Directron.com Hurricane Rita Watch / Blog (9)

Adam, Lin, and Terry cleaning up the front parking lot.

Oscar blowing away the leaves and debris. Actually, the wind is still strong except it's almost random.

Bilma putting away the leaves.

I climed to the roof top again. Visually the roof and all the ACs seem to be okay. Amazingly, some small pieces of debris like old tree branches are still there. Rita broke big tree branches, yet left some small items intact! ilrie

By now, I am hungery. It's time to consume some of that hurricane-ready food supply that will last at least one week. No restaurant is open yet. I have to settle with instant Ramon noodles warmed up by a microwave. After all, we are still under the impact of Rita.

Oh, I do have another damage to report. One sign is missing from our building. This sign faces south and is behind the wind. I wonder why it would fall like that. Maybe, manufacturer defect?

Pete picked up those pieces. The word "Hardware" is missing! Was Rita trying to tell us something? Maybe Rita is suggesting us to get out of the hardware business?

No way. I love hardware! I mean hard ware.

Mona and I have been calling around to check on their status. Here is another update.

Linda is on the way back from an unidentified location.

Erik of marketing is on the way back from Dallas, but stuck in the traffic.

Lauren and her family has just arrived at home from College Station. There was no traffic. It took them the normal 3 hours.

Peter in purchasing department got a ticket but couldn't get to the airport. So he stayed in Houston. He was probably the only one who was happy that he was stuck in the traffic.

Grant and his wife managed to fly out of town on Thursday. They will fly back to Houston on Sunday night. Now, I call that a smart and lucky vacation!!!

George is on the way back from Austin. Traffic on 290 is okay.

Alfonso and his family went to Arlington. It took them 30 hours!!! He ran out of gas. He is now planning his routes to come back to Houston. He said he wants to buy an extra container of gas just in case the same happens on the way home. Maybe the best time to come back is Sunday evening.

Haris stayed at home. He is okay.

Daniel and his family stayed at home. All is okay.

Steven Huynh went to Dallas. They went to Austin first and left early so they didn't experience the traffic. Now he is planning on his return trip. We don't have much info on the traffic condition on 45 south yet. I haven't watched TV or listened to radio for a while.

I called Michael John and didn't get through. I left a message for him.

Just spoke with Hellen . She and her family are returning from Dallas. They are about 90 miles from Houston. She reported no traffic.

Lily Wang of accounting stayed at home. Her family are okay. But her babysitter went out of town.

Steve K and his family are in Austin, planning his trip back. He is in contact with Jeff who has left Austin without much traffic problem.

I just turned on the radio. It seems that the government has decided to ask the residents to return to their homes in phases - exactly what they should have done for evacuation.

I also called these coworkers but didn't go through: Dale, Tony, Suzelle, Paul, Lief, Leo, Chinh, John C., David Schulman, Dennis, Hugo, Dwi . I'll update everyone's status as I receive more info or call back from them.

Hello from Sugar Land. Here is the damage report so far. We had a papaya tree with more than 150 fruits fell with the wind last night. The going price is about $150 each, I guess with my all-organic fruits they would easily double that price. So let's say $2.50 each. So we lost at $300-400 right there. A messy pool.

One good thing about this week is that I rarely got to play in a "private" golf course, let alone to be the only player on the course three times in a roll. Michael, thanks for taking that swing picture. For a while I was wondering why my golf ball did not travel far. For all us golfers, lets analyze the position at the top. There are a few good things about the position, straight left hand, good support and relaxed right hand position, good wrist position. But I found my biggest fault in the position, it was too much hip turn, that would reduced the x-factor, greatly cut down my power. Paul, are you reading this, the hips should not turn more than 45 degrees! My shoulder turn is decent, but the knee positions are also a problem. With more flexed knees, I should be supporting the lower body and resist the hip turn. I am going out again to test my theory. If this turns out to be the key for my golfing career, I would think all the worries and anxieties during this week is worthwhile. Stay tuned. I will report the swing improvement in about 3 hours. (all in my private course, looks like my neighbors are finding the opportunities here also, so I would not be the only crazy guy out there.

