One of the ways people who live along the gulf coast and in tropical areas mark time is by means of the hurricanes they have been through. Each hurricane has unique experiences and stories to go with them.

As a native Texan, I had been through several hurricanes previously. Having been through them, I was accustomed to the usual signs to look for along with which aspects of the weather reports were important to pay attention to. We listened intently to landfall projections, news on the size of the storm, projected storm surge and watched intently any reports concerning barometric pressure. Besides having been through several storms, I had also been through several near misses.

Hurricane Rita was a new chapter in hurricane lore of the gulf coast. Coming shortly after Katrina, the aftershock of the one storm influenced how people responded to hurricane Rita. Having seen the massive impact of Katrina from television and blogs, few in Texas were wanting to have to deal with that in their home state. Most of the people living in the eastern portion of the State already had stories of dealing with the Katrina refugees. We knew first hand the plight that they had been through and wanted to avoid that happening. Texas and the world had seen the response to Katrina. We knew that it would be up to Texas to get through any storm.

From the news reports, it looked like Galveston Bay and the Houston area would be the likely targets of the storm. Since it was a category 5 storm with projections of going up the Houston ship channel, the authorities made the decision to call for an evacuation. Large cities like Houston had not been evacuated before. In previous storms, we knew that Houston was too large to evacuate. We also knew that there was a window that you needed to leave by. If you waited, there would be no getting out, you would have to ride out the storm.

Besides the weather reports, there was the eerie calmness in the skies that often occurs before such storms. There was also the flurry of activity among the people. They were filling up gas tanks and making preparations to leave. Due to the potential severity of the storm, we boarded up the house, and prepared to leave. In our situation, the evacuation was mandatory. The plan was that those living in low areas where potential flooding would be an issue would evacuate first. The evacuations would proceed section by section.

What made the mandatory evacuation worse was that officials were making many of the roads one way. When you entered them, you had to go a particular direction. The radio stations let us know when those cut offs were. Where we lived, the one way traffic flow was to begin at 4:00pm. On our side of town, the officials wanted everyone to evacuate up highway 146 into east Texas. In order to avoid being forced to evacuate to a part of the state we had no place to stay, we at 3:00pm to avoid the forced routes so that we could drive west, rather than the suggested north.

As with most plans, the reality was a far cry from what actually happened. Many panic stricken people decided to leave simultaneously. Since the storm was approaching, most fast food eateries were closed or closing as well, based on the fears of the storm. Their fears and the peoples were egged on by DJ’s on the radio reassuring those leaving that they were doing “the right thing”.

Nothing could have prepared us for what was going to occur.

Once we left our home, the first task was to leave Houston. Our intended goal was to travel west to San Antonio, which is far enough inland to escape the wrath of the storm. Since we lived on the east side of Harris County, we had to cross the Houston metropolitan area. When we reached the outer loop of Houston (called Beltway 8 or the Sam Houston toll road), we knew we were in trouble. Traffic was bumper to bumper. Fortunately, the toll road authority anticipated problems and suspended the collection of tolls. The stifling September heat and gulf coast humidity made the trip uncomfortable. The bumper to bumper traffic was aggravating in that there were multiple lanes where traffic was stop and go. Everyone was eager to leave town, although most decided to do so at the same time.

Every gas station we passed along the beltway had long lines of those topping off their tanks before leaving. The slow traffic led to greater consumption of gasoline. The roads had an overabundance of SUV’s, trucks and vans. There were also cars, yet this being Texas, the number of trucks was larger than in other parts of the county. Besides the numerous trucks and SUV’s, we also saw families travelling in caravans. They were easy to identify by the name and number either taped or painted on the rear windows. You would see Garza #1, Garza #2, Garza #3, etc. We tried to keep our spirits up and made humor by posing the question, “I wonder who they are?”, or “I see that the Smith’s are travelling in a caravan”. There was an uneasiness and uncertainty in the air. There was a mixture of people on the roadways. Rich, poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, everyone wanted to leave Houston. We saw several Louisiana license plates, which we assumed were Katrina refugees who were evacuating again. We expressed sorrow at those who were having to do this a second time in such a short period of time.

The drivers were tense and aggressive at times. Some drivers would try to keep people from inching in, while others would cut you off without remorse or a thank you wave. At first people abided by the traffic regulations concerning not driving on the shoulders, but that did not last very long. When the traffic became too intense, many drivers just created new lanes from the shoulders of the roads. Dealing with such irritations required us to stay on the positive side of things. Since traffic was moving so slowly, there were many who left their cars, and walked up and down the roadways, seeing who was there. There were some who also took their smoke breaks walking between the lines of cars. The average speed during much of the time was 2-5 miles per hour.

The radio stations attempted helping by giving updates on ways out of town and where gasoline stations were still in operation. After a while, the stations gave up on music and switched to an interactive format where people would call in with updates on what was going on. The massive amount of cell phone use at times made it difficult to make or receive calls. We resorted to texting to keep up contact between the two cars our family were travelling in.

