Hurricane Rita may cause havoc on our upcoming trip!

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Yes, I know lots more to worry about with Hurricane Rita but also know this is probably the only place I can post about my newfound worry (they don't call me worry wart for nothing! LOL). I just realized our trip is scheduled during our kids schools' "fall break" and that 2 of those days are marked as teacher inservice/bad weather days.
If we end up being hit by bad weather related to hurricane Rita (we're just south of the metroplex area in Texas)... they'll probably cut the fall break even shorter if they miss school because of this. (supposed to hit our area with bad weather about Sunday... if we lose electricity/etc. I'm sure they'll close the schools. we're in triple digit weather and surely kids can't go to schools without lights, a/c, etc.) arghhh

Wonder if we'll be able to fly out next Thursday anyway. Here I was worried about hurricanes in Florida during our trip- we may not even get that far to worry about that!

 

[laceemouse]

I used to be the "don't take your kids out of school for vacation" type, but we just started homeschooling. I have to say in this situation you DID schedule your trip during a break from school (I give you a pat on the back for that one!) Sooo, if the break is cut short I would be willing to tell the school that you made your plans a long time ago, they are impossible to change, and the kids will be missing a couple of days. Do you think they would really be upset by this? I would think it would be okay given the circumstances. Are you in the Dallas area? We will be moving down there in a couple of weeks Try not to worry too much, maybe your area will be fine. Even if it does lose power, ect., I would still do the trip if I were you. Just my 2 cents!

 

[jwsqrdplus2]

I feel your pain! We leave Sat am and our flight connects thru DFW. Assuming all goes well and we are on time, we leave DFW around 9:45am on Sat, so I hope we sneak thru before any major weather shifts. I feel totally selfish; this is a major storm and it will be devastating. Here's hoping everything works out for you!

 

[Deb & Bill]

I bet right now that the hurricane will be east of DFW. We're looking at it hitting east Texas or West Louisiana right now maybe as a Category 1 or Tropical Storm. We're looking at hurricane force winds late Sat in NW LA with the storm reaching us last Sat night or early Sun AM.

Check Weather.com, the hurricane center, and it shows pictures of the track of the storm and where they think it might go.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I really don't think our weather will be THAT bad. BUT there are a heck of a lot of people coming into Dallas right now who wouldn't be here ordinarily. With the weather and the added crowds in the airport I bet there will be delays. Apparently people are coming out of Houston on flights to Dallas just to get out of the way, then once they get here they will try to book a flight to somewhere else. But I hope it all works out OK! And I REALLY hope they don't end up closing our schools.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks for understanding.
I have taken my kids out of school before for vacations but really didn't want to anymore. My kids are getting older and like for instance my oldest is in 6th grade and has like 9 different teachers that I'd have to "work" with if she misses school for a vacation. The way things work here is the principal leaves it up to the teacher. So that would mean 9 teachers would have to "agree" to letting her make up the work either before she missed or after she returned... anyone who didn't agree she'd get unexcused absences and zeros on all work/tests during that time. I just didn't even want to have to mess with that with NINE teachers. Yanno? LOL One in the past (elementary) was cool- but nine??? Odds are atleast one or more wouldn't agree to let her make up any missed work/tests.

Plus my youngest just started kindergarten and she's my youngest to go to K (my other two were almost 6 when they started K, due to their birthdays- she JUST turned 5) and I didn't want her to get behind... so I'm not against taking them out of school for vacation, just made a personal choice that at this time I'd prefer not to. Yanno?

Hopefully things will not get bad enough to lose electricity here. I think our biggest worry at this point is strong winds causing electricity problems. Right now our temp has dropped about 15 degrees from normal lately and it's pretty windy, it could get worse though.

But now I just realized I should be worrying about our flight out Thursday evening. Might the airports be pretty packed with people going HOME by then? Those that evacuated that perhaps didn't get damage and are then returning home? ack

Then what are the odds of another hurricane coming up and hitting Florida next weekend?

Remind me never to travel during hurricane season again. It's too stressful because I'm a worrywart! LOL

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The airport might be crowded, but it won't be people competing with you to get on your flight. The security lines might be ugly, but just plan to arrive early. I'm assuming you are going out of DFW instead of Love Field. We had friends evacuate out of Houston on Southwest so they came into Love Field. They don't LIVE in Houston, that's just where they happened to be. They got a flight to Dallas Thursday night, then a flight to El Paso and on to Phoenix (which is where they live) Friday morning. So they had to go back to Love Field yesterday TWO AND A HALF HOURS before their flight!

I don't imagine there will be too many people still hanging out up here by Thursday. Have a great trip!