Although it would have been enjoyable to see Senator Obama again grace the tube with an appearance on Saturday Night Live, his decision to cancel is wise.
This is going to be a weekend of body recovery and tragedy. Current estimates indicate over 100,000 homes have been destroyed and no one can even begin to guess how many of the people who stayed behind perished. There will be incredible bravery during the rescues today, as well as tales of heroics during the storm. The media is gearing up to show it to the world.
Unlike New Orleans and Katrina where press access could be tightly controlled, Coastal Texas is wide open and the reports will be harrowing. Now is the time for Obama to be presidential and every indicator shows he knows it. He has already volunteered his donor base to raise money and money will be needed in the weeks to come. Appearing on Saturday Night Live would have struck a very sour note.
For those who wish to help -- I still ask that folks who have the means and inclination donate to the local Red Cross -- either Houston or San Antonio Chapters -- and the Food Banks. San Antonio, Austin and DFW will be taking in hundreds of thousands of displaced and the word on the street from local disaster relief specialists is that the National Red Cross does not share well. The local chapters will be funding the bulk of the effort.
Electricity is expected to be out for hundreds of thousands for as long as weeks. From the reporting I'm seeing this morning, work crews won't even begin restoring power in Houston until Monday.
If you are local - which in Texas covers a much greater swath then most places - the blood bank really needs you. Most of the coastal neonatals and vulnerable populations were evacuated into San Antonio yesterday. Metro hospitals are screaming for plasma, platelets, packed red cell and whole blood. There are multiple additional locations for drives all around the city. It only takes an hour to make a whole blood donation and you will be saving lives.
I am sixth generation Texas. My people were here before Texas joined the Union. Great-grandfather Bill assisted in the clean up of the Great Storm of 1900. The one that hit Galveston and resulted in 6000 to 12000 dead. The bodies washed up on the beach for weeks as they initially tried to dispose of the corpses by dumping them at sea. They finally started burning them in piles.
He told stories about laying the corpses out in rows for collection. Many were missing fingers and teeth. Looters would cut the swollen fingers off the bodies to steal rings and fillings were made of gold. The devastation was horrible, but that people were mutilating the bodies made it that much worse.
The nuns at an orphanage had roped themselves to their child charges. All were swept away. As they pulled the bodies one by one from the sand, it was like a sting of pearls popping out from the beach. One family roped themselves to two different trees. One tree gave and all secured there perished. One tree held and they were saved.
(Water from Ike rushing to cover the Memorial for the Great Storm of 1900 -- photo by Johnny Hanson of the Houston Chronicle)
Bill worked for the Santa Fe railroad. The railroad sent most all of their employees down to help with this hellish work. He was gone so long that it resulted in his losing his fiance to the mailman.
The mailman had the hots for great-grandma Emma and hid Bill's letters home. Emma thought he had died or left her and married the mailman instead. (I could not have made this stuff up if I tried.) After Bill finally got back and she discovered the truth, she divorced the mailman. (An excellent call, as my grandmother would not have been born otherwise.)
Ike is still raging, but today will start the aftermath.
I hope the clean up won't be anything like what Bill experienced a hundred and eight years ago or what Katrina wrought in '05. However, large groups of people under mandatory orders decided not to evacuate from the Texas coast.
"The unfortunate truth is we're going to have to go in ... and put our people in the tough situation to save people who did not choose wisely. We'll probably do the largest search and rescue operation that's ever been conducted in the state of Texas," said Andrew Barlow, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry.
On a positive note, the crew of the Antalina - the freighter that was helpless to escape the storm - beat the odds to survive and they should be reached by ocean going tugs in five hours.
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Human beings never cease to amaze me and your commentary that I have copy and pasted to above is further proof of it.
Thanks for the update on the Antalina. This is the only place that I have found news on the freighter and its crew.
So far, I have only heard of "incidental" loss of life, but I expect that to change once the rescue effort starts in earnest.
mikelkpoet, thanks for stopping by. Bill was an interesting cat and I am lucky to have a family history filled with such felines. My mom was his favorite grandchild.
Here on OS, Popeye the Sailor Man is providing the best commentary on the Antalina. His post is still on the front page with the headline -- Save the Antalina. While I have friends who work in the industry, I never sailed as a merchant marine and do not have his expertise. If you haven't read his post -- it is well worth it -- especially the comment thread.
Notably - several levies the could not have held against 14 feet, held and saved the areas they were built to protect.
There will be more casualties. At the moment, the water is too high out in the hardest hit areas for rescue and survey teams to get in. There is still two to four feet of water on the roads to access Galveston island and as a consequence even high water vehicles can't make it across. The Coasties are waiting for the winds to die below 45 mph before they risk their birds.
I have already heard of deaths - but they are "incidental." A 10 year old boy hit in the head by a falling branch from a tree his father was taking down as a storm proofing measure. Some critical care patients who were evac'd to San Antonio. Possibly a worker and his daughter with 70% burns from the fire in downtown Houston that gutted one of the cooler old school restaurants there -- Brennans. Evidently a transformer exploded and caught the place on fire. Damn shame - it was a great place. 100s of fires could not be put out due to the high water.
I am sure that when the rescue crews get into Galveston, more people will be found. They estimate ten percent did not evacuate. The Mayor is asking the press not to photograph bodies.
I still haven't heard from the Ft Bend cousins. They took a beating and the phones are out. They know they are welcome to come to San Antonio to my place and perhaps they will be there when I get back. Evidently the electric is out as well -- but yet people are being told to boil their water. Hope they have sterno or gas stoves.
Yes, things are better than expected -- but even better is going to be pretty horrible.
The folks in 1900 had no warning. We had days.
Hope you and yours are safe and well. We'll say a prayer for you, my friends in Galveston, as well as the rest of the good folk in Texas.
Joe
My Ike tale is rather tame. I flew into Houston from the West Coast knowing the storm was only a day or two away. I drove to San Antonio to check the digs and kept running for the border to my mommy's kitchen. Where except for a quick trip back to Saytown to get the house ready for Houston buddies/cousins who might need a place to shelter I have stayed -- tucking in the best grub in Texas. Might even go for a motorcycle ride this afternoon before heading back to Saytown. The only storm out in these part is made up of Butterflies.
Except for them cousins just South East of Houston that I have not heard from, all my peeps have checked