Hurricane Katrina

[Anonymous]

Approximately 70 employees are directly affected. KCS checked up on them by
phone or door-to-door when necessary. Employees evacuated to other areas have
been temporarily reassigned despite lack of seniority there (with cooperation of
the unions). Affected employees are allowed to take all 2005 and 2006 vacation
time now, or to receive pay for that time now. KCS has provided its own fuel to
the private vehicles of employees in affected areas short of fuel. It has also
given them bottled water and other supplies. KCS established a hotline for
employees whose paycheck or direct deposit was not received because of the
storm.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

With the possibility of tropical storm Rita becoming a hurricane today, and with it heading into the Gulf of Mexico, FEMA announced last night the re-evacuation of the evacuees housed at the Astrodome and GR Brown Convention center.
Starting today, they will begin bussing the dome folks to Ellington Field, where they will be flown to a camp in Arkansas, or anywhere in the continental US for free.

If Rita becomes a cat 4 or stronger, and if Houston suffers a direct hit, the flood plain extends from Galveston Island inland to west of IH10 and the outskirts of Houston, which is 45 miles inland.
A storm surge like that which hit New Orleans might manage to food that area for a day or two...
Houston is recalling all it power company crews from Louisiana, and has published evacuation routes inland.

Galveston Island and Galveston County have already issues a voluntary evacuation request, beginning today 09/20/05 at 1400 hours (2:00pm.)

Residents of the Gulf plains are urged NOT to come to Houston, but to continue further inland to Bryan/College Station, Brenham, Huntsville, as Houston itself may issue an evacuation order as early as Wednesday, and currently the availability of motel and hotels rooms here is almost zero.

Roughly anywhere east of Houston, there are no rooms to be had, and in the city proper, no motel reports any reasonable amount of space left.
If you evac, remember, we no longer have space for any more people, so head for the hill country!
Ed

That's exactly where we're going, to the hill country, Kerrville to be exact. My son said if it got bad we could come up there for the weekend. Good excuse to go visit anyway. If it goes where they predict, it will come right over us. If it came up through Matagorda bay, through Port Lavaca or Victoria, we could have some problems. We're only about 60 miles north of there. I'm not worrying, as there's not much we can do about it.


mike

[edblysard]

No worries either...
Got a good supply of kerosene for the camp stove and lanterns...got lots of bottled water, my wife keeps the pantry stocked full of canned goods and dry staples...and I can still make coffee in a old stove top percolater!

And, as Mike pointed out, not much you can do about it anyway....

Ed

[Anonymous]

Note: Port of Gulfport is a KCS customer.

LC

Port of Gulfport plans to reopen Sept. 30

The Associated Press

GULFPORT — The Port of Gulfport plans to reopen for cargo shipments Sept. 30, 32 days after damage from Hurricane Katrina shut it down, Executive Director Don Allee says.

The port, operated by the Mississippi State Port Authority, is the third-busiest container port on the Gulf of Mexico, according to the agency's World Wide Web site. It moves more than 2.3 million tons of cargo annually, including tropical fruit, frozen poultry, livestock and aluminum.

Allee said Wednesday that the port is one of the major U.S. points for incoming shipments of bananas and other fruit from Central America.

Crowley Maritime Corp., an Oakland, Calif.-based shipper, said Tuesday that it will resume its liner cargo services to and from Gulfport Oct. 1, starting with a shipment of cargo from Central America.