My fear for Rita is almost tangible.
Thursday, 09/22/05 - 9:29 pm.

Since the morning, I've been feeling like throwing up.

My brother and his family are stuck in Houston. I kept up with the news all morning, and I got to the conclusion "they MUST leave", as well as "it's IMPOSSIBLE to leave". That's probably why I wanted to throw up, and still do. I'm not dizzy, or disgusted, my stomach keeps doing some sort of upward pumping at its own will. I guess I'm just extremely scared.

I fear my nephew is in denial. He says nothing's going to happen, and he's very pissed off at the fact they have to pack and move. I insist that's a defense mechanism, because I look back to the night we found out about the tsunami, and he had a panic attack, with tears and yelling at my brother. My niece is a bit more calm.

However, my brother was allowed to take his wife and kids to the children's hospital he works at, they'll be leaving tomorrow morning. I spoke to him on the phone at noon, and I asked him about their dog, because I feared they wouldn't allow her in the hospital. He gave me a rather cruel answer, but the truth is she'll stay at the Archers', a family friend of my brother's family, that's decided not to leave, apparently, because that area is not on evacuation alert, and hurricanes don't reach it (same says my brother's neighbor, Tex).

Regardless, I am thankful they decided to leave and do have a place to go.

And I just found this message from my niece: don't worry, I'm ok. I send messages to her cell phone, singing Lovely Rita. I don't know what else to do.

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