<p>I just got off the phone with my son who's a sophomore at Rice. At this point, they have cancelled classes for Thursday and Friday. We were suppose to fly down to Houston tomorrow for Families Weekend, but that is now off due to Rita. I could tell there was some anxiety in my son's voice when he called. You can only imagine my anxiety level with us being in New Hampshire and he in Houston. We do snowstorms, not hurricanes. My son said that he possibly has the opportunity to go to Austin with some friends to a relatives home. Earlier in the day my thought was he should stay on campus and be taken care of with the masses. Venturing out with a small group makes me nervous. Any thoughts from those who are hurricane veterans on the best path to follow?</p>
<p>Is it possible for him to fly out of there? Classes are cancelled, you are worried and perhaps he can get into Logan or Manchester......perhaps a cheap ticket from online? Frequent Flyer miles? Or will he refuse to leave?</p>
<p>Peariceparent: My daughter is at Rice and we live in Austin. We actually advised her to stay at Rice for the storm. I think the traffic is going to be terrible, and she is probably safer at Rice. She is off campus in a lowlying garage apartement. She said that Rice has asked off-campus students to move to campus - so she is going to do that tomorrow - and she is going to put all her stuff up high on tables, in case it floods. I think it will be safe.</p>
<p>Does your son have a landline way to phone you to keep you uptodate? He only needs the number not the card.....you may want to get a card if you don't have one.....sometimes cell service is spotty but land lines will work.</p>
<p>Hang in there.......hurricanes are not like blizzards.</p>
<p>I just checked flights out, which are possible. But who knows when to go back? My guess is that he wouldn't want to leave anyway. The possibility of missing classes on Monday are not in his vocabulary (hazmat, you understand...it's an Exeter thing).</p>
<p>I'm really thinking he should stay put at Rice. Watching the reports on tv, I'm sure you're correct, anxiousmom, that the roads are impossible. Rice really appears to have their act together which is comforting.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the encouraging words and suggestions.</p>
<p>I understand your concern...I'm a bit nervous myself and I'm a Native Texan who has lived through Carla, Beulah and Celia! But I think your son will be well taken care of...the Rice buildings are very well built and the campus has big generators! Lights and A/C...precious commodities in the days after.... </p>
<p>Our family considered leaving, but if Rita stays on track she'll follow Carla's path through Matagorda, and then head north and actually pass almost as closely to Austin as Houston. There may not be an advantage to getting out on roads that may quickly become difficult to travel.</p>
<p>My big question is how is my h.s. senior supposed to prepare for her SAT IIs with all this commotion going on? :-)</p>
<p>Laurensmom06: I found a weather web site that says Harris County zone A is supposed to be under a mandatory evacuation, and the zone b and c are under a mandatory evacuation beginning at 6:00 tomorrow - but NOWHERE do I see information about what zone Rice is!!!! I'm assuming that they are not included in the mandatory evacuation???</p>
<p>Staaaay at Riiiiice!!!</p>
<p>After TS-Allison, which I was there for, Rice was barely scathed. It has its own power generators, its own private well for water, and while the Med Ctr across the street was walloped by the 200-year storm a few years ago, Rice sustained only very minor damage. The college is very well prepared. Stay there. Plenty of food and water, and you've got the best flooding and hydrology experts in the country over there. I studied with those guys (Phil Bedient in particular), I've looked at the topo's and have seen design examples for the overland flow channels on campus, and they've made ABSOLUTELY sure that Rice, their flood-data headquarters, will stay afloat in nearly ANYTHING that nature throws at it. Heck, you can even watch the flooding in real-time on the internet, via Rice technology! =) So... the university will survive just fine. It's the pride and joy of those flood engineers, and Rice will be the fortress of the city of Houston.</p>
<p>See that for details. Stay put. Tell your kids to stay put, too.</p>
<p>I just looked at another map of Harris county - I didn't realize it is so HUGE. I still don't know which section is the part that is under a mandatory evacuation, but my guess it is the area closest to the coast. I'm thinking Dd should try to move everything of value to Rice. Her little garage apartment is more like a shanty stuck on the side of a rickety house. I'm sure that it will flood, and wouldn't be surprised if the roof just blows right off! She should probably tape up the windows. It's doubtful if she has any masking tape to do so.... of well, life's lesson.</p>
<p>anxiousmom, I saw a map on TV and Rice was not in any of the evacuation areas. Somewhere on the Rice website I also read that in the worse-case scenario, they could get 1-2 feet of water on campus. I would suggest that your daughter ask her college masters about bringing belongings on campus. I know my son will sleep with his laptop if he has to.</p>
<p>I just got off the phone with my s. I had a hard time getting through to him on his cellphone!! For now, he is in the process of making plans to go to a friends house in San Antonio (plans aren't finalized). After reading the article from the Rice webpage, I was feeling comfortable with his going to campus and staying in the Res. College (he lives off campus this year), but apparently a lot of people are heading out of town.
