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Dry, quiet. Power still on. Might not get to use any of our shiny new flashlights. (Got my maglite from C+A’s wedding, JIC.)

Power starting to blip.

The rains have started.

The Rice emergency page currently has a letter from President Leebron:

Rice is well prepared for the oncoming storm. As I write this, the winds
are indeed beginning to increase. We are asking everyone to be secure in
their shelter building not later than 7:00 PM. unless advised otherwise by
those in charge of their shelter building. We estimate that a bit more than
2,000 students, staff and faculty and their families are on campus.

The page goes on to state that students are being fed, the mood is good, and that classes will be cancelled on Monday to give Rice time to transition back to proper working order.

Now it’s down to 1″ of rain. All this preparation for that?

Been breezy all morning, but still quite clear & hot. We’re now only expected to get 4″ of rain here in Sugar Land.

We should start seeing some weather by 6PM, and will probably continue to experience direct hurricane effects for another twelve hours. The net effect of the storm’s eastward corrections is a substantially better outlook for those of us on the west side of town.

It took hours for officials to begin recommending that residents stay in their homes, even after the situation on the highways became absurd. The newscasters all wanted to say it, but since no official had given the word, the best they could do was to say “Each of us needs to make a choice, whether to chance it on the roads or chance it at home.” Finally, last night, Bill White said in a press conference that “the time to leave had past,” and so the talking heads were free to repeat it.