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Day 25: Hurricane Rita Evacuation, Distance Math

Hurricane Rita Evacuation: Never a dull moment here at Evacuation Central in Stepford! Rita appears to have turned northward, evidently skipping Galveston and Houston altogether (too early to tell), but downtown and south Houston are in a tizzy.

By The Bayou, arrived last night with Boris, the iMac and all of his perishables in tow.

Yes, we’ve decided to ride it out in the wilds of northern Houston (or as txyankee just said, “ok, ok, Kingwood, 77345”) because we’re, in the words of D,

about 60 miles in from the coast and about 75 ft above sea level. We’re also about 4 ft up off of the street here. There is a lake just south of here, but it’s been created by a dam – no worries. The storm surge will not affect Kingwood, but the heavy rains will and we expect all the million-dollar homes right on the lake flooded while the rest of the town is ok. Other Houstonians are coming to stay with us and we expect the cat population to get as high as 8. People-wise I think we’ll have maybe 6. Food and water is available for everyone, pets included, to last about a week. We also have a fresh tank of gas for the grill and a power inverter that we can hook up to a car to run small appliances, like the coffee maker and our iPods, the essential things during an emergency! We also seem to have a fully-stocked wine cellar and liquor cabinet.

Moreover, I am sick of getting in a car and … going … somewhere. Hurricane or not, we’re staying put!

txyankee, ByTheBayou, D, Bucky, Satchel, Frik, Frak, Yoda, Olet, Boris, and me (and, quite possibly, Rusty and his cat, Nibbles) = one heck of a hurricane party. Still footage forthcoming.

With all of the state’s problems, I really don’t want Rita to hit southwestern Louisiana, but some of us have had enough of high-speed weather systems for a while.

Mathematics From A Distance: Matt Ludwig of UW-Madison Geology & Geophysics alerts me to a distance learning program for higher-math students displaced by Katrina. Suffolk University has “established the Distance Calculus – Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort.”

Students from Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama whose studies have been disrupted by the hurricane and its aftermath, are invited to enroll in one of our Distance Calculus courses for Fall 2005 semester – free of charge – with the tuition fees being waived by Suffolk University.

Distance Calculus offers Calculus I, Calculus II, Calculus III, Vector Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra courses, all taught on-line, through Suffolk University in Boston. Credit earned in these courses can be transferred to a student’s home institution.

It’s too bad I’ve taken all of these courses or I’d sign up to keep my mind pleasantly occupied at a time like this. What a great use of the internet – a hurricane evacuation is no reason to stop learning!

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