Rita Update: The Storm Has Passed

The sun is out and the wind is still blustery, but we received very little rain in my area. The dry air mass that I talked about in my previous post must have saved us from the torrential downpour that much of the Houston area received to the east and north. Galveston has also appeared to escaped with relatively little damage. The worst they saw was probably a fire that broke out last night that consumed three buildings. The flooding was nowhere near what they expected it to be.
I don't know how many of you had been watching the radar showing Rita's movement on to land, but it looked to me like the north side had all the rain and then as it whipped around the west side and grabbed some of the dry air there was little moisture left on the south side. This dry air mass proved to be Rita's kryptonite. She was really powering up out in the Gulf of Mexico, but then as it drew closer to the dry air she lost momentum. Oddly enough, for being dubbed a "dry" air mass it is still humid as all hell out there. I think the temperature is only 90 or so degrees, I don't have the instrumentation to check that myself, but the humidity is still a pain. There are still a few dark clouds circling around out there that I see through my window, the tape has come off now that the real danger is over.
I can't be certain, because I slept through the part of the morning that I had previously stated was the peak time for the storm, but I doubt that we saw any of the 60 mph winds that were predicted. I did go out again with my cape and this time got my sisters to join in. I wanted to get some more shots of how the cape moves in the wind for some drawings I may do at a later date. We sure as hell didn't see anywhere near the amount of rain that every news station was telling us to prepare for. I wish I could say the same for those parts to the east and north. Power is out for many areas, lots of wind damage, and flooding.
In a press conference this morning the mayor ordered that schools and businesses were to remain closed on Monday and Tuesday to allow people time to get back to their homes and avoid the massive rush that we experienced to leave during the evacuations. Already the highways are filling up with people trying to get back to their homes so they don't have to worry about looters, but there are police blocking off entrance ramps and only allowing emergency vehicles to pass. Many of the problems that came about during the evacuation are trying to be avoided for the return trips. There is still a massive shortage of gasoline and by deterring those from getting on the road today and tomorrow the hope is to keep people from becoming stranded with empty tanks again. Police officers are out in full force and have pretty much been told to stop any looters with whatever means necessary. Hopefully this news will give some of those unable to return home a feeling of ease when it comes to what might happen to their homes and businesses. The only uncertainty left for them is what damage might have been caused by Rita.
There really isn't much more information that I can give now that you couldn't get from CNN or possibly a local news affiliate. For those personal friends and family out there who are interested in the wellbeing of everyone in my household, we're all fine and there is no damage to anything around here. The electricity never went out, but for some reason the phones are dead. Cell phones are still functional if you need to get in touch with us or just want to check in. Right now we are going to try to return everything back to their original places and get the house back in order from the "hurricane mode" we were in. Then its time to study for those tests that I'm eventually going to have to take.