'Night On The Town'

"Oh Lord won't you buy me a night on the town
I'm counting on you Lord, please don't let me down.
Prove that you love me & buy the next round.
Oh Lord won't you buy me a night on the town."

-- Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin

Predictably, power was down last night around the landfall point of Hurricane Rite, but some of the local bloggers in the Houston area whom we've been following were active.

Brazosport News reminded us that Port Arthur is the birthplace of Janis Joplin and home to the Janis Joplin Museum. Due to the storm the web site is currently down but Google has a rather dim cache of the home page. Visit the Official Janis Joplin web site to convey condolences.

After an attempt to evacuate, getting caught in gridlock, running dangerously low on gas, and deciding to give up and return, we learn from Barista's husband that she is well and back in Houston, riding the storm out with her mother in a "hardened" hospital. "Ironically," she finally found gas "right by the hospital."

But get this: at a station where all you had to do was tear the 'out of service' bag off the pump! Now, that looks like a trick you can try at home! Generation Why? gives a blow-by-blow account of his evacuation ordeal. It took him 9 hours to go 60 miles (consuming gas at 15 miles/gal.). Apparently, he just missed the bus explosion, too.

Matt Hardigree of the group blog Burnt Orange Report covered the local media -- which apparently was being uncovered during the storm:

The Reporter From KHOU-TV (11) losing his KHOU hat and chasing it into the Gulf of Mexico "Arnesto, can you... awwww!"
* * *
The guy who lost his hat, just lost his photographer and then holds up the wind measurement device (anemometer) and says "I think it's about 12 mph." Dr. Neil Frank (former head of the National Hurricane Center) is wise enough to tell him that his device is probably miscalibrated or he's using it incorrectly.

I'm relocating to the living room, an update when something happens or I get drunk.

There is more.