Rita, the Category 5 hurricane which is the third largest in history is now making its way towards Texas on the heels of Katrina. I heard from Jai one of his friends who left Houston yesterday and is staying with him left at 4 PM and arrived at 1:30 AM!! (Normally takes 4-5 hours depending on your driving style)
Ian’s family is headed up this morning to stay with us. Hopefully they’re not stuck on the road forever.
I read that they are running out of the allotted 21 (or 23) names for hurricanes this year. The first time it will happen since they started naming them in the ’30s. They apparently will go to greek letters next. How does that work? Hurricane Phi-llips? We’re apparently in year 1 of a several year cycle of increased hurricane activity in the Gulf. If this is year 1, how bad will it get?
And good thing we know there’s no such thing as global warming, which scientists have been predicting would affect weather trends and intensify bad weather. 
Actually, we’re in year 2 of a 50 year period of increased frequency and severity of hurricanes. Remember Charley and Ivan from last year?
September 22, 2005 @ 1:13 pmIt may be even longer than that. Here is an article from 2001 that says they started noticing stronger more frequent hurricanes all the way back in the 90s.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/07/20/MN47915.DTL
September 22, 2005 @ 3:06 pmOh, and I should add that I spoke with my parents. In 3 hours they have moved 24 miles. Dallas is about a 360 mile drive from their house so at that speed they should be stuck somewhere just north of Houston when the hurricane hits. Great ;|
September 22, 2005 @ 3:10 pmLet us know when they’ve arrived safely.
(Wow. Talk about being noisy
September 23, 2005 @ 9:44 am