OTS Hurricane "RITA"

[Dusty]

Hello RRT  Friends

It is about time for life to get back to normal.  During the last of August, and the first of September, I was involved with the local Red Cross, providing communications as a Ham Radio Operator (WB5TYZ), between the various shelters, Red Cross Headquarters, Local Law enforcement, and The Texas Guard.  I was hearing many horror stories from the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina.  Little did I know that by the end of September, I myself would be an evacuee.  As Hurricane Rita headed for the Gulf coast, all predictions set it going inland between Matagorda Bay and Galveston, which is 150 miles further down the Coast from Orange, which is where I live.  By Wednesday my brother had left the area, and had taken my mother with him to his camp on Toledo Bend, which is a lake, formed by the Sabine River, that straddles the Texas/Louisiana Stateline.  His camp is about 150 miles inland.  He called me Thursday and invited us to load up our 2 labs and enough clothes and food for 3 days and come and stay with the rest of the family at his Camp...Just in case!!!  
At this time Lillie and I had decided to stay at home, as the storm, by all predictions, wasn't going to come close to us, even though we had been give evacuation orders.  We then decided we would leave Friday morning and go and spend 3 days at his camp, just to get away for a while.  Well as we all know now, by 6 PM that evening, all predictions were that Rita, had made a sharp right turn, and was going to center the eye on Orange, Texas, and go straight up the Sabine River.  We were really glad at that point that we had evacuated.  By 10 PM that night we were wondering whether we had gone far enough North.  The wind Started blowing there about 8 pm, the electricity went out at 9 PM, and from then on, for a day and a half, the wind blew with gusts up to 110 MPH.  It was really a frightful situation, as the camp is surrounded by tall pine, and large Oak trees.  We were very fortunate that no trees blew down on the Camp.  By Saturday evening the wind had died down enough that we knew it had passed.  

By Sunday morning we decided to go back to Orange to see if we had anything left to return to.  That trip was one of the worse trips I have ever made in my life.  For 75 miles we saw nothing but downed trees, power lines, and destroyed buildings.  We had a hard time finding our neighborhood.  We found our house, and because the eye passed over our town, all the trees were blown down from East to West.  One went on the shop, one came close to the house, we lost three Tall Cedar trees in the front of the house, and over half the shingles on the roof were gone.  We were very fortunate...several of our neighbors lost their homes, and everyone had some damage.  We were fortunate in another respect, as the storm surge that was predicted didn't happed.  We are at 17 feet elevation, and the storm surge was predicted at 23 feet.  One town, South of us, Sabine Pass, is no more.  They are right on the coast and the storm surge was 12 feet.  They are at 5' elevation...Do the math.  A ship docked at the Port of Orange clocked the winds in Rita at 3 AM Saturday morning at 130 MPH with gusts at 160 to 180 MPH.  All the old growth trees in the City of Orange are gone.  
It is hard to describe the devastation.  Trees down every where.  And they are all tangled up with the Power Lines.  We had power back in 4 weeks.  I have a 7500 Watt generator that burned $30.00 worth of gas every 24 hours.  Gas was at a premium for about 2 weeks after the storm.  It just couldn't be pumped out of the storage tanks at the Gas stations until they got generators to operate the pumps. Then it sold for $3.00 a gallon.   I siphoned all the gas out of my pickup and all the street rods, for our car and the generator.  We had to keep the car going to go to the relief stations to get Ice, Water, and food (MRE's).  We got the phone back in about 3 weeks and the Computer (RoadRunner) was back in 4 weeks.  We started receiving mail this past Wednesday.  This has really been an experience.  I want to thank everyone that contacted us, and those that tried to during our ordeal.  It is nice to know that there are friends out there that can help you, when you are in trouble.

Oh yeah...one of the best care packages came today in the form of Chocolate Chip Cookies....Guess who sent them???

Our local Radio station has a web site with a lot of pictures taken the day after...  it's  kogt.com

[40]

Glad everything worked out OK....Thanks for taking the time to help others!!

[enjenjo]

Good to hear you're back up and running. Let us know if you need anything.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I am glad to hear you are doing Ok .  thanks for the update

[1FATGMC]

Good to see you back Benny and I'm thankful you guys made it through all of that safely,

Sum

[river1]

very glad to hear from you benny. say hi to lillie for me. hopefully life will be back 100% soon.

later jim

[HotRodLadyCrusr]

I just wanted to put a smile on your face and to let you know that I was thinking of you two.

xoxoxo

[WZ JUNK]

Good to hear from you Benny.  Hooley and Sumner had given me updates on you and Lillie from time to time.  I am sorry that you have such a mess to clean up and redo but I am glad you are okay.

