Planning on Traveling This Weekend?

Well, expect a bunch of ugly snafus, courtesy of Hurricane Rita.

According to the Weather Channel, this sucka is the 3rd strongest on record for the Atlantic basin. It's strengthening, too, with the latest winds at 175 mph.

The Brits and Canadians are warning people about this storm on their websites.

Want to hear something really weird? NASA has bugged out of the Johnson Space Center.....for Moscow.

Continental Airlines will make a determination tomorrow at 2 pm Central time about their operational status for the weekend at Houston's Bush Intercontinental. Southwest is anticipating cancelling service to Corpus Christi and Houston on Friday 23 September until about mid-morning Sunday 25 September.

Other airlines are relaxing their policies on changing tickets to accommodate travelers who will be beginning/transferring/ending their flights in the affected areas.

Also according to the Weather Channel, people are having a hell of a time finding hotel rooms in Texas as the Gulf Coast evacuates to higher ground. People are going as far as Oklahoma to get a place to stay. (A lot of the rooms that would have been available are sheltering evacuees from Katrina). There's precious few rental cars to be found, too.

Just remember....if Jim Cantore from that network is hanging out on a nearby beach, maybe you should just get the hell out of there. I mean, damn, they're leaving tomorrow, fer Chrissakes!!!

Yes, Jim R & mucky, I'm talking to you.......

I hope you both will be ok.

But still, if anyone reading this is in the danger zone, please get out now. This is not something to mess with.