Texas and Escaping Lill
 |
| Hurricane Lili |
After narrowly escaping the wrath of Hurricane Isadore as we drove to New Orleans from Georgia in the rain, Pat enjoyed visiting with her old classmates in a “Big Easy” reunion. Upon leaving New Orleans, our goal was a new RV Park in Beaumont. The weekly rates for this full-service, resort-type park was very reasonable, so we accepted their terms. We had heard that Hurricane Lili, which was south of Cuba, might be heading this way. But, since these storms seldom continue travel in a straight line, I figured the chances were good that the storm would hit somewhere else – not Beaumont. Also, since Beaumont is about 30 miles inland, maybe the winds would slow before reaching our location.
But then we began to watch the Weather Channel and observed that six different computer models forecast that the storm would hit near Beaumont – likely on the Louisiana/Texas border. Then Lili began to intensify and was making a beeline for Beaumont. The Emergency Management folks (whoever they are) issued a warning to begin voluntary evacuation of Beaumont more than two days before the storm was expected to hit land. Our RV park was located adjacent to I-10, so we figured that we could wait to see if Lili would veer away and still be able to escape if it did not veer. We decided to wait till the next morning to see if full evacuation orders would be issued. In the meantime, we drove into town for groceries and determined our best escape route for leaving town if needed. We would avoid the I-10 traffic, head north on a small country highway, west on Hwy. 90 and north on Hwy. 146 to Livingston, TX, where we hoped to escape most of the storm winds and rain at the Escapees RV Park. The 10:00 P.M. weather report on the local TV station explained that the final evacuation orders would be issued at 6:00 A.M. the next morning.
So, at 6:00 A.M. we got the bad news and left the park by 7 A.M. We hoped to avoid most of the traffic if we left early and sure enough, the traffic on our escape route appeared normal – at least until we reached the Hwy. 90 intersection. As we approached the intersection, we could see red lights flashing, several cop cars and a blockade. We would not be allowed to turn west onto our planned, wide, 4-lane route. The traffic cops on the corner directed us north. Then we remembered that the TV reporter had said that much of the traffic heading west from I-10 would be blocked – with no explanation given as to why. It seemed to me that any travel west or north of Beaumont would lead us away from Beaumont and the approaching Lili. But the “gods” of Emergency Management obviously knew something that we did not.
We continued north until we hit the Hwy. 105 intersection, where we were directed to turn west. A sign beside the highway read “Evacuation Route.” Soon we were traveling on a narrow, two-lane highway, leading a long line of automobiles. I stepped on the gas to pick up speed so as not to hold up traffic, but I could not travel as fast as the automobiles and was obviously holding up traffic. There were no pull-offs where I could allow those behind me to pass. “This is weird,” I thought to myself. We have been directed away from highways – that could carry lots of cars away from Beaumont – and funneled onto small, narrow, rough highways that can carry only a single lane of traffic. At every highway intersection, there were traffic cops directing traffic to keep it flowing smoothly.
When we checked into the Escapee park in Livingston, TX, I explained that we were true Escapees – we had just escaped the wrath of hurricane Lili. The fat ladies behind the counter were totally unimpressed with my feeble attempt at humor and we were met with blank stares. After checking in, the fat lady who checked us in asked, “Do you want a hug or handshake?”
Hugging other Escapees, or Skips, as they like to be called, is an old tradition that dies hard. This tradition is more rigorously exercised at Livingston than at RV Parks found in other parts of the country. Maybe it is because the developers of the Escapees (Kay and Joe Peterson) live in the Livingston park and keep the tradition alive. Anyway, we got our hugs from the fat lady and hooked up at our RV site.
We watched the Weather Channel to follow the current developments of Hurricane Lili. It was gaining speed and was now classified as a level three hurricane, with winds more than 125 MPH. But as it neared land, it began to veer northward toward the coast of middle Louisiana. Feeling somewhat snug and a little smug that we had outwitted the storm, we settled down for the night.
We expected that the “wraparound” features of the hurricane would provide some north winds and rain to the Livingston area. But in the morning, I looked out the window into a clear, blue sky and a very light breeze. The Weather Channel reported that during the night, the storm had picked up speed and winds had reached 140 MPH – a very dangerous, class four storm. But as it approached the coast, it encountered some dry air that slowed its winds to only about 100 MPH. Winds of 140 MPH would have produced a tidal surge of up to 20 feet and would have been very damaging to coastal Louisiana. But after the winds diminished to only 100 MPH, the surge was only about 14 feet maximum – still a dangerous storm. From our vantage point in Livingston, we could see very dark, ominous, low and high-level clouds swirling in the east. It was like we had a ringside seat to a hurricane. Finally, about noon, the winds picked up a little from the north and some clouds appeared. We watched a child’s plastic chair blow across the road from a gust of wind, but no rain fell and we felt fortunate.
Then we blew back down the road back to Beaumont. The park where we had stayed a couple of days previously showed no evidence of being hit by rain or wind – not even a hint of a hurricane. We could have stayed there and watched Lili pass by with no great risk to ourselves. But given the same circumstances, I would evacuate again. Had a class four hurricane hit Beaumont, we could have experienced 100+ MPH winds. A motorhome is not the best place to ride out those kinds of winds. Like a travel trailer or a mobile home, they are not designed to survive high side winds. But the advantage of a motorhome or trailer is that when a hurricane threatens, they can quickly be driven to more hospitable climes. So I reckon we will just keep on dodging storms for a few more years till I am too old to drive anymore or tire of the adventures.
No comments:
Post a Comment