"But just exactly what caliber have you stockpiled against a hurricane?"

Why a water pistol, silly! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Seriously though, I got up at 4:30 AM to see if Walmart had received any more gas cans overnight. No such luck. They were passing out flats of water packaged in soda cans to people as they came in the entrance. It was all they had.

At that early hour, surface street traffic looked more like 8PM Saturday night levels. Hwy 6, one of the main evacuation routes from the coast, passes by about 5 miles from my house. Gridlock traffic northbound as far as the eye can see. Elsewhere in Houston, traffic conditions are similar. The OEM and EOC are fine tuning their evacuation traffic plan to see if they can alleviate some of the backup.

According to some of the other Ham radio operators, cell phone service is already spotty across most providers. (I wouldn't know personally, as I don't have one of those funny little unreliable radios!) Even landline service takes a few tries to get out long distance. 2 meter works great though! Hope we don't lose any repeaters.

Most gas stations were closed, but I was able to top off my tank at a station off the beaten path that had only Super Unleaded left. Prices are still reasonable at $2.79/gallon.

Both my wife and myself have been released from work through Sunday, so we have plenty of time to finish things. Mental preparation is important. I've decided to play a game with it so that the more excited other people get, the calmer I'll get. Getting pretty mellow about now...zzzzzzzz