DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Louisiana State University exchange student Robin Wagner, who is attending the University of Hawaii and staying in the Executive Centre, says her parents live in Houston but could not evacuate because of the traffic jams. She said her parents will be riding out the hurricane in their home, which is in a low-lying area that has been known to flood in bad storms. Wagner said she's worried and that her cat, Kami, will help keep her mind occupied.

Thoughts of home

Isle residents worry about loved
ones caught in the path of Rita
and others who bore Katrina

First, Hurricane Katrina battered Robin Wagner's alma mater, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Now, Hurricane Rita has struck near Houston, where Wagner's parents are riding out the storm in a 1930s home right on a bayou.

Isle Cingular voice mail affected by hurricane Hurricane Rita affected Cingular wireless voice mail services for some customers in Hawaii yesterday. Company spokesman Art Navarro said Cingular voice mail is handled in Houston, and the volume of calls in the area is congesting the system, making it difficult to receive calls there. Some customers are having trouble leaving voice-mail messages and retrieving messages, Navarro said. The company is working on the problem, he said.

Wagner, a junior at LSU who is spending a semester at the University of Hawaii, has had to weather both storms in her downtown Honolulu apartment -- thousands of miles away from friends and family. She is one of many Hawaii residents worrying about loved ones in Rita's path.

"It was hard enough being here when everyone was going through Katrina. Now, it's my parents in danger," Wagner said. "I just hope everyone keeps the city of Houston in their thoughts. It's definitely a hard blow."

Wagner said she spoke to her parents yesterday, while they were boarding up the windows of her childhood home and watching the storm's track. The couple waited for four hours on Tuesday to fill up their cars.

On Thursday, they tried to evacuate. But all the roads out of town were jam-packed, and they figured they wouldn't be out of harm's way by the time the hurricane was forecast to hit.

"They waited a little too long," Wagner said. "The roads are entirely packed. People are sitting in traffic for hours and hours."

Wagner's father is an attorney and her mother owns a cosmetics business. The two will be riding the hurricane out in a low-lying area of Houston, which has been known to flood in bad storms.

On top of that, Wagner said, their home has lots of windows.

"It's not ideal for a hurricane house," she said, adding that there are several families in her parents' neighborhood who also couldn't get out of town in time. "Typically, the front yard will flood really badly when it rains."

The psychology major said she will be staying by her phone and computer through the weekend to watch the storm and its destruction.

But her parents told her the storm will likely knock out communications and it could take a few days to get a message to her.

Because of the hurricanes, Wagner plans to cut short her time at the University of Hawaii. She had planned to stay until the summer, but instead will go back in January.

Molly Walker, of Molly's Smokehouse in Wahiawa, has family in Houston and Louisiana. Her daughter Aylia Tillman said all of their family evacuated early before the big traffic rush.

"Everybody's made it out OK and they're safe," Tillman said. Some relatives drove to the Dallas and Nacogdoches areas. Other relatives in Houston were to have flown to Detroit, she said.