Evacuation Monologues Vol. II

Right before we pulled into the over-crowded Whataburger in Sealy, Crash started whining really urgently and trying to climb onto the window. This was odd behavior and I watched him, wondering what was going on. Then I saw it: The Squat. Crash had to poop. I grabbed a potty training pad and while driving a busy highway with one hand, I used my other to follow his ass around the seat to catch the poop. He was a good dog and pooped right in the pad.
I was thankful for that except I knew right then that my new car smell was shot. New Car Smell was replaced with Old Dog Shit.

When we left the Whataburger, we worked our way onto I-10. It was still early enough in the evacuation process that I-10 wasn’t a parking lot….yet.
It was slow moving but it was moving.
At some point during the trek, my nephew radioed me on the walkie talkie and said “Just imagine DeDe, if we were going to New Braunfels on a normal trip, we’d still be 3 hrs away.” We had now been on the road for 7 hours. I felt sick.
It was starting to get dark and my gas gauge was falling below half a tank. After all the warnings about gas shortages in Houston, I felt a little nervous. Crash also needed to poop again (it’s the medicine he’s taking for Cushing’s Disease). Once again, I performed my magic trick of holding the pad under him while he squatted and aimed.
This time it wasn’t as successful and his dog bed got dirty.
I decided it was time to pull off and take a break, walk the dogs, get some gas and for me to pee after several hours of holding it.
I called sister #2 on the radio but they were too far ahead and communication was spotty at best.
I could hear my nephew trying to answer but it was mostly static.
I flashed my lights at my mother and put on my blinker to signal to her to exit off the highway.
I yelled into the radio several times “We are stopping in Flatonia. I repeat. We are stopping in Flatonia.” (Later, my nephew will swear that I was saying “We are stopping at Tony’s for pancakes! I repeat. We are stopping at Tony’s for pancakes!”)
I figured they were long gone but it was ok. We all knew our way to New Braunfels by this time.
We had a much-needed break at a Shell station in Flatonia. We had lots of grass to walk the dogs, I was able to give them food and water, clean up the shit in the car, go to the bathroom myself and wash my hands within an inch of their lives and grab some snacks and a Dr. Pepper.
I didn’t feel quite so hysterical now and we made the trip to the motel without incident.

During this entire melee, I stayed calm on the outside. Inside, I wanted to scream and cry and beg God to spare us.
I prayed to God to save our homes and the lives of so many people but in order to ask God to save us, I was asking God to kill and destroy the homes of others. How could I do that? I’m not that selfish or heartless, am I?
From everything they were saying on the news and the meteorologist screaming “We’re all gonna die!” every time we turned on the TV, I knew it would take a miracle to keep us all safe. I didn’t think I believed in that kind of miracle. I sure wasn’t going to count on it.
My mom and I were super relieved to get to the motel but my heart fell a little when I realized that we were both on the 2nd floor. I live on the 2nd floor so it really doesn’t bother me but my mother doesn’t do well with stairs and I couldn’t stand the thought of her taking those stairs several times a day to let the dogs go potty so I knew it would fall to me.
I unloaded both of our cars starting with all 6 dogs and the cat and only unloading the suitcases and things we’d need in our rooms.
I then found a Walgreens close by to get litter for the cat and some supplies I figured we would need.
By this time it was 1 am, I was sweaty and filthy and tired beyond belief. I took the hottest shower I could stand and got into bed.
Sleep wasn’t even in the cards. How could I possibly close my eyes and sleep when my world was about to be destroyed?
I also hadn’t eaten since the night before but the thought of food sent my stomach into cartwheels.
This was when I cried. Alone in my motel room, surrounded by my confused dogs and my meager belongings, I cried in fear. What if everything I own will now fit into the trunk of my car? What if everything I thought was important to me will be gone in a few days?
What will my mom do when her house is reduced to rubble or washed right off its foundation?
Where will we go?
At 1am, my mom and I were safely in our rooms, sister #2 was tucked into a bed at her sister in law’s house but sisters #1, #3 and #4 were still on the road.
By morning, #3 had been on the road for 20 hrs and was still in Conroe. We couldn’t get in touch with #1 and #4. My mom was nervous.
You see, those cell phones we all carry with us for convenience and for safety were useless. Everyone was using their cell phones until the circuits overloaded and calls just couldn’t get through.
I would be driving directly behind my mother and sister and my calls would be met with a busy signal or a recording.
There were times when I felt like we were in a communication blackout. It was frustrating and horrifying at the same time.

The next day was filled with me taking 6 dogs out, 2 at a time, sitting in the room, refusing to watch anything on Hurricane Rita, running little errands for my mother and not eating.
We found out on this day that our motel was kicking us out after Friday. They didn’t have any available reservations and even though we had money to pay and we were already in our rooms, we were being forced to leave.
We called every motel in New Braunfels and the surrounding areas but there was nothing.
I wanted to curl up into a ball and just fade away. Things were going from bad to worse.
Then sister #2 called. Her brother-in-law and his family were on the road for 28 hrs and only got about 45 mins away from home. Their dog died in the car and they had had enough. They turned around and went back home to take their chances against the storm.
Their reservations at another resort hotel in New Braunfels were now available. We called and had them changed to our names but by Friday morning, our own motel had cancellations from people like them who just turned around and went back home after 20+ hrs on the road.
We could stay where we were.
On Friday morning, I finally allowed myself to watch a little coverage of the storm. It was a miracle! It had been downgraded to a low Cat 4 and it made a sharp turn to the north…it was now projected to hit northeast of us. This was amazing news for my area! Even if a bad storm hit, as long as it was on the right side of us, we would survive it.
I had hope now. I just might have that miracle I was afraid to count on before.
All day Friday, we watched the storm lessen in strength and continue to move northeast.
I kept saying, “How did we get so lucky? I can’t believe this!”
I promised myself that if my apartment was still standing when I got home, that I’d take 3 days off of work and clean it from top to bottom.
My sister felt the need to mention that it must be pretty bad if it was going to take 3 days. But whatever, I would still have a messy apartment to return to and I was happy about that.
Sometime on Friday, sister #3 had made it to her destination in Arlington after 35 hrs but we had still not heard from sister #1.
Sister #1 is an extreme animal lover. She fosters homeless cats and before the storm hit, she had 21 cats in her care.
She also has 4 dogs of her own.
She crated the cats and loaded up her Explorer while suitcases and boxes of belongings, as well as the dogs were in her husband’s truck ahead of her on the road.
We couldn’t imagine what became of them. The news showed unimaginable horrors on the evacuation routes out of Houston. We prayed to God that sister #1 wasn’t one of them.
Friday evening, before the storm hit, we finally got a call from her husband.
17 hours into their trip, sister #1’s Explorer died.
On Wednesday in the hottest part of the day, it was 104 degrees. She was out on the side of the road, with 21 cats in the extreme heat, trying to unload the truck and load the cats into the truck, then load their belongings into the Explorer. She left it on the side of the road and they continued on their way.
However, the cats were getting overheated and started screaming in agony. The sound of their misery echoed in her head and nearly drove her mad with helplessness.
Her husband’s ex-wife lived just north of Houston so they took the cats to her house, begged her to keep them and headed out of town to their final destination. At least they were safe.
Sister #4 at some point, made it to San Antonio after 20+ hours, safe and sound.
The lesson we learned so far? We’ll always stay together. There will be no more “every man for himself” shit. Mom wants all her chicks under her wing during times of crisis.