Before one of these, I tend to emulate Chicken Little a bit, hoping more will evacuate or better prepare. Once the time comes that nothing can be done, I shudder about the reports of people who stayed with insufficient preparation, didn't even leave at risk buildings in time to get to safe shelters, etc. Now I'm just hoping for the best, that the dire predictions were exaggerated, that survival will be greater than feared.
Some news casters have been heroic in doing what they can to share news thru the night and now as sunlight is breaking thru. Looks like Ike is down to Cat-1 now, centered north of Houston with the south storms force throwing debris thru the air like missiles, north side hitting Huntsville maybe. The newscasters have to keep talking of course, can't just sit there waiting, so sometimes the dialogue gets a little boring. Now with sunlight we're seeing videos of the carnage and flooding. So sad.
Well, it's 4:30 a.m., we have no power and I just spent an hour and a half helping clear the neighborhood storm drains.
Our street was flooded because of the drains being blocked. We now have them cleared and there is no standing water in our neighborhood.
The eye is almost completely by us now, so the winds are starting to pick up again.
Got to do what you can to help yourselves, not just wait on "officials." But damn! Risky. Glad you didn't get sucked into a drain as you liberated. Once in, it'd be totally hopeless and only with some luck that they might find a body later in the massive accumulations of debris in the drain systems.
Clearing the aftermath is a scary thot with every risk imaginable, continued flooding, booby traps in the debris fields, and such. Firemen are now mobilizing to get out in Galveston as the winds ease.
My mother lives in Northwest Houston and they do not have power. I just called her and my Big Dad hooked up the new generator he just bought two weeks ago, so they have some power. She said at least she has coffee.
A tree from their front yard was uprooted and is across the street. Giant power lines are down in their backyard. Tons of tree debris and all their plants and stuff are overturned. She said it's a mess, but the house is still there and so far no flooding. They lost their trailer down in Bolivar/Galveston Bay for sure, but she said now they can build the house on stilts they have always wanted. My mother will turn 70 next week but you wouldn't know it. She sounds great and is doing very well.
She said in all her years of living on the coast and in the south this was one storm that scared her a little.
Generators can be a life safer as long as safety precautions are maintained, protection from carbon monoxide, etc.
Houston is the largest concentration of people and structures in a US swamp I suppose and literally lives on air conditioning, but there will be little available for over two million this week and beyond. Working in the heat, humidity, smells of rotting debris and even maybe some bodies is going to be tough. Thousands of teams are staged to enter and start helping and fortunately a cool front is forecast to arrive tomorrow night.
Best wishes...
