Aftermath of Ike
Here's my standard "post-hurricane" report.
Okay. We had all of Thursday afternoon, and all of Friday to prepare for Ike. We live way inland (far northwest corner of the "greater Houston metropolitan area"), so we weren't too worried. Then the weather guys on TV started talking about hurricane-force winds, even where we were. Hell, they were projecting 50-80 mph winds in freaking COLLEGE STATION, for God's sake. Whoop, indeed.
So I got tense, and having the mother-in-law there, helpful though she was, added to the stress. Finally, we locked up the doors and settled down to weather it as best we could.
Power was off-and-on from 6pm on, and finally went out for good after 10pm. WE MISSED STARGATE: ATLANTIS, BASTARD IKE!!! The satellite cut out during the last 15 minutes of the show. Friggin' HATE this storm.
So, candles and flashlights from then on. AMAZING how quickly the house got warm. We tried to sleep as best we could, but at 3 or 4am, we woke up, and the big trees behind us were waving in the air like they just didn't care. I think we had 50-60mph winds steady, with gusts up to 70-80mph. And that doesn't sound good, especially in the dark. It's hard to tell the difference between a prolonged, hurricane-force gust, and a tornado approaching. At least, to me it's hard. And I'm such a TV/Internet addict, I was ready to chew my own arm off to see a radar image of the storm. I had to make do with a little "transistor radio" (God, I'm old), listening to KTRH all morning. Surprising how fast Ike moved up and past Houston, and REALLY surprising how long it stayed as a hurricane, after it made landfall.
In the morning, it was like a nasty storm where we were, nothing too bad. I went out, and one of our trees was leaning to the right, and we lost a strip of shingles from the roof. There were branches and leaves all over; down the street from us, folks lost whole trees. Thirty-foot-tall pine trees snapped off in the middle. Everything was covered, not in leaves, but in BITS of leaves, like the wind ripped them to shreds. Spooky.
I hauled the branches to the curb, and checked everything. Then, Val's mom and I cooked sausage, potatoes and even poached eggs in a chafing dish over a can of Sterno. Great breakfast! In no time, the storm was mostly gone. We all slept some more, then I went out and did more clean-up. I must have messed up my shoulder at some point; it hurts like hell unless I keep it close to my chest.
It got to be 5 pm, and we still didn't have any electricity. We never lost water, but had no power. I thought we had a cylinder of propane for our tailgate grill, but we didn't. We had a big tank of propane for our outdoor burner, but just as we were getting things rigged up to do some cooking, the power came back on. Hallelujah! When the ceiling fans came back on, and the A/C - we laughed like kids. BLISS!
We did a calling circle once we got cell phone signal back, and all of our friends seem to be okay. Dad is fine. We have some church friends who lost most of their roof shingles, and it's leaking on them; others still have no power. It's weird, geogal had power all along, but no water - we had water, but no power. While we had it bad, the eye was 25 miles EAST of Houston, and we're almost that far west of town. So it boggles my head that people who live close to me are still out of power, or water, or both. And it's freaking MUGGY out there; it's hell to have no A/C in Houston, when the weather is like this. I soaked through three sets of shirts and shorts, yesterday, before we got A/C back. Blech.
The footage we've seen since shows a lot of damage. Ellington Field lost an entire hangar, a great, big hangar for a C-131 type giant plane, called "the Guppy." The whole damn hangar is just gone. East of town got it worst, although downtown lost a ton of glass in skyscrapers, and transformers their were blowing up all night. Recovery is going to take a while, and it's not like the hurricane season is just going to take a break while we rebuild.
We went to church today, and on the drive up and back, we saw a LOT of downed trees. Everyone has branches piled up at the curb, and bags of leaves and debris. At least on our end of town, there is no more standing water. However, there are also hardly any traffic lights working. I think we're doing pretty well for Day 2 after a Category 2, and I really think that the local and state officials and First Responders have done a very good job preparing for this, and are working hard to get things back up and running. It could be SO MUCH WORSE.
We were stunned to hear to around 40% of the folks in Galveston stayed in place, despite the mandatory evacuation order on Thursday. We haven't heard any statistics yet, but I'm very afraid that we're going to have quite a few deaths down there.
I've lived in Houston for 16 years now, and some people in other parts of the country might say, "Well, that's what you get, living on the Gulf Coast." Maybe so. And earthquakes and wildfires are "what you get" for living in California, and rains and volcanoes are "what you get" for living in the Pacific Northwest, and tornadoes are what you get for living in the Midwest, and frakkin' cold-ass winters are what you get for living in the North, and Nor'easters and hurricanes are what you get for living on the Atlantic seaboard. La la. We all have consequences, depending on where we live. We learn to deal with them, because we can't (or don't want to) live anywhere else. Houston kicks ass, I love it here, and every year I find new things I love about it. We'll prepare for and deal with hurricanes, if and when they come.
Ike is gone, and now we see what's happened, and clean up. Nothing else to do.