He'd planned, if he isn't driving, to park his car in the parking decks at the medical center. I thought that was a good idea, but aibarr's post is making me nervous about that!!</p>
<p>The damage at the med center was in basements, where their generators are. Parking in the decks at the med center should be just fine. It was just their basements, and then their utilities.</p>
<p>Off-campus students have been invited to bring their essentials (especially prescription medication!!) and stay at their residential college, and I'd say that's a really good plan, based upon what happened during Allison.</p>
<p>Thanks aibarr-- I feel better. Sounds like they are still planning to go to San Antonio. By the way, do liquor and fireworks count as essentials :D</p>
<p>D and her boyfriend are on the way to Dallas- normally a 4 hour drive. We heard on the radio up here in Dallas that the drive is now 10 hours. I can not reach her on the cell- circuits are busy. Unfortunately, H and I are leaving Dallas at 6am by car to drive to see Wild Child in the northeast and take him his car, which he needs for college recruiting visits from his boarding school. What a nightmare. If anyone needs to come to Dallas, send me a message- the house is available!</p>
<p>I'll chime in as another person who was on the Rice campus during Tropical Storm Allison. Campus is one of the best and safest places to be in Houston when this storm hits. The campus pumping system will be working around the clock to keep water levels manageable and, as aibarr said, the campus had very little damage compared to the buildings literally across the street. The additional construction on US-59 to lower the freeway below surface level has created even more water retention capacity north of campus than there was when Allison hit. (And that's a good thing. If you find pictures of US-59 from Allison on the web, you'll know what I mean.)</p>
<p>There are <em>NO</em> mandatory evacuation zones currently inside Loop 610, where Rice resides. Again, it's going to be one of the safest places to be in the Houston area. If your student has no relatives farther inland or doesn't know Texas geography all that well, there's probably little reason to get on the road and stress about it. Parking the car at a higher elevation might also be wise, though my car at ground level received no damage from Allison (granted, it was a TS not a cat. 4-5 hurricane).</p>
<p>My only word of warning is to have students avoid elevators whereever possible as some may flood in basement levels and become inoperable. That resulted in one death in the medical center as the elevator submerged into water at sub-basement levels. At least one elevator bank at Rice was also inoperable due to water leaking into the shaft from the roof -- no one was harmed on campus, at least.</p>
<p>I left Rice this evening and went back to my parents' house in Sugar Land. But basically Rice will be a safe haven during the storm. They've boarded up a lot of the windows in the commons areas of the colleges, and as mentioned on the Rice website, there will be enough food/water/other resources to house everyone at Rice, including OC students, for several days. </p>
<p>As a Rice student, I have been being kept informed about the storm through emails from our college masters and coordinators. They've basically advised us to remove any items we've had in the college basement, move electronics away from windows, etc. The plan, at least at Jones, is to have everyone spend the night in the closed hallways or the commons during the worst of the storm. It seems as if everyone will pull through together, although it is anticipated that Rice will be losing power for a bit during torrential winds. </p>
<p>Generally, I would have felt relatively safe on campus, but many students who live in and around Houston have left to be with their families at this time. Classes are cancelled for the rest of the week, and my early prediction is that they will be cancelled for the first few days of next week, though that would be if the hurricane causes substantial damage to the Houston area and those of us going OC would have difficulties returning. </p>
<p>Oh, and I now don't have a Spanish test tomorrow. Yay.</p>
<p>So don't worry, parents!</p>
<p>Anxiousmom - yes the mandatory evacuation zones are all along the bay...Kemah, LaPorte etc...to Galveston. This is due to expected storm surge. Rice is well inside the Loop and not near a storm surge area. </p>
<p>We did decide to board up and go to my in-laws in SA. Believe it or not, they drove all the way to Houston today to deliver a a generator to us...and we are worried about them getting back. Plus we are in Far NW Harris County...it looks like the storm will cut in close to Hempstead when it makes its track north, putting us in the very worst part of the storm. But we would stay in a minute if we were at Rice....Rice students will have no worries and tales for the grandchildren.</p>
<p>We leave in 3 hours...be safe everyone!</p>
<p>D and her boyfriend (and another student) have been on the road for 12 hours and have not yet reached Dallas. The gas stations along I45 have run out of gas. She is in good spirits and about to be home.</p>
<p>Well we are back. We got to I-10 at about 5:30 a.m. after leaving our home at 4:30 a.m. After 3 hours we had only progressed from Barker Cypress to Mason Road...a distance of approximately 1 mile. The situation on the road was getting out of hand...people walking around among cars, using the bathroom on the side of the road, strangers peering into vehicles. No law enforcement in sight. Wouldn't want to be out there this evening. But still.... what a gut check to turn around and go back to what I assumed would be a pretty scary situation.</p>
<p>Then walked in the door to see they had revised the storm track....landfall as a Cat 3, 115 mph winds between Baytown and Beaumont. Yea!! The majority of Harris County will only get sustained winds of 40-75 mph...tropical storm strength according to the latest bulletin. Only the very eastern tip of Harris County near Channelview/Baytown is predicted to get low level hurricane force winds. Again....just a forecast....but hey I'll take it!</p>
<p>Rice students and faculty should be very safe on campus!</p>
<p>What a plan for evacuation......nice traffic plan and all. The pics of it TV looked miserable for all.</p>