Praise Centerpoint and press the power switch! Electricity restored about 9:30 am at my house. Still the odd million or so without power out there so I’m very lucky. No damage to the house, everyone’s fine, Redneck Guy & family came through too.
Exhausted. Fixing lunch, more thoughts and recap of experiences later.
Update: Hurricanes are exhausting. Centerpoint just become my favorite company ever by getting power back on here this morning. I’m fortunate, in that this area was first built out about 35 years ago, and then underwent a recent growth spurt; it has mostly underground power and communications lines. The older neighborhoods in town are not so fortunate; they’ll be a long time getting power.
Random impressions and what not: All of Galveston island went under water from what I’ve heard. Several historic buildings damaged or demolished. The Strand; a historic district with 1890’s era buildings (and a tourist site), went under several feet of water. Heard some tales of harrowing escapes from flooded houses; there is no doubt bodies will be found. (SAR people working on rescue now, recovery later.) Across the bay to the north, the Bolivar Peninsula, Crystal Beach, and High Island…. everythings gone. Not damaged, gone. There were once dozens of beach houses on stilts there, and the area had several canals dug so that even houses 3 and 4 rows back from the beach could have docks for their boats. The occasional lonely piling is still sticking up, plus one very incongruous house that somehow survived. Other than that, water and the occasional bit of greenery. It appears that a historic “iron lighthouse” is gone; the media chopper couldn’t find it.
Memorial Hermman hospital system had 9 of 12 hospitals on generators. Downtown is closed; there doesn’t appear to be a building left with windows (well, if there were, the media choppers didn’t show them, but then they wouldn’t, would they?). Before the hurricane hit, the word was “oh, all the damage from Alicia was due to gravel roofs, but we changed the building codes there, so it’s not a problem this time.” I just laughed. Sure, the new buildings didn’t have gravel roofs. City employees working for the 311 system were supposed to report at 6am this morning. As of 11 a.m, the system still wasn’t up; supposedly a hardware system. The mayor foolishly said for emergency out of water situations, call 911. He didn’t make that clear enough, so of course the 911 system then got jammed. At least one lady called in to a local TV station to report flooding in her neighborhood and ask for help, since she couldn’t get through to 911. Later Mayor White came back on and explained that only assisted living facilities that had no water should use 911; everyone else wait on 311 to come up. Note that there are 1200 OTHER water districts in Harris County — so what happened was that residents from all those districts were calling the city’s 911. People’s grasp of the basics, or lack thereof, never ceases to amaze me. And the mayor’s grasp of people is about the same, it seems.
8-10″ of rain from Ike’s long tail this morning; a few bayous came out of bank and some freeways flooded, catching people unexpectedly. Very, very, very few stores open, all had long lines of people wanting ice or water. Few reports of fatalities yet, but 30+ people treated for carbon monoxide poisoning due to lack of common sense with their generators. One fatality from a fire started from a candle. Some looting; an HISD officer was quoted as saying some of the schools were suffering break-ins; thieves going after computers. Several hundred rescues since yesterday, but nothing like the thousands after Katrina.
Lots of roof damage (shingles & tar paper) to all the new condo’s near downtown. Why does a major city sitting on a hurricane-prone coast NOT have better building codes for roofing? This stuff often pulls loose with nails, which then become hazards in the street.
Football on TV? It’s Sunday? Weird. I remember Thursday, and sorta Friday, then it gets kinda blurry.