I am a school teacher in Vidor and my husband is a chemist at a Chemical Plant in Vidor. We live in Vidor and we have a 10 year old son.\r\n\r\nThe day before the mandatory evacuation we had decided that we would stay and ride out the storm as we had done many times before but as Rita gained momentum and got closer we decided to leave for the safety of our son.\r\n\r\nWe went to our lake house at Toledo Bend, which is a normal hour and fifteen minute drive, but under the circumstances became a six hour ordeal.\r\n\r\nOf course many of our neighbors and friends were in traffic with us. We took both vehicles loaded with food and pets, little did we know our \"vacation\" would 19 days of \"roughin it\".\r\n\r\nWe faired fine in our cabin with 8 other family members and four additional cats, (cats and dogs really DO NOT get along!). We are all back in our houses some with roofs some not but we are healthy, alive and ready to make another get away if we have to.\r\n\r\nSoutheast Texas officials and government leaders should be proud of their evacuation program. It was inconvenient but it worked not everyone can get everything done in a fashion that will please all. Thank the Lord we all got out.