Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Texas Gulf Coast Evacuee Wins Racewalk Competition

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Austin, Texas – After spending 29 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Wednesday evening until Friday morning trying to evacuate her home in Alvin, Texas, eighty-year-old Terry Fritz was very tired.  However, that did not stop her from competing in the Texas Senior Olympics 1500 meter racewalk in Austin on Saturday morning – and winning the gold medal! 

“I didn’t think I would make it.” Terry said, after winning the event for the 80-year-old age group.  “My foot went numb, but I’m alright now.”  Terry is looking forward to competing in table tennis on Monday. 

During World War II, Terry played semi-pro softball and basketball in Connecticut and worked in Pratt and Whitney’s jet engine plant, supporting the war effort.  She had to be made of tough stuff to succeed in those endeavors.  Still, at the age of 80, after the physical and emotional stress of two days without sleep, crawling in stop-and-go traffic, and worrying about running out of gas, it is very impressive that she decided to compete at all, and still more amazing that she won her event. 

While news reports told stories of evacuees spending 14 hours trying to get through Houston traffic, Terry and her husband Bob Fritz wear it as a badge of honor that they managed to survive the grueling 29 hour trip from Alvin to Austin.  “I haven’t heard of anyone else spending as many hours trying to get out of town, but then I haven’t talked to anyone else who was leaving from our area,” said Bob. “It was just terrible.  You can’t imagine it.  I’ve never seen anything like it,” Terry remarked.

On Wednesday, after taking many of their belongings to a secure storage area, Bob climbed up onto the roof of their house and secured plastic bags over the air vents, trying to protect the house from the wind and rain they expected to receive from hurricane Rita.  Alvin, Texas is thirty miles south of Houston, and Bob planned to avoid the Houston traffic by traveling west beyond Houston and then heading north to Austin.  Bob and Terry left their home at 6:30 Wednesday evening, tired from all the work they had done to prepare for the storm.  They were surprised to find that the highway was very congested, and they could only travel at a very slow speed in stop-and-go traffic.  After four hours, they had traveled about twenty miles.  At that point, they reached a police roadblock, where the police forced them to turn back, toward the Houston bottleneck.  Twenty-four hours after they began, at 6:30 Thursday evening, after driving all night with no sleep, they had barely managed to reach the north side of Houston.  They then began the slow, stop-and-go crawl along highway 290 toward Austin.  Although news reports had said all the lanes of highway 290 would be directed north-bound by Thursday morning, Bob said that did not happen. 

As Bob listened to reports from other evacuees on the radio, he heard a man say he had been able to make good time taking the route the police had prevented Bob from taking.  “If the police can’t help us, at least they shouldn’t hinder us,” remarked Bob.  “When I get home, the Brazoria county police are going to hear from me!”

Bob said he still felt a bit woozy after such a difficult trip and after missing a full night’s sleep and skipping a dose of the medication he takes for his heart condition, but he is very proud of his wife’s success and is looking forward to cheering her on in her table tennis competition on Monday.

This very biased reporter can only say that she is very proud of her Mom and Dad and very thankful that they are safe!

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest /  White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN