Less than feared, more than necessary

I agree with Justin. So far, Rita hasn't been as bad as we all have feared here in Houston. Right now, it seems like most of my precautions will not be necessary. The power here at my place is still up, so is DSL. I'm confident that it will actually stay that way. While it's raining hard and the wind is howling, Houston appears to have gotten only about an inch of rain. There shouldn't be any flooding. Most likely, the stores should be open on Sunday, perhaps on Monday again. Houston's return to normality should be quick.

I have to admit, though, that I am a little freaked out nonetheless. This is a strong storm, probably the strongest I've experienced in my five years here in Texas. At least I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a storm like this in the year and a half since I've been in my apartment. I would have remembered. Several times during the last half hour, I've heard how flying objects have hit my walls or windows, so I've decided not to take the chance of still being hit by shards of glass, and I've moved into my hurricane shelter (a.k.a. my walk-in closet). I've taped cardboard and trashbags against my window, so if something broke my windows, the glass wouln't go flying everywhere anyway, but you never know.

Wow... Lots of power fluctuations right now. My ceiling light is going bright, dim, bright, dim, so I better push this out.