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John/SW Houston,

An O'Reilly Auto Parts flier came today, on the back they have :"Receiver Racks" , 2" , 500 lbs. cap, 20' x 60", $54.99, part#: SMT 7700.

Ask and you might receive.

Good Idea, wish I had a receiver........OE

Nothing like hijacking a thread.
Did anybody learn anything from their evacuation experience??
OE

We're back.
I haven't seen a computer for 5 days.

We started to prepare at sun up tues. 9/20. I went to Walley World for MORE batteries, bottled H2O, canned goods etc..

Wed. it was looking real bad (cat 5 175mph winds). I started cutting limbs around the mobil home and putting away or tying down anything that might fly, until it was dark. Then I went inside to round up supplies and organize.

Thur. I boarded up the windows while Mrs. OE hauled away all the limbs I had cut. Then I put the tractor under the "New" carport next to the "project truck" and proceeded to make like spiderman. I used logging chain and nylon tie down straps and rope to tie the carport to the tractor and truck.

We decided that if on Fri. morning we were in an area with projected winds above 70mph we would leave. Fri. AM we were in the "Cone" on the backside with projected winds of 80-100mph.

We loaded my p/u with tarps, a case (24) of bottled water, 5 gals for the dogs and washing, 2 chainsaws,oil, 1 gal mixed gas, 3/ 5gal gas cans, full icechest, MRE's, trioxane fuel tabs, dog food, rope, tools, some clothes and important papers. I had room in the cab for me, 1 dog, flashlights, batteries, radio, firstaid supplies, food,water, fire extinguisher and "a few personal protection devices" and accessories.

Mrs. OE got a case of bottled water, more flashlights and batteries, food, fire extinguisher, battery powered TV, her clothes and shoes and clothes and shoes.... oh, and she had some room left for the other dog and more dog food and last but not least "a few personal protection devices" and accessories.

In the midst of the CHAOS my younger sibling showed up. After setting out from Spring on Thur. to go to San Antonio, 4 HOURS of driving had only resulted in covering the distance that would normally be covered in 45 min.
My sibling was evacuating to S/A with 3/4 of a tank of gas, a little foam cooler with 4 pieces of string cheese, some yogurt and fruit, with the "unfrozen" ice packs in a plastic bag. A few packs of peanut butter/cheese crackers, a pack of gum, some Tic Tacs, 6 bottles of water and the cat rounded out the disaster supplies. " I'm only going to S/A"

Fri. at 0900 the convoy hit the trail, Mrs. OE on the point, Sibling in the rocking chair, and OE bringing up the rear.
We picked a spot that nobody had mentioned on TV. Temple, Killleen, Waco. We zig and zag over to Sommerville and caught 36 north. We covered 180 some miles in about 3-1/2 hrs. (60-75mph all the way)

We looked at a couple of places in Temple, "No Vacancy". We went on up to Waco. The first place we stopped had rooms so we got 2.

We stayed Fri. night. Early Sat. we saw on the Weather Channel that the storm had gone to Beaumont/Port Arthur. We called the one who had stayed home ( "Youall are crazy leaving, it isn't going to amount to anything......) he told us everything was OK, power on and "I told you so".
(He one of Mrs. OE's family)

We had biscuits and sausage at WhataBurger and headed for home at 0900 Sat. am the same way we had come almost. We went south on 77 to Cameron instead of 35 to Temple. 3-1/2 hrs later we were back home safe and sound, no damage to the homestead and the carport was still there.

I'm going to change a few things to fine tune our "Disaster Plan" but all things considered we thought it went OK for being the first time.

OE