Lowell McCulley and his wife, Marilyn, used to live in Houston, Texas. In fact, they were living there when Katrina hit New Orleans and the surrounding areas in 2005. Now that they are living high and dry in Centerville. With the recent wrath of Hurricane Gustav whirling through the gulf, memories were stirred about their own experience as evacuees.

“We were very aware that Katrina was going to be a major catastrophe,” said McCulley. “We followed it all as it was happening and learned later that friends of ours in New Orleans had lost everything.”

The McCulleys had lived on the Texas coast for more than 20 years and had experienced some tropical storms, including four close-call hurricanes.

“We lived in Friendswood, about halfway between Houston and Galveston, only about 12 miles from the coast. When you live there, you quickly learn what to watch for and how to prepare,” he said.

“Unlike tornadoes, hurricanes and most tropical storms give a warning window of three to five days. Although our house was nearly new, we installed windows capable of withstanding 120 mph winds and I had plywood fitted for all the windows.”

Their home was only 27 feet above sea level, but one of the highest in town. The whole area where they lived is prone to flooding because of nearby creeks leading to the gulf.

Katrina didn’t affect Houston, although about 250,000 evacuees from Louisiana and other regions came there. McCulley said since the area population is nearly four million, they were hardly noticed.

A month after Katrina, Rita started forming in the gulf and was aimed directly at the Texas City and Galveston Island coast, which meant the McCulley’s area was included. The whole area was declared for mandatory evacuation.

“That included NASA (Johnson Space Center), which was between us and the coast,” added McCulley.

It seemed like the time to evacuate their home, so the couple went to stay with friends in Sugar Land, Texas, about 40 miles inland from them. Their home was brick, nearly new and was in a subdivision safe from flooding.

“We took some of our important papers, including insurance policies, family pictures and a few keepsakes, nearly filling the car. There was just enough room left for our little dog. Landfall was predicted for midnight Friday, so we left about noon Thursday for the 45-minute drive. When we left, it was still predicted to be a direct hit on our area so we didn’t know if we would have anything left to come home to,” he said.

That 45-mile drive took them over four hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a four-lane highway. They realized everyone in the area had taken the evacuation seriously. McCulley said they were lucky. Over a million people in Houston had panicked, with no evacuation order and in no serious danger from the storm, and headed north and west.

“Some of our friends spent more than 36 hours getting to Dallas (normally a four-and-a-half hour drive) or San Antonio. One couple we know had to go on to Oklahoma before they found lodging. The total evacuation was estimated at over two million.”

They filled a couple of insulated containers with food from their freezer because they knew if the storm hit, electricity could be out for a long time. So while they were guests of their friends, they dined on the steak, shrimp and other food in abundance.

While watching the weather news that Friday evening, they were relieved to hear the storm had made a turn to the east away from their home. It headed instead about 90 miles east, centered in Port Arthur, Texas.