HURRICANE RITA HEADS FOR TEXAS GULF COAST

Traffic on Dallas freeways was horrendous today, a result of hundreds of thousands of Houstonians and other residents along the Texas Gulf coast fleeing their homes and attempting to find shelter inland. Dallas has absolutely no available hotel rooms -- we're expecting a huge convention this weekend (wonder if they'll reconsider?). My own company had taken 200 rooms at a local hotel for a meeting but canceled it because so many of the executives attending were connecting through Houston. One major benefit of the cancellation was the releasing of those hotel rooms to evacuees.

People on the roads are reporting traffic jams out of the Houston area that result in 10-12 hours to move 60 miles. Highways have been closed to southbound traffic and all four-six lanes opened up moving north to facilitate the evacuation. I talked to people who were closing up our Houston office yesterday, and one guy told me his family was heading all the way to Oklahoma City just to be safe.

By all reports, Hurricane Rita is going to be a monster. They're even telling us now it will hit Dallas Sunday evening probably as a category I, possibly a II. But everyone I know has turned their thought to the New Orleans area, just hoping and praying that Rita will have negligible effect on the Big Easy.