Mon, Sep 26, 2005
Relatively Minor Damage Reported To Houston,
Mission Control
Spared most of
Hurricane Rita's wallop, employees at Houston's Johnson Space
Center are breathing sighs of relief over minor damage sustained to
the complex and are planning to reopen the facility Tuesday,
according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
The center was closed last Wednesday, and close to 15,000
workers were placed on administrative leave in order to prepare for
the storm that at the time appeared to have Houston -- and the
1600-acre JSC complex -- directly in its crosshairs.
While some simply shored up their homes and hoped for the best,
many of those employees opted to get out of Dodge completely,
joining the mass exodus of as many as 2.5 million people who took
to the roads towards Dallas and San Antonio, or who caught the last
flights out of Houston heading anywhere, in efforts to flee the
storm.
Rita instead veered east, sparing Houston much of its wrath but
causing damage and flooding to the cities of Lake Charles, LA, and
Beaumont and Port Arthur, TX.
With the reopening of JSC, it is expected that Mission Control
Center will immediately resume control operations over the
International Space Center. Control had been transferred to the
Russian Mission Control facility in Korolev, outside of Moscow.
NASA is asking all JSC employees to call in on a special
toll-free number -- available on its website -- to confirm their
whereabouts and inform the center when they expect to be back in
Houston, if they evacuated. Employees may also email the
information to NASA, as well.
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