Okay. We had all of Thursday afternoon, and all of Friday to prepare for Ike. We live way inland (far northwest corner of the "greater Houston metropolitan area"), so we weren't too worried. Then the weather guys on TV started talking about hurricane-force winds, even where we were. Hell, they were projecting 50-80 mph winds in freaking COLLEGE STATION, for God's sake. Whoop, indeed.
So I got tense, and having the mother-in-law there, helpful though she was, added to the stress. Finally, we locked up the doors and settled down to weather it as best we could.
Power was off-and-on from 6pm on, and finally went out for good after 10pm. WE MISSED STARGATE: ATLANTIS, BASTARD IKE!!! The satellite cut out during the last 15 minutes of the show. Friggin' HATE this storm.
So, candles and flashlights from then on. AMAZING how quickly the house got warm. We tried to sleep as best we could, but at 3 or 4am, we woke up, and the big trees behind us were waving in the air like they just didn't care. I think we had 50-60mph winds steady, with gusts up to 70-80mph. And that doesn't sound good, especially in the dark. It's hard to tell the difference between a prolonged, hurricane-force gust, and a tornado approaching. At least, to me it's hard. And I'm such a TV/Internet addict, I was ready to chew my own arm off to see a radar image of the storm. I had to make do with a little "transistor radio" (God, I'm old), listening to KTRH all morning. Surprising how fast Ike moved up and past Houston, and REALLY surprising how long it stayed as a hurricane, after it made landfall.
In the morning, it was like a nasty storm where we were, nothing too bad. I went out, and one of our trees was leaning to the right, and we lost a strip of shingles from the roof. There were branches and leaves all over; down the street from us, folks lost whole trees. Thirty-foot-tall pine trees snapped off in the middle. Everything was covered, not in leaves, but in BITS of leaves, like the wind ripped them to shreds. Spooky.
I hauled the branches to the curb, and checked everything. Then, Val's mom and I cooked sausage, potatoes and even poached eggs in a chafing dish over a can of Sterno. Great breakfast! In no time, the storm was mostly gone. We all slept some more, then I went out and did more clean-up. I must have messed up my shoulder at some point; it hurts like hell unless I keep it close to my chest.
It got to be 5 pm, and we still didn't have any electricity. We never lost water, but had no power. I thought we had a cylinder of propane for our tailgate grill, but we didn't. We had a big tank of propane for our outdoor burner, but just as we were getting things rigged up to do some cooking, the power came back on. Hallelujah! When the ceiling fans came back on, and the A/C - we laughed like kids. BLISS!
We did a calling circle once we got cell phone signal back, and all of our friends seem to be okay. Dad is fine. We have some church friends who lost most of their roof shingles, and it's leaking on them; others still have no power. It's weird, geogal had power all along, but no water - we had water, but no power. While we had it bad, the eye was 25 miles EAST of Houston, and we're almost that far west of town. So it boggles my head that people who live close to me are still out of power, or water, or both. And it's freaking MUGGY out there; it's hell to have no A/C in Houston, when the weather is like this. I soaked through three sets of shirts and shorts, yesterday, before we got A/C back. Blech.
The footage we've seen since shows a lot of damage. Ellington Field lost an entire hangar, a great, big hangar for a C-131 type giant plane, called "the Guppy." The whole damn hangar is just gone. East of town got it worst, although downtown lost a ton of glass in skyscrapers, and transformers their were blowing up all night. Recovery is going to take a while, and it's not like the hurricane season is just going to take a break while we rebuild.
We went to church today, and on the drive up and back, we saw a LOT of downed trees. Everyone has branches piled up at the curb, and bags of leaves and debris. At least on our end of town, there is no more standing water. However, there are also hardly any traffic lights working. I think we're doing pretty well for Day 2 after a Category 2, and I really think that the local and state officials and First Responders have done a very good job preparing for this, and are working hard to get things back up and running. It could be SO MUCH WORSE.
We were stunned to hear to around 40% of the folks in Galveston stayed in place, despite the mandatory evacuation order on Thursday. We haven't heard any statistics yet, but I'm very afraid that we're going to have quite a few deaths down there.
I've lived in Houston for 16 years now, and some people in other parts of the country might say, "Well, that's what you get, living on the Gulf Coast." Maybe so. And earthquakes and wildfires are "what you get" for living in California, and rains and volcanoes are "what you get" for living in the Pacific Northwest, and tornadoes are what you get for living in the Midwest, and frakkin' cold-ass winters are what you get for living in the North, and Nor'easters and hurricanes are what you get for living on the Atlantic seaboard. La la. We all have consequences, depending on where we live. We learn to deal with them, because we can't (or don't want to) live anywhere else. Houston kicks ass, I love it here, and every year I find new things I love about it. We'll prepare for and deal with hurricanes, if and when they come.
Ike is gone, and now we see what's happened, and clean up. Nothing else to do.