Stronger, Faster, and Ghettoer

Saturday, September 24

:: Oh...It's coming right for us...::

Shreveport-Bossier City -- home to thousands of temporary evacuees and a populace worried about heavy rain, high winds and power outages -- braced today for the arrival of the remnants of Hurricane Rita.

Weather forecasters said there could easily be 6 to 12 inches of rain as the storm moves through East Texas and western Louisiana, with outside chances of 8 to 20 inches in some places.

There was some good news: Rita weakened slightly to a Category 3 hurricane today. But it will probably still be a tropical storm when it reaches this area Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning.

The National Weather Service said the storm could produce tornadoes, flooding rains and sustained winds of 20-30 mph around Shrevpeort, with gusts up to 40 mph. Winds will be higher in areas farther south like the Lufkin-Nacogdoches area, the Weather Service said.

Rains in advance of the storm are expected to arrive tonight.

The rainfall will end the drought that has been plaguing the area, the Weather Service said.

Residents topped off their gas tanks and grabbed up supplies today, worried they might have no electricity in their homes after Rita blows through.

There were very few quick trips to the store, where bottled water and flashlight batteries and non-perishable foods flew off the shelves.

Several gas stations ran out of fuel, even as others got new supplies.

People lined up for sandbags in Shreveport and Bossier City, worried their homes might get flooded. Bossier City limited how many sandbags people could get, while Shreveport urged only those whose homes had flooded in the past to stop by. The wait to get sandbags was an hour at times.KTBS 3

.......Yeah. I'm a bit paranoid now. Maybe, I'm just paranoid after what happened in Wal-Mart. People were going ape shit over some batteries. A fist fight broke out over it, in fact. It's insane here. As soon they said that we will get some of the hurricanes' "love", people went into full metal panic. I'm all for being prepared for a serious storm ( Yes, We are prepared. We got some water, batteries, propane for the deep fryer if need, food--sandwich meat..woot..., and some entertainment...homework and portable c.d. player.) but, trying to kill each other over some batteries is not necessary, people. Yeah, I'm a bit worried but I'm not going around threatening to stab people with a cane nor nearly cause accident on the road because you saw a cloud in the sky. Dark cloud that looks like satan..ok, fine. A cloud that looks like a bunny hugging a heart. Too fucking cutesy wutesy but not "Oh shit!!! It's God! DRIVE FASTER." Stay calm. Shessh. People are fucking crazy when they switch into survival mode.

| posted @ 12:06 AM