Rita -- Evacuation Hell

There are 2.5 million evacuee stories out of the Houston area.....this is mine.

We were 42 hours without sleep, and 27 hours on the road.

Departing 11:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 21, it took 12 hours to travel 52 miles to Conroe, TX. Three, six, ten mph, standstill. A gridlocked, neverending nightmare.

Found a Shell station in Conroe with no long lines, but lots of people, cars and a situation out of control. We were next in line, so I got out of the car to stand in front of the pump to prevent cutters. At that moment, the store clerk announced the store was closed -- only credit cards at pump. It was obvious she couldn't handle the crowd. Probably some stealing at the pump and in the store. Seconds later, a cop appeared to say the pumps were closed, too. They weren't out of gas, just trying to prevent chaos. We moved on, got gas at another station -- no problem. We never encountered a problem getting gas after that.

Three hours and 30 miles later -- Huntsville, TX -- no motels, no shelters.

Left the interstate, took the backroads to College Station, TX -- no motels, no shelters.

Kept going -- hit Hwy. 6 into Waco -- no motels, no shelters. One motel clerk gave me a phone number for a FEMA person, who directed us to an available shelter in Evant, TX.

Evant is about 70 miles west of Waco. We arrived 2:30 Friday morning. A church pew never slept so good.

--LynZee