As I posted here, my brother and his family are enroute from their home in League City, TX to our home in Austin. They left their house yesterday at 7:00 p.m.
At 1:00 a.m. they had finally reached Interstate 10 heading west out of Houston (47 miles traveled in 6 hours). When I called him this morning at 8:00 a.m., he was about a mile from turning north towards Austin on HW 71 (109 miles traveled in 13 hours).
Rather than tracking Hurricane Rita’s path, I’m now tracking my brother and his family’s attempts to evacuate the Bayou City. I’ll update this image throughout the day (as it will take them most of the day to drive the final 95 miles to my house):
Total distance driven: 109 miles
Total time of drive: 13 hours
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Update: Traffic on HW 71 is moving three times faster than it was on I-10. Instead of 10 MPH, my brother has averaged just over 30 mph over the last two hours. He is now in Bastrop. Only 28 more miles to go. Hopefully they will be here by noon:
Total distance driven: 167 miles
Total time of drive: 15 hours
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Final Update: My brother and his family (wife, three kids—ages 3, 4, and 6—one dog, and two cats) have arrived safely:
Total distance driven: 205 miles
Total time of drive: 16.5 hours
My prayers are with your family, the people of Texas and with us all. There is nothing more important than God and family at a time like this.
wow… that’s a whopping 12.5 mph. turtles move faster. thank GOD they got out though
[...] No wonder evacuations have to begin well in advance of landfall when it takes 6 hours to go 47 miles. Check out how Robbie of UrbanGrounds was tracking the snail’s pace evacuation of his brother and family trying to get to his house in Austin: As I posted here, my brother and his family are enroute from their home in League City, TX to our home in Austin. They left their house yesterday at 7:00 p.m. [...]
[...] UPDATE II: Welcome Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal readers. We’re currently a little pre-occupied with Hurricane Rita down here near the Texas coast, but we’ll resume regular non-hurricane-related (hopefully) blogging next week. [...]
After going only 45 miles in 5 hours, my sis and bro-in-law turned around and are sheltering in place, in Rosenburg.
I’m glad your family made it!
Nancy