Passover, Exodus: A mess to some, a miracle for others.

Rita was a giant red storm, the spawn of Jupiter. Days away from arrival she provoked fear and panic into Houston. A city of millions attempted to flee the storm, and the expected devastation. Already filled with evacuees from New Orleans, the coastal residents began to pour upstream in the cement channels of Houston's interstates. As Rita began to set her sights on Houston, like Mordor's gaze, the collective chests tightened and frenzied stay behinds made preparations. Gasoline, water, ice, batteries, bread, canned goods, charcoal, and chips disappeared from the shelves and stores began to close. The city shuttered and shut down, for how long, no one knew.

It was the nano-Apocalypse.

In the 1990 Iraq war, a column of 100,000 Iraqi troops fled Kuwait as the Iraqi frontlines collapsed under the might of the US invasion. The fleeing column eventually was overtaken by planes and helicopters, destroying men and machine in a hail-storm of ammunition death. In Houston, Exodus 2005, a column of Houstonians were fleeing the city which was about to be invaded by a hurricane. The congested freeways and gasoline deprived cars began to sputter and stop. Traffic collapsed under its own weight. Tiny cars, filled with valuables, people and pets were about to be blown away like leaves before the blower. Queue Mr. Bill yelling "Oh, no!...."

For those who stayed it was somewhat the feeling of the Titanic. Polish the silver and keep the band playing.

The saturation point for live news coverage came early, and there really wasn't more that a person could watch about the Galveston preparations. The town was empty except for minimal government and a small army of reporters, working to make their name with the storm. Armed with raincoats and water proof cameras they were ready to stand in the wet wind-tunnel, reporting on just how strong the storm had become. They constantly were looking for 'storm-sign'. Was the water higher? No, that was just high tide. Was then wind stronger? Yes, but still ever so tame. Where was the danger?

Hurricane Rita had been led away, like an dim witted, incontinent psycho killer, by a high pressure region that kept moving towards Kentucky. It was great news for Houston, but horrible news for Orange, TX and Lake Charles, LA.

The storm struck Houston in the darkest, earliest portion of Saturday morning. I was asleep in the air conditioned apartment. Every so often I would be awoken by the sound of a transformer being blow up in the neighborhood. I was certain that my block was next, but it never occurred. The windows rattled like band equipment, but never broke. The rain came down in occasional sheets but the storm was subdued. It looks like the dry air of Texas, once it was sucked into the storm, came around the back side of Rita, and sucked the moisture out from her side, like a dagger to the ribcage, leaving her wounded to stumble north and die in Arkansas. She lived long enough to destroy the rural east and put the whole coast in to disarray.

Saturday afternoon in Houston was like perpetual morning. The breeze, lack of traffic and fast moving clouds, kept the city dark and cool, perfect for raking leaves and branches off the messy lawns and streets.

Taking a bicycle ride through the city on Saturday afternoon showed the many houses boarded up with plywood. Those who couldn't cover the windows with plywood - bought, borrowed, or outright stolen from construction sites, would tape their windows with crosses, asterisks, and the like.

It reminded me of Passover. As God sends his storm to take the lives of the first born, believers would put the lamb's blood on their threshold telling the lord to spare their home. Houston's crosses were there to keep the windows from shattering into shards should they be breached by wind-blown debris, not quite the same, but it had the same effect of showing publicly who was a believer.

Slowly, the Starbucks are sporadically reopening. Banks will have cash again. The daily traffic that we’ve come to expect will be back up to full strength again. What will we have learned from all of this? That category 5 hurricanes rarely live longer than 48 hours? That an entire city can’t evacuate in a single day. That the city shouldn't really evacuate as much as it should just shelter in place, saving fuel and allowing daily life to return quickly. Every house and business should have a plan on how to board it’s windows and to know their neighbors. Everyone should expect and plan for not being able to use the phone or air conditioner for several days. I think it also shows that we need to have drills, like fire drills in buildings, on how to get ready or get out of town in case of national disaster. Employees need to be designated as emergency personnel, people who get special pay and provisions for sticking out a disaster so that recovery times are reduced. Lastly, certain gas stations, grocers, banks, bakeries, and schools need to be ready for providing food, medication, medical care, and water in the days following a city shut down.

I don’t think we would be prepared if a meteor was to strike the earth. I think it’s time we all start talking about how we would respond should the horseman be spotted. Someone ask the Mormons, I think they've got some vivid plans.

When people evacuated the city, I decided to stay behind. My school had been designated a shelter on Wednesday, but by Friday when I showed up to assist, the plan had changed to another school, so I didn’t have a role to play after all. I was under-prepared and under-employed, all I had left to do was wait and watch.

I have some photos that I can post, besides that, life is back to normal. We’ll have to see what metaphorical bodies float to the surface in the coming days after the storm.

Side note on miracles: Shortly before the storm was tracked to hit Houston, I began tutoring, Ambrine a Muslim teenager, a high school senior, who had been sick the previous week. She had been unable to attend school due to illness and had a mountain-sized backlog of homework and tests to do before report cards. God delivered to her a storm so big that it shut down school for a whole week, enough time to get all of her work done, but she completely slacked off and now only has two days to do the same amount of work. Let’s hope she overcomes what is now more obviously a psychological issue rather than a pathological one, so that she can graduate like a normal senior, God willing.