ok...my name is ashley tassin and i live in vidor texas. on september 24, 2005, hurricane rita hit our area. we evacutated on wednesday night...the traffic to get out of town was unsanely horrible, so we had to leave at about 10:00 at night...we went to toledo bend, which is about 80 miles north of vidor. we stayed in an A frame house and we had like 2 generators hooked up so that when the storm hit we would have electricity to cook and bath periodically...when the storm hit us at the lake, it was kind of late. we were all scared. we didnt know what was going to happen to anyone we knew..i had no idea where my boyfriend of 10 months was and we didnt know what exactly we were to return home to...so, first it was raining a little bit, and it rained for a very long time...my parents and some other adults that were with us were all sitting out on the porch. we had 3 families with us. in all there were 13 people, 2 raccoons, and about 15 dogs all in the living room on the ground floor of the house, but 9 of the dogs were puppies and they were kept in the bathroom, along 2 other dogs...so the storm lasted through the night, and at one point, it felt like the house was litterally picked up and put back down safely..this woke me up...lol...so anyways, after that, i couldnt sleep, so, because of the way the house was facing, we were able to stand in the back, or well, the front door and watch as the wind bent the trees over horizontally...it was really scary looking...we had to be prepared to run if we had to. we had to sleep with shoes on and pack only things that would be sorely missed into a small bag in case we had to get out of the house very quickly...the storm raged on til about 6 or 7 the next morning. i still hadnt heard from my boyfriend...i was very worried...the day after the storm, we got to head down to a swimming area at the lake and dip our hot steamy bodies into the cold water...it felt pretty good...i had been so hot, what with the serious lack of air conditioning...we could only use the generators at night...and we only had so much gas left..so, the following day, we packed up our stuff and left toledo bend and went to mansura louisiana to stay with the great aunt and great uncle for the rest of the evacuation since we were not allowed to go home yet...luckily, they have a very large house. it has 6 bedrooms and like 8 bathrooms and a pool and tennis courts and cable tv, internet, and long distance calling...we also got to stay at their camp a little way up the road. we got to ride a pontoon boat (we called it the barge), and they treated us to a lunch at a casino because we had to get out of the house for the cleaning lady to come...well, we finally got to go home. when we got there, everything looked so different. our dairy queen was wrecked and there was an awning over some gas pumps that had been flipped over to the other side of the road. we had lots of work to do and we didnt get to have electricity and phone for at least 2 weeks after returning home...we got the electricity back first, but we were stuck watching movies til the cable was working again...finally we were granted our old life back, but there was still something missing...im not really sure what it was but, it just wasnt the same anymore...relationships were ruined and new ones were made because of the meeting new people for various reasons...it was a blessing in disguise for me really...i met the love of my life, which would not have happened without the hurricane...but, it was a major reality check...to not take things for granted like so many do...i dont do that naymore...i know how it feels to be without the things that are used in everyday life...our house got away untouched...we were lucky....the roof on our barn was completely gone, but that was the least of our worries...we had no flooding, but we did have to cut through 3 trees to get to our house...we had lots and lots of fallen trees...i dont really know how many, because we live on 8 and 1/2 acres of land, so, there were many...but, our animals were ok and so was our house and our family...but, i dont think i would be able t o do it again...i dont think i would be able to leave home again not kowing what i would be coming home to or who i would be coming home to...it was a heartbreaking but growing experience at the same time...\r\n\r\nfor whoever reads this...i hope this is something you will never have to go through...but if it does...always look the the light in it...if you dont, you wont get anything out of it but a broken heart, a broken life and be waiting til things turn around, which wont happen unless you make it...\r\n\r\nthank you for your time, \r\n-AshleyT