i am concerned for them as well. I am just pointing out that because of katrina, this storm was made into the storm of the century, which it wasn't. School was closed on thursday and friday, and won't reopen till wednsday.
The thing is, this storm had too much news coverage. I think that if you had seen what was going on from the local standpoint, you would understand what I am talking about more. Starting thursday, there was almost round the clock coberage on local news, even though the stom wasn't supposed to hit until saturday morning. Galveston had mandatory evacuations, and it should have as this island has been devasted in the past, in 1900 a hurricane hit, destroying the city, killing 8,000 people. Then, houston had voluntary evacuations in some areas, it is a HUGE city. THis is where it became absurd. tens of thousands (probably more) of people tried to leave. All major highways became parking lots, people were running out of gas, needed water, etc. I heard on the news one evening that a man who was trying to leave, was talking to ne reporters on his way back. He left at 4:30 am, and was in his car for 14 hours or something. It was made into something that it wasnt. There really was no need to leave. The worst tragedy was that a bus full of old people from a nursery home in bellaire, right next to my synagogue, left to evacuate, even though they really didn't need to. Outside of dallas, the bus caugh fire, and 20 people died, which definately should not have happened.
So don't take me wrong, this storm was pretty bad, caused lots of damage where it went, but it wasn't as bad as people were saying it would be.
Here some info on the great storm of 1900.
http://www.click2disasters.com/galveston/galveston_storm_ch1.htm