skwatra

location: clear lake, first floor on the lake. evacuated to austin took two hours wednesday afternoon to get to 288 and the beltway. left there at 3:30 am, made it to austin by 2pm. took 10.5 hours, 180 miles, and 9 gallons of gas (no AC). friend is a resident and is on call, so he will be riding it out at his home at 288 and beltway. my folks left this morning at 3am, and still haven't made it to dallas (19 hours so far).

westpark was open this morning at 4am, it waa great for us. got from 288 and beltway 8 to westpark and grand pkwy in 25 minutes. after that... 10.5 hours to austin.

i was still shocked. it was founded in '61, but i think most of it was built after Carla. and many of the building at KSC were constructed in the 60's to withstand hurricanes, but they are more frequent in FL...

sorry, had to run to a meeting... JSC i hoped you would know, Johnson Space Center NASA. MCC-H Mission Control Center - Houston BCC Backup Control Center, in this case it will be MCC-Moscow. Now i hear the mayor of kemah, clear lake shores, and other Zone A communities are starting a mandatory evac Wednesday at 6pm. Zone B Thursday at 2am.

thought you guys may find this interesting, this came straight from the top- JSC buildings were not designed to withstand winds and weather associated with a hurricane. The MCC-H does not provide for any special protection to personnel or equipment beyond what is considered normal for the Houston area. Therefore, the MCC-H will be shut down when a general evacuation order has been given. Operations for the ISS can be transferred immediately to the BCC and Houston personnel can be released when JSC is set to close.

i personally think we're covered- "Other Neighborhoods Post the topic here. If a neighborhood gets enough messages, it will get its own forum."

yup, i live right in the heart of zone b, except right on the lake and i don't have a second story option... hopefully none of us will need to leave.

this is not a particularly good map, but it will give you an idea of whether or not you should plan to leave if the predicted path holds, along with evacuation routes. hurricane evacuation map it will be at least late wednesday before they have a better idea, the voluntary evacuation for galveston now is to try and urge those who can leave (retirees) to do so now to ease the mandatory evacuation if they need one.

they've already started construction of the NASA parkway bypass, scheduled for completion by summer '07.

they've already started construction of the NASA parkway bypass, scheduled for completion by summer '07.

greezed lightnin' was my favorite ride there, i love how when it was empty some operators would let you just stay on and ride over and over again-

i like the fountains, but i'm a liberal so go figure.

does the 26 acres total include the "area for future development"? if you look at the second to last aerial, it matches the site plan pretty well. i guess the bottom left will be the indoor area? they have a lot of work to do before december.

it may be an eyesore, and poorly maintained, but i for one will miss it...

though i love the main street nightlife, that's more of a once a week thing, and you can take the train/taxi. maybe i'm wrong, but my impression is midtown is more livable, more people, grocery, restaurants. it seems to me that downtown just doesn't have enough for the evenings/weekends. just my impression, i'm hoping to move somewhere around there over xmas. the area in midtown by spec's is what i'm leaning towards, though i still need to start the real apartment search...

you can try this site too, they seem to have good deals: apartmentwiz you can email them and they'll tell you the exact location and provide more details. craiglist is going to have more sublets and people trying to sell their condos, so you'll be dealing with individuals. great for finding a quick short term place.

as promised, pics from toronto and niagara. some are personal, mostly of the city though. check out the gallery. i wonder how many street car accidents they have (probably very few):

that was the same stuff you see on national news. the comments she made to the local 11 newswomen they aired (locally) would have been nice to hear on her show.

did you watch the show? we didn't get any good and free PR. not that it matters. i dislike her even more now after editor's post. before it was rooted on my mom blindly agreeing on everything she said, even if it was ridiculous. she truly is one of the most powerful women in the world. as long as she leads her masses towards good, i can keep ignoring her and just let it be...

not that this matters, but they didn't really mention anything about houston and how much we're helping other then the fact that we have people in the dome. and they showed a cowboy (of course, since that's all we have here) taking in a family at the end. but they did show a lot of stuff not seen on the news that was unreal. hopefully she will draw her viewers in for support, which is really the important thing.

not sure if this has been posted, but what's the latest status on this? last i remember the developer's presented their plan to city council, waiting for a go and hoping for incentives. has the city responded?

i'm not a big fan of oprah, but this will be a good thing. i saw of a clip of the show on channel 11 news over lunch, she had some great things to say about houston. also, as mentioned, she has quite a following and shooting the show is probably the best way to get an emotional reaction out of her viewers. she definitely knows what she's doing. also, she's probably a face of hope to many in the dome.

to add to the randomness, i was in toronto over the weekend. 65 degrees and kids were in swimsuits at a water park. crazy canadians... CN tower is amazing, i'll have pictures up soon.

^ the national guard? MPs? too bad they have to take these people away from the work they are currently doing, helping people.