Families were also travelling with their pets. As we went along we saw dogs of all shapes and sizes with their heads hanging out the windows in the intense heat. Since so many of the fast food places and stores had closed in preparation for the storm, there were few places to purchase drinks or water on the sides of the roadways. Some of my friends told us stories of how they had seen dead animals on the sides of the roadways due to heat exhaustion. Besides seeing the animals hanging their heads out, there were also plenty of cars traveling with their music blaring. The competing sounds of the music made it often sound like a battle of the bands. It was particularly aggravating to hear music that ‘gets people up and moving’ during a time where you were often stuck in traffic, sweltering in the heat and needing to calm down.

When night came on and we were still on the beltway, we knew it would be a long night. A journey that typically took us 45-50 minutes had now taken us about 12 hours. The situation was made worse by kids wanting to know “when are we going to get there?” and relatives calling wanting to know where we were. It was particularly weird to be at a standstill on an elevated freeway interchange when my mother called and wanted to know where we were. How do you tell someone that you are stuck in traffic at midnight hundreds of feet in the air on a traffic interchange? One of the good things about nightfall was that it brought some relief in the temperature. The humidity continued, with the still hot weather that often precedes such storms.

We had hoped that on reaching the other side of Houston that things would improve. Although we were finally on interstate 10 the situation was not improved at all. The traffic only seemed to grow worse as the night grew longer. It was not unusual to see people relieving themselves on the roadways, and occasional harsh words and arguments between cars. To make matters worse, we had gotten separated from our sons by some driver who cut in and refused to cooperate with others.

Sometime between 1 and 2 am, we left the freeway looking for gas, and something to drink. In the heat and humidity we developed quite a thirst. On one of the back roads, we discovered a station that still had gas. After taking our place in line, we texted our teenage sons as to where we were. The station had apparently received a fresh shipment of gasoline. After a short wait, our sons found us. Keeping up with gasoline shipments was also a concern. One of the effect of Katrina included damage to many of the oil refineries and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, so gasoline itself was hard to find.

At the quickie mart, people swapped stories about how long they had been on the road. Everyone loaded up on gas, water, drinks and junk food. The store served as a convenient place for loading up on the quickie groceries. Many drivers relieved themselves in the bushes and brush surrounding the little gas station store. Since we also had our cat, we used a dog leash and took him out to relieve himself. Cats, unlike dogs, do not like leashes. We discovered that although the dogs were used to taking breaks, the cat was not.

The stop allowed us to refresh ourselves before heading back out into the interstate traffic. We continued driving in the stop and go traffic through the night. By dawn, many of the cars which could not find gas were running out of fuel and pulled over to the side of the road.

It was often infuriating to see every lane and shoulder being used for out-bound traffic. Where there were typically 3-4 lanes, there were now 6 lines of cars, each bumper to bumper. While we sweltered in the heat and humidity, the in-bound lanes were literally empty, except for an occasional supply truck or gas truck coming in to Houston. Seeing those lanes empty and unused, while we were stuck in the slow down was infuriating. There were reports on the radio about how TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) was going to open the opposite lanes of the interstate to exiting traffic. We wondered how they were going to do it, since the over the past few months had been putting up a wire and steel barriers between the directional lanes the length of the interstate.

Although we eagerly listened for any new events or developments on the radio, it rarely came. The dj's kept telling us the same information we had heard in the previous hour. There was no music on the radio stations, which was odd. We were all information junkies on an information overload. The constant talking was annoying, yet it served a purpose in keeping me awake.

As dawn arrived, we often had to fight grogginess in order to keep driving. We were limited in terms of choices for licensed drivers. Along the way, we saw people swapping water and cokes from car to car. Hands went from one vehicle to another in such exchanges. Drinks like Gatorade were in high demand at that time.

Eventually we made it to Brookshire. As an experienced traveler on I-10, we were familiar with all the small towns between Houston and San Antonio. After Houston comes Katy and then Brookshire. On exiting to Brookshire, there were some gas stations and fast food places. The place looked like a war zone. Trash was overflowing from every receptacle available. The trash included food packaging, dirty diapers and drink containers. What stores were open limited the number of people allowed inside. The fast food places were sold out of food. The gas station still had some gas, so we took our places in line and waited for our turn. After leaving the gas station, we began thinking outside of the box. We finally found some cokes in a vending machine located at a nearby hotel. A few blocks away, we found a dollar store, yet they were very picked over in terms of food. They only had cookies and some dolly Madison snack cakes.

After a brief refreshing, we returned to the madness on I-10. The authorities finally opened up the opposing lanes. On opening the lanes, the traffic initially flowed faster and soon clogged up as well. We continued on the road until reaching Columbus and finding some food at Mikeska’s barbeque. Since we often stopped there, they were helpful in terms of providing information on routes to take out of town. They told us about a old road that we could take. On leaving, we found the road and managed to leave the craziness behind. The road took us a long way around. We ended up travelling through Bastrop and Austin on our way to San Antonio.

On reaching San Antonio, 29 hours and 45 minutes after starting our journey, we were exhausted. We collapsed on the beds for several hours. When we woke up, we were amazed at how the evacuation was a major item on national news. Family members from all over the United States asked us about our experience. Ironically we found ourselves in Europe a month later and people there were asking about the Hurricane and the evacuation. Little did we know that we had been part of the largest evacuation in history as 2 million people evacuated the city and surrounding communities.