In All Seriousness

Its the second time I visited your site. Looks interesting.

edward wins for the most rational comment, yet.

Isn't it fun to see how a little hysteria brings out the best in people?

Human nature is a cruel bitch, no?

And why are we so quick to polarize?

Fascinating. You can just feel the human consciousness get more depressed by the minute.

There is no way to predict with any certainty what Rita will do to Austin at this point, but there is a 100% chance that those that just happened to *guess* right will feel smug afterwards.

Christ, now I'm worried. Ben, did you happen to take a pic of the beer shelves? What's their status? Fuck, this panic buying had better not force me to sneak Nyquil into the Velvet Spade instead of my usual flask of cheap Vodka.

PS. When my family used to ride out hurricanes in Corpus, we would always fill up the bathtub with water so that we would have water to flush with. In Austin, the main threat will be from flooding, tree limbs, and possible Hurricane spawned tornadoes, although the twisters usually occur on the hurricane's Northeast side and so are more of a threat to Dallas and Lake Jackson.

don't you know the real cause of all of this? the japanese mafia.

http://www.medialine.com/medialineUBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=041937;p=

Correction: I meant to say "far western" side of the storm.

most sensible response yet. thanks, lisa.

however, all of this is starting to remind me of that really bad Tom Cruise movie. What was it called, "Days of Thunder?"

i love the voice of reason

I gotta agree with Voice of Reason. Check the weather reports: We are on the far eastern side of a fast moving storm. Worst case scenario is that Austin will get high winds and some flooding on Saturday. There might be some limited power outages.

If you are really concerned, fill up some sealable containers with tap water, get some kind of nut spread, bread/crackers, a couple of candles (make sure you have matches, too), and a bottle of wine. Pick up a book or two at the library on your way home from work so you have something to do besides watch/listen to nonstop storm coverage. Fill up your gas tank. If you live in an especially flood-prone area of Austin, call a friend in a less floody area and suggest a slumber party weekend. If you have neighbors who are elderly or sick or who have small children, check on them and make sure they have what they need to get through 24-48 hours without power (which is probably the worst it would be). And then settle in for a lazy, rainy Saturday.

Pray for the people who are trying to get out of Houston. That money that you were going to use to buy a generator? Give it to the Red Cross so they can help the people who are truly in need.

Should the power go off:

* Only flush the toilet if you've pooped. Only run taps if it is absolutely necessary.

* Limit the amount that you open the refrigerator.

* Go to bed when it gets dark and you'll wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when the sun rises the next morning.

Oh, and maybe think about the billions of people who live without electricity or accessible drinking water every day of their lives.

As anyone who has ever lived on the east coast can tell you -- this is nothing to panic about for Austin residents. By the time the hurricane hits Austin, it will be at most a Category 2 (likely a 1 or weaker). That means a lot of rain (though not necessarily) and some nice gusts of wind. Some trees will fall, some branches might crash onto your roof, car, or through a window. Maybe.

If we're lucky, there will be some hail and Lamar will flood like the river it is during any nice storm.

If you lose power, it will be because tree branches rip down the power lines. If you're living in a house now, you can prevent the immediate problem by going and checking that no branches are on the lines running into your house. A good boy scout should be able to trim back a branch without electrocuting himself.

We're not going to run out of water and we're not all going to die. Just relax and calm down. Same thing with gasoline. Where are you going to go? There are 20,000 tourists coming for ACL plus thousands of Houstonites fleeing here. Whatever gas you put in your car today should last til next weekend, because you won't be driving anywhere anyway.

Go get drunk and watch the hippies in the park get their first shower in years.

The only thing that's smart to do is buy gas because next week it will be at least over $4.

I want to make clear that in all likelyhood, Austin will be fine, and that we will not be knocked back into the stone age. The hurricane is losing power, and though we may still be in for some rough weather, we're not going to be devestated.

It is, however, really interesting to see the panic set in. We went to HEB last night at midnightish, and couldn't buy water, and people were desperately stalking the aisles for supplies. Pretty wacky.

Empty Water Shelves

I've never faced a hurricane. Is the danger such that we should we be boarding up our windows here in Austin?

I was at the HEB on 45th last night, after the bottled water was all gone. But don't panic - they said they're getting more in today.

My family set out from Houston yesterday to Austin at three in the afternoon, with children and dogs stuffed into one car along with only their most needed belongings. By 8:30pm, they had traveled exactly 19 miles. 290 was completely bumber to bumper, with many cars overheated and out of gas on the side of the road. My family had to turn back, rather than risk being stranded somewhere near Dime Box at 4am with no gasoline. Gas stations were out all along the route. Now they're stuck in Houston, feeling trapped and panicked. They are not in an area of mandatory evacuation, and they set out three days before the storm was scheduled to hit, and STILL they couldn't make it out. This is really, really scary.

good point, deez. i bow to your meteorlogical greatness and am awed by the obvious number of hurricanes you have survived. re: crying over spilled rock, i don't even live in austin. so kiss it.

Hilarious stuff, Chicken. Because that is TRULY what's happening here - people freaking out for no good reason. Your prescience is so impressive! Please be sure to remind the people who return to the rubble that used to be home what a joke they are.

Dude, you fucking ruined our concert! Why did you have to evacuate and shit?!

THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!

Just a reminder: Tap water in Austin is drinkable! If the stores are out of bottled water, get a large sealable container (or several small ones), fill it (them) with water, seal, and you are ready to go. Bonus: You can reuse the containers.

If you are afraid of tap water, boil it tonight. It may look milky afterward---that's just some mineral sediment. Totally not harmful. But if you let it sit for half a day, the sediment settles to the bottom and you can pour off the clean water.

Does anyone know where to get water today (Thursday)? HEBs all over town are out. I am embarassed to admit that I was caught way way off guard by this -- I was at grocery store wednesday early evening and everything seemed normal (plenty of water on the shelf). Then by 10pm it all seemed to disappear.

It's already too late in parts of town...HEB and Fiesta at 35 and 38th are completely out of bottled water, and at least one gas station at that corner (the Shell) was out of some grades of gas.

Not trying to cause any panic, just reporting what I saw.