Brazosport newspaper flees Clute headquarters

There will be no Dan Rather/Hurricane Carla dramatics performed by the local paper's journalists, which saddens me.

But, as somebody important once said, discretion is the better part of valor. Which is to say, the local newshounds skedaddled today out of Clute, where they are conveniently located within a stones throw of Dow Chemical & BASF. But they promise to update their web site as often as humanly possible.

Writes Yvonne Mintz, managing editor of The Facts:

...we won’t print out of our Clute building, but we won’t stop bringing you the news, either.

The Facts will have reporters and a photographer stationed in the Emergency Operations Center in Angleton and at the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department. They will try to be among the first out on the streets after Rita’s initial fury has passed ...
Our production staff of editors will head to our sister paper in Seguin. From the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, they will edit stories, design pages and update our Web site as often as possible. We will print the newspaper every day from another sister paper, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.

Notice she said they will "try" to be "among" the first out on the "streets." There are no promises, implied or otherwise, being made here.

What's the over/under on where Channel 13 will have Wayne Dolcefino stationed? Galveston, of course, has the historical link to the 1900 Storm. Surfside or Freeport? No, too outta the way, too obscure, too nowheresville. Maybe Palacious, down Matagorda way. Eye of the Storm, aye. Matagorda, I once read, means "fat grass" in espanol. Now you know.
The Facts

MEANWHILE...

Plywood -- Sold Out. Still some flashlights & batteries here and there.

But Wal-Mart, Target and dozens of other stores are closed and boarded up as of this afternoon.

Sources at Dow say the chemical behemoth's flood maps show a Category 4 hurricane will put six inches of water in homes in the northern reaches of Lake Jackson.

Over in Dickinson, Tom Tyler remains heavily armed. His email report to us & others:

Hello all,

I am busy preparing my home for the hit by Hurricane Rita here on the Texas coast, and will be returning to my Houston -Galveston Area Emergency Blogger Network later

Right now, its board up windows and put things up on higher things time!

I have of course already packed my emergency evac kit, inflated my rafts and made sure the john boat is gassed up and ready to motor out of the garage if the water gets too high!

I am heavily armed, have plenty of petrol and camping equipment, two generators, 200 gallon of water, a deep freeze at 0 degrees filled with gallon water jugs of ice, etc etc.

I will be back later tonight and will begin blogging the storm and the incredible evacuation that is going on outside.

I don't know how many of you realize it but this 9-county area we call "the Houston Area" officially has nearly 6 million residents and I will bet there's another million that's not on the census projections.

A couple of million people are leaving the coast, most of them under a mandatory evacuation order.

They are being directed out in time slots, according to flood plain ( A, B, C etc) and area, and while its packed out on the roads this has got to be the most orderly and successful mass evac of a major metro area since world war II, and it is a highly protected operation with the police and emergency vehicles organized for it.

Anyway, back to work, wish us luck, and I will catch all of you at the blog later.

Be sure to tune in:
http://hougalemergencynet.blogspot.com/

Regards,
ttyler5
Texas Hurricane Rider

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Angleton Mayor says head for the hills

According to The Facts:

Angleton Mayor Matt Sebesta has ordered a mandatory evacuation for the city at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“People need to be out of town no later than noon Thursday,” Sebesta said.
Angleton Police Lt. Mike Jones, the city’s emergency management coordinator, said people do not need to wait until the evacuation goes into effect. County officials said trailers will not be restricted on evacuation routes.
Hurricane Rita is currently a Category 4 storm and is expected to make landfall between midnight and 3 a.m. Saturday. Further strengthening is possible.

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I shoulda bought a hybrid department

$3-plus gas price predicted due to storm. [msnbc]