Hurricane Rita: Calming, Bracing

Well, yesterday was the day for traffic chaos. Today's the day to guess how bad it'll be in various parts of town.

The freeways are relatively clear, although there's numerous cars along the side of the freeways. They're either out of gas, broken down, or given up. By one newsie account, there were something under 150 between downtown and 1960 along I-45. Mutiply that out for 59, 290, and I-10 ... and it doesn't sound encouraging. On the plus side, there's time to get them somewhere safer.

Watching Ch.26 news this morning (why, I don't know), and apparently Galveston police had to fish out a 5am surfer that now has the ignoble fame of being arrested live for probably every news outlet around.

The weather here in SW Houston is still decent. I'm about to head out to the grocery store for whatever's left and also to get a sense of how the precinct is looking the day we're expecting landfall.

The Kuffners have landed in the DFW area. Former GO.com sidekick, Uber, is holing up with a population of 7 in his home up in Cy Fair. Allegedly, there's going to be some last-moment openings of shelters. Smartly, I think, and announcement was held off to prevent any SuperDome or N.O. Convention Center situation locally.

And, as Big Tom suggests ... get ready to rumble. Blogging will resume as much as power allows for tonight. At some point, though, I've gotta work in a nap today since I expect a long night.