A little rain (well, a lot of rain) couldn't totally dampen the party spirits at the Glasssell School's South of the Border bash Friday night. But when the rustic chandeliers started swaying overhead, the tent sides began billowing in the wind and water came rushing in from under the tent walls, it was time to evacuate!

And so it was that 300 partygoers, just finishing dinner, made the dash from party tent to stone and steel Glassell building in the wake of the thunderous storms. Making lemonade out of soggy lemons, chairs Gwen Goffe and Lynne and Joe Hudson could only hope that the rush back into the building, where the artworks were on display for auction, would mean greater bidding and therefore more dinero.

By night's end, $142,700 had been raised in the auction and another $337,000 in ticket sales.

As guests pulled out their iPhones to track the course of the storms, the Glassell School maintenance crew went to work in the tent mopping the dance floor and lining up flashlights just in case. While the colorful fiesta-themed decor including vibrant paper flowers might have been damp and though rain trickled through the tent ceiling at a few points, die-hard partygoers would not be thwarted.

Probably half of the party crowd returned to dance to the sounds of Changoman, featuring thoracic surgeon Dr. Billy Cohn on sax and Robert Aaron and Ned Sublette (Cowboy Rumba), the latter two brought in from New York by Michael Zilkha, who introduced the band.

Lots of art buzz in the crowd that included Houston Fine Art Fair president Rick Friedman, guest of Marshal Lightman; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston trustees Brad Bucher and Anne Duncan and board chair Cornelia Long; and various artists who contributed to the auction.

Among those enjoying the 'ritas and other party fare before the storm broke were Glassell School director Joe Havel, MFAH director Gary Tinterow and Christopher Gardner, Alfred Glassell III and Marli Andrade, Dr. Bud Frazier, Jeanie Kilroy, Katherine McGovern, Judy and Scott Nyquist, Susan and David Fein, Laura Bellows, Lea Weingarten, Heidi Gerger, Rania Daniel and Aliyya and Herman Stude.