

How this disrupts the operations at CO will be very interesting. I hope that it does not fatally hurt CO (Bankruptcy). To my recollection, this will be the first time a major hurricane will hit a major airline hub. I wonder what the contingency plans of CO are if the airport is closed for a few days. If it is a direct hit and a Cat 4, even though IAH is many miles from the sea, it wont loose to much strenght by the time it gets near IAH. Basically, it is a big F 3 tornado and there is a lot of glass at IAH.

What will CO do if the airport is closed for more than a week? Also, the employees wont be too interested in coming to work if they have to deal with their own families and property distruction.

Right now it is a CAT 4 and only 5 mph from a CAT 5. The Gulf is warm and it has been very hot in Texas. Hopefully, it hits very west of Houston. My recommendation is about half way between Corpus and Harlingen (King Ranch a la Bret) where no one lives but mesquite trees.

Would rerouting on Skyteam partners Delta and Northwest be an option? If push comes to shove, and IAH is out of service for a while, would Delta consider running extra segments?

Now it is a CAT 5 with 165 sustained winds. It probably wont be this strong when it hits because the water is a little cooler along the coast (lower 80's), but you never know. It will probably stay as a CAT 5 for at least 24 hours as it crosses the warmest waters of the Gulf.

God's Speed along the Gulf Coast.

U of IAH just shut down
 

University of Houston just pulled the plug for the rest of the week. Bad timing as I have - or had - three tests on Friday :mad: Long story short: southeast Houston is shutting down, first wave(s) of weather are expected here in approx 16-20 hours. Power will start going down Friday and by Sat I'd guess the system to be out (no tele, no internet, no power, no TV :eek:, no FT (how will I find the will to live!?)

If you have travel over the weekend via IAH, change it.

My wife's company followed Mayor White's suggestion and shut down for the week. She plans to drive to San Antonio with her friends.

The current track has Rita making landfall south of Galveston (somewhere near Harlingen?). If this holds, Houston should be spared most of the flooding and wind damage...Expect IAH to shut down by late Thursday/early Friday regardless of exactly where Rita makes landfall. CO probably will loosen restrictions on their rebooking procedures later today, once the path becomes clearer.

Havng lived through Allison in 2001, one thing's certain: Houston will flood. The bayous that drain the city into the gulf will essentially be backed up and floodwaters will go nowhere for a day or so.

Pearland (near Hobby) will be far worse. IAH should fare better.

Is anyone on the ground in Houston finding any panic buying of supplies yet? I can't get through to my friends via cell phone (all circuits busy)...I think they better be prepared to hit the road tonight...might not be any gas, water or food left if they wait.

Hope all FTers in the area are preparing accordingly...as a South Floridian who lived through enough of these things (including near riots at the supermarket over water and peanut butter), don't leave it until the last minute to get your supplies and make a decision to leave.

I have this problem as well- for me CO only flies through IAH for all connections. I have called the Platinum CS line and they will not re-route on Codeshare partners until flights are actually cancelled. And even then- the CS said I'd have to pay difference in fare, which is BS in my mind. Let me know if anyone gets rebooked on a partner and doesn't have to pay anything extra!

Yeep. Kroger is sold out of water/breads/etc. Lines are at most gas stations now and many our starting to run out of gas. Luckly, we have a bottled water service at the house in addation to a bunch of V8s/crackers/etc. Besides that, the west side of town is starting to backup with traffic as people begin to flee.

Sky became cloudy about two hours ago but no rain yet.

Absolutely. My wife went to HEB & Krogers last night, and the shelves were bare. Water, food, milk, batteries, flashlights - all gone. Home Depots out of plywood. There was apparently no shortage of gasoline last night. Don't know the situation today.

It was no problem getting gas around noon today. I had to get mid-grade since they were out of regular, but otherwise no problem. I went out at 1pm and the lines were snaking into the street at some stations.

Don't count on finding water, milk, C or D batteries.

Phones are getting overloaded. Lots of busy/circuits busy signals.

Update from NHC a few moments ago:

BECAUSE RITA WILL BE CROSSING AN AREA OF HIGH HEAT
CONTENT DURING THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS...IT IS EXPECTED THAT THE
HURRICANE WILL MAINTAIN ITS STRENGTH. THEREAFTER...THE OCEAN HEAT
CONTENT IS NOT AS HIGH AND THE INTENSITY CHANGES WILL BE CONTROLLED
MAINLY BY EYEWALL REPLACEMENT CYCLES AND DECREASING HEAT CONTENT.
SOME WEAKENING IS ANTICIPATED BUT RITA IS FORECAST TO MAKE LANDFALL
AS A MAJOR HURRICANE...AT LEAST CATEGORY THREE.

A 3 is much better than a 5 - but it's still very prudent to leave the area given the chance for flooding, falling tree limbs and tornados.