Welcome back, Directron !!
opsss, in fact, you are one of the few never left during this ^_^

bo

I have worked in the office since 10am today. It's been 7 hours. Cleaning. Checking on things. Restarting some servers and computers. Restarted fax service. Calling employees to check on their status. And updating this blog.

I also wrote emails to customers to tell them we are fine and ask them to see if they are okay.

We'll be back here tomorrow to process orders that we received during the last two days. We want to give every one who placed orders with us some special thanks for their business when everyone here is concerned about our safety and some of them were literally running for our lives.

I also updated this page on our website:

http://www.directron.com/rita.html

Yes, we'll be officially back in business on Monday!

Now I am going to a friend's house to have dinner and have some fun to celebrate the passing of Rita!

Well, I'm back at my apartment... exactly the way I left it. I figured there would be SOMETHING open in Chinatown so my friends and I went and Ocean Palace was open so we had dinner there. Good 4 day weekend! ^_^

I am so glad that all of you are in great shape!!!So everybody will be ready for Monday working day!!! hehe!!! Great job you all did!!! hey,Michael, take some pictures of grandpa's smiling face!!

Thanks Ruby.

We went out to the party until 11:30pm last night. About 15 people, who didn't leave town yet. Those who did evacuate are probably not in a good mood to have a party yet after what they went through. However, this is not really a victory party. We simply got together to finish the large amount of pre-cooked food we prepared in anticipation of no electricity, no gas... for a few days.

We were no more hero or brave than those who did leave town. But, we didn't go through the traffic jam as they did; so we were a little more fortunate in that sense. We noticed that most of our friends in Sugar Land didn't evacuate; but most of our friends in Katy, which is further North from the coast line did. A strange pattern.

We exchanged thoughts and what we heard and saw during the last two days.

(1) There was a big rainbow on Friday in Sugar Land area before the wind/rain. I missed that. I asked those who took a pic of the rainbow to send me a copy.

(2) Some one saw people bathing under the sun on Thursday! The entire family! Some people were even calmer than the others!

(3) Most people struggled with the decision to leave or to stay. They all had second thoughts and changed their minds several times. We could have partied on Friday night when Rita was hitting somewhere else; but everyone admit that they were probably not in a good mood to do that with the uncertainties. They called each other to seek ideas to help them making decisions. Those who left often called us to tell us what rout was open.

(4) One friend saw abandoned/died dog on the side of the evacuation road! It was very hot during those days. Some people had to abandon their pets.

(5) I saw on TV a 60-year old lady traveling with her 80-year old mother who was on oxygen. They ran out of gas in Houston area, trying to evacuate from the coast region. She called her son in Austin. Her son was bringing gas all the way from Austin. That was 3 and half-hours drive. I didn't know the end of that story; but certainly a touching one and wish them a happy ending. Her son must have an easy time to travel in the other direction of the traffic.

(6) Even though we didn't evacuate and suffer from the traffic jam, every one did allot of work around the house, boarding the windows, moving the furniture, packing valuables... Then we need to undo all that. For those who left early, they probably didn't have much time to do that. They probably grabed some of their valuables and IDs, and went.

(7) No one has experienced such an event before. Certainly we all wish we don't have to go through it again any time soon.

The pictures and videos from Beaumount, Orange, Port Authur, and Lake Charles areas where Rita hit very hard came in. I watched some yesterday and this morning. The damage is not as severe as Katrina probably because the area is not as populated as New Orleans and Missicippi coast regions. However, the damage is much more than what we experienced. We in Houston feel really, really lucky this time.

It's very scary to think what could have happen if we are on the bad side of Rita.

500,000 people in east side of Houston alone didn't have electricity.

It may take weeks for electricity and gas to be restored in Beaumount area.

3 million people evacuated. The return of these people and cars seems to be much more orderly and spread out than the exodus.

Most schools in Houston areas will be out until Wednesday.

I did notice that most roads in Houston area are wide open yesterday and today.

Several gas stations are now open. Some of them have very long lines. Others have very short lines. People probably do not have enough gas to drive around to find those stations with shorter lines.

See the long line waiting for gas? I shot these pics on the way to the party yesterday late afternoon.