Rock you like a hurricane!!

Little did I know when I sung the evergreen Scorpions' song on stage for Rhythmica's Tonic, in June earlier this year, that it'd really come running and rocking like this for me :D.

Yes, for starters, hurricane Gustav, the major hurricane that was supposed to hit the US Gulf Coast, let all of us hither thither, scampering for a safer place. Of course the fact remains that this, happening in a few days time of my class starting here, at Lamar let me a little bothered.

Gustav was playing with our minds. Let me use present, for obvious reasons - I don't wanna enrage it again :P. It created havoc in Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and strengthened consistently over a very slow period of time before attaining a superior status and making a landfall at Cuba. Needless to say, Cuba should have been devastated. A majority of the oil rigs of the US, in the Gulf of Mexico were shut down and oil prices soared up. There were predictions that as Gustav - (I really wonder who names all these hurricanes. Gustav means, 'staff of the Goths', by the way) would enter the Gulf, it'd intensify to its highest attainable degree, the Category 5 status. Now, the last time such a hurricane hit New Orleans, which is about 270 miles from here, flyovers in Beaumont were under water. When I got to know that, I really knew I could panic. I mean, it was valid to panic.

My normal brain could also realise that it'd mean, getting air tickets to my cousins' place at California or Arizona would be far fetched in terms of availability. And since the oil prices soared, you didn't need a genius brain to guess the prices of the flight tickets. The airport that is close to Beaumont is under a flyover's height, so, technically, the airport would be shut down before the city receives havoc rainfall.

I'd to get to Houston to board a flight. On a bus. From the bus stop, a cab, to the airport. Then see what flights are empty. Then board whichever was. Then reach either CA or AZ. I thought its getting way far fetched than what I'd imagined and cancelled that plan. One of my very good friends - Nani arranged for accommodation at Arlington and let me decide for myself about the way to go till there. He works FAST! I chat with him at eerie hours of early morning from Beaumont, to Bangalore, and he arranges for my stay at Arlington! It wasn't difficult for me. I mean, Arlington is a 5 hour drive from where I stay. I could easily hop on to a bus and ride off. By then, the college declared a shut down on the Tuesday and there were rumours that they would take us to Dallas, which is closer to Arlington! I'm sure there was some connection breach when we were chatting ;).

So, by Friday noon, it was known that Gustav would hit, and it would hit real bad. So, we were told to evacuate and if we required the services of the university, we could board the arranged buses by 5 PM. After long hours of registrations and waiting, [love to say this] at 6:20 PM sharp American Standard Time, [;)] we left. Took some photos in case the roof would get blown over our house.

There was traffic that fateful day! We were being taken to Huntsville, which is some 113 miles from here, and ideally takes some 2 odd hours. We reached Huntsville at 1 AM. This was because of the traffic purely, won't say AST here :P. 

We stayed at Sam Houston State University. Man! What a campus! I was wondering why I didn't know about this university till I heard that it doesn't offer Engineering as a major. Such a pity! SHSU also comes under the Texas State University System apparently, so, it was a sister concern for them to take us in. 

I expected it to be a refugee camp. Frankly. What else would you expect when you drop in, in numbers exceeding 200 to a university at 1 AM? YES? NO! Once we got ourselves registered, they put on a pink (why pink on earth, I still don't know) band on our wrists, that was water proof, which was a permission for us to use the facilities SHSU students could use, albeit with a very few restrictions, which were understandable.

American food! Yeah. I wouldn't say YEAH! Coz, you know what I'm talkin' about ;). But the best part was, you could actually eat till your stomach was full. Since I'm an exotic food lover - [subbu coined that term], I thought of trying all the food from beef to turkey to fish to pork. Somehow I couldn't convince myself to eat pork. The rest were ok. [:)] The eating hours are odd, with lunch at 11 and dinner at 5! AT 5? Yeah. At 5! But added to this, was the unlimited free snacks that were given in any required quantity from 7 AM to 11 PM. Anything from water, cold water, fruit juices, snack bars, chips, honey-buns, et al! We could also ask for a toiletries pack, which would have a toothpaste, a brush, a comb, a mouthwash, and a deodorant. We could also ask for towels, soap, shampoo and hair gel. Not that it was humid like in Beaumont, but for cleanliness freaks like me. As though we require to do all that when we are in the AC 24 x 7 :P. I went to check out the showers on sunday. The men's locker rooms. We've seen that in movies. Open showers and all. It was good! And what do we do after all this? Go to the basketball court where all the guys were put up, recline on the half-couch, half-cot-something and plug in your laptop to the free Wi-Fi of the university. You wanted to sit and surf the net? No problems. The university was generous enough to provide us with around 10 laptops, at one end of the basketball court, with internet access, needless to say. There were basketball courts, for people who would play, and swimming for people who could swim, I'll also mention soccer, rugby and pool. [Yes, I was imagining how much you'd have played, chetan ;)] Oh, and whenever we walked around the dining hall, which was a little far from the place we stayed, we got.. Ok, I'd say I got some female attention because of the pink band (now I know why pink :)) and I'd end up talking and explaining them that we are EVACUEES from Beaumont. Phew! EVACUEES!

Meanwhile, the hurricane had subsided, (unfortunately :P) and a meeting was called to tell us that we'd be leaving Huntsville to Beaumont. And seriously, none of us liked to leave at all! It was an evacuation trip - sounds like a road trip or something! In the wildest dreams wherever I've imagined of living a royal life, I'd never imagined I'd be treated like this, under these circumstances, where in, the people arranged shuttle services from the basketball courts to the dining hall, on monday, when, few showers were expected toward the evening! A shuttle for a 5 minute walk!

Anyways, we're back, back in Beaumont. The place looks barely touched by the hurricane. So much for all the hoopla about it. Gustav is currently a tropical storm, somewhere over Dallas, and Louisiana was saved of the bitter experience.