Hurricane Ike may have landed on the Texas Gulf Coast but his continued fury through our great nation is a tragedy as well. My writings are limited to my areas as I know these regions, the people and these community businesses and cultures best. Deaths attributed as a result of this storm, either directly or indirectly, will eventually be reported to the public. An official count has not yet been tallied and search and rescue / recovery efforts continue in certain communities. The Dallas Morning News this Wednesday, September 17, 2008 has a brief report under the headings of 'Developments' and 'Deaths' of a count of 17 in Texas. These deaths are as a result of what I term as carelessness as they resulted from misuse of generators, candles and trimming trees. 'Price Gouging' is another ... read more

TV Stations and Internet Radio Were My Sources of Information After the fact, I must say that listening in through my local AM radio station Internet stream, (www.KLVI.com), was more informative and realistic than those broadcasts of information on national television. Television reporters were seemingly sensationalizing the events. This 'report' will appear dry in 'taste' to some of you. Friday, September 12, 2008 Depending on news channels and the Weather Channel, www.weatherchannel.com, for information this evening. No Internet signal. I have already reported to you the fact that most news personnel were situated on the west side of the expected path of Hurricane Ike and how comical and sensational I felt they were presenting the data. Specific mention of Jefferson county, cities of Port Arthur, Sabine Pass and sometimes Beaumont were made but none of Orange ... read more

This had been written yesterday and last night. I lost Internet just as I finished. I just now have a signal (Sunday, September 14, 2008). Just now it's 11:10 a.m. but I will go back in time, now that I do have the Internet and type a time line of my experience, from notes of course. More about my travels from Orange county to the Dallas area. A lot of real JERKS were on the road. There were more very nice, courteous drivers though. Local and state police forces did a wonderful job in most areas assisting with traffic flow. Unfortunately, they were not stopping the JERKS. A big thank you to all the local inhabitants of communities to the north who had a very normal Friday with the exception of millions traveling, sometimes way too ... read more

Friends, I have been writing on Associated Content about my preparations for evacuation from Hurricane Ike. Now that we are in full blown mode, I will write here too. Maybe I won't bore you, but try to let you know that I am safe. One link to Associated Contact is http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1026000/hurricane_ike_has_made_our_work_site.html I hope y'all are too. Call me ! ******************* A mandatory evacuation was called early this morning for my county and almost all counties around me. I was out of bed at 4:00. I repacked the things that I had unpacked from Gustav's evacuation just a week and a half ago. Of course I had to add some new things. Most evacuation things taken previously were still packed. Then I had to literally cram it all into my truck. I did and left at ... read more

Friends, I'm blogging about preparations I'm making for the possibility of Hurricane Ike coming our way, but since most of my subscribers live here and are going through the same experiences, I won't bore you with my details. I will write here if we do have a hit and we're all scattered then come back because each of us will have different stories to tell. I will continue my blog on Associated Content.com however. Through Facebook I found a link to my AC page stuff at http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/96569/patt_barrington.html. Scroll through the year old profile and my articles are listed. I hope all in the Texas Gulf Coast area are making preparations, keeping watch on the weather pages and planning accordingly. Be safe, friends. I love you all.... read more

Just so You'd Know This is too active a hurricane season for my liking in southeast Texas. I'm tired of running already, but will. I have divorced for less aggravation. I returned home Wednesday, just three days ago, from my evacuation from Hurricane Gustav. Don't get me wrong - I am glad to have gone away. My area, my property, was hit by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and when allowed to returned, almost four weeks later, I was almost sorry I had. Not for myself as much but for the area. But all were resilient, picked themselves up and did whatever had to be done to set things right. Made me proud of southeast Texas. Gustav didn't hit us. This new one looks much more menacing. I haven't unpacked since I went straight to work upon ... read more

It was slow, hot and full of semi road rage by everyone. Texas and specifically my counties did extremely well in the planning, notification to the public and routes out of the areas were well thought out. Other little places on the routes were not as prepared. Their stop lights were not a help in dealing with lines of traffic. This was not as bad as Hurricane Rita by any means! Then the way back - it wasn't as good. Lots more folks were coming home at the same time than had left together. The worst towns were Huntington just south of Lufkin and one or two little places farther south. All others I can understand, due to traffic coming to and through those towns from more than one direction. I had left the Dallas area ... read more

On the southeast Gulf coast, that is. First day of my personal evacuation from the oncoming Hurricane Gustav, Saturday, August 30, 2008 and forward. I left my area of southeast Texas at 12:30 p.m. I made 'landfall' at my evacuation point at 6:30 p.m. Travel time not bad this time compared to 2005. I was tired of driving, hungry, but happy when I arrived at my destination. Nancy and her parents were a couple of hours behind me. They had left the area later than I had. Her son, daughter-in-law and new baby had left at 8:30 p.m. and arrived here about 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. Traffic had increased quite a bit already. Sunday, August 31, 2008: Gabriel was not released from work until the mandatory evacuation was called in Beaumont at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday. ... read more

Hurricane Season Should Be Shorter! We now have Hurricane Gustav eyeballing the Gulf of Mexico in a serious fashion. This time I will go farther than Beaumont. I'm going to the Dallas area again. Nancy, her parents, Gabriel, Sofia and John are going with me. We'll have all their pets along too. I had booked our rooms last Monday or Tuesday before the rush and am very glad I did. I just love the place we will stay. This will be my second 'vacation' there and Nancy and family have stayed there many more times. I may take more bathing suits than street clothes this time! I just don't want to have my birthday there again, so hopefully we'll be away from our homes only a little while. Son Grant will be glad I'm taking everything ... read more

The last storm, Edouard, luckily caused no damage to Nancy and Gabriel's house or mine. Sure, I had some limbs down on the property, but with as many trees as I have, I get limbs down in a good strong wind event. And I apologize for not having updated you on my 'escape' from the storm. I just recently got my internet back. Poor Florida was tormented by Fay, deaths there and in the Caribbean. Newest is Gustav looking for all he's worth as he's headed to the Gulf. He came into being and escalated to it's current Category One hurricane (actually downsized to a TS again here at 10 o'clock news time - but I'm not fooled). And have you noticed his running mates, the depressions that the National Hurricane Center is watching because of ... read more