[Scrap Fe]

Hello RRT  Friends

It is about time for life to get back to normal.  During the last of August, and the first of September, I was involved with the local Red Cross, providing communications as a Ham Radio Operator (WB5TYZ), between the various shelters, Red Cross Headquarters, Local Law enforcement, and The Texas Guard.  I was hearing many horror stories from the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina.  Little did I know that by the end of September, I myself would be an evacuee.  As Hurricane Rita headed for the Gulf coast, all predictions set it going inland between Matagorda Bay and Galveston, which is 150 miles further down the Coast from Orange, which is where I live.  By Wednesday my brother had left the area, and had taken my mother with him to his camp on Toledo Bend, which is a lake, formed by the Sabine River, that straddles the Texas/Louisiana Stateline.  His camp is about 150 miles inland.  He called me Thursday and invited us to load up our 2 labs and enough clothes and food for 3 days and come and stay with the rest of the family at his Camp...Just in case!!!  
At this time Lillie and I had decided to stay at home, as the storm, by all predictions, wasn't going to come close to us, even though we had been give evacuation orders.  We then decided we would leave Friday morning and go and spend 3 days at his camp, just to get away for a while.  Well as we all know now, by 6 PM that evening, all predictions were that Rita, had made a sharp right turn, and was going to center the eye on Orange, Texas, and go straight up the Sabine River.  We were really glad at that point that we had evacuated.  By 10 PM that night we were wondering whether we had gone far enough North.  The wind Started blowing there about 8 pm, the electricity went out at 9 PM, and from then on, for a day and a half, the wind blew with gusts up to 110 MPH.  It was really a frightful situation, as the camp is surrounded by tall pine, and large Oak trees.  We were very fortunate that no trees blew down on the Camp.  By Saturday evening the wind had died down enough that we knew it had passed.  

By Sunday morning we decided to go back to Orange to see if we had anything left to return to.  That trip was one of the worse trips I have ever made in my life.  For 75 miles we saw nothing but downed trees, power lines, and destroyed buildings.  We had a hard time finding our neighborhood.  We found our house, and because the eye passed over our town, all the trees were blown down from East to West.  One went on the shop, one came close to the house, we lost three Tall Cedar trees in the front of the house, and over half the shingles on the roof were gone.  We were very fortunate...several of our neighbors lost their homes, and everyone had some damage.  We were fortunate in another respect, as the storm surge that was predicted didn't happed.  We are at 17 feet elevation, and the storm surge was predicted at 23 feet.  One town, South of us, Sabine Pass, is no more.  They are right on the coast and the storm surge was 12 feet.  They are at 5' elevation...Do the math.  A ship docked at the Port of Orange clocked the winds in Rita at 3 AM Saturday morning at 130 MPH with gusts at 160 to 180 MPH.  All the old growth trees in the City of Orange are gone.  
It is hard to describe the devastation.  Trees down every where.  And they are all tangled up with the Power Lines.  We had power back in 4 weeks.  I have a 7500 Watt generator that burned $30.00 worth of gas every 24 hours.  Gas was at a premium for about 2 weeks after the storm.  It just couldn't be pumped out of the storage tanks at the Gas stations until they got generators to operate the pumps. Then it sold for $3.00 a gallon.   I siphoned all the gas out of my pickup and all the street rods, for our car and the generator.  We had to keep the car going to go to the relief stations to get Ice, Water, and food (MRE's).  We got the phone back in about 3 weeks and the Computer (RoadRunner) was back in 4 weeks.  We started receiving mail this past Wednesday.  This has really been an experience.  I want to thank everyone that contacted us, and those that tried to during our ordeal.  It is nice to know that there are friends out there that can help you, when you are in trouble.

Oh yeah...one of the best care packages came today in the form of Chocolate Chip Cookies....Guess who sent them???

Our local Radio station has a web site with a lot of pictures taken the day after...  it's  kogt.com

[phat46]

What an experience!, I happy to hear that you are o.k. and that your lose was as minimal as it was. Welcome back

[Rayvyn]

Glad to see you and yours are up and around. It could've been alot worse. My sister is going through the same thing right now from Wilma.
These forecasters have no more clue to what these storms are doing or where they are going than my dead Aunt Edna does. After seeing what Rita and Katrina did, I haul #%$ now. I'd rather have damage to come back to, than to not be able to wake up from underneath it.

[parklane]

Benny & Lillie..... good to see you back on the site again. Just remember that houses, garages, cars, and other toys can be repaired/replaced,but people, especially good people can't. Glad you're OK

John

[Charlie Chops 1940]

Sounds like it was a rough time but Sharon and I are so glad to hear that you and Miss Lillie have weathered it allright.

Charlie

[Ohio Blue Tip]

Glad to hear your all OK and on the road back to normal.