Hurricane Rita - August 2005 Hurricane Rita was our major fun this past August. It was a Category 5 a day or so before comming ashore and was supposed to hit Houston pretty hard. We were planning on going to the lake to ride it out but an early morning check on the Weather Channel convinced us to head to San Antonio instead. It took us about 10 hours to get to San Antonio (usually takes 2). They actually opened all lanes of all freeways to be oneway out of Houston! Gas shortages became the real problem. We ended up staying with Kurt and Susie in San Antonio. Lucky thing we decided not to go to the lake. The Lake Livingston dam had the highest recorded sustained windspeed in all of Texas! We didn't have much damage - a broken window, some missing siding was about it. The dam however had some major damage. After looking at the damage done to the dam, the state decided to do an emergency release of water to lower the dam levels 6-8 feet. Turns out 60% of the 1000lb boulders that protect the dam from wave action were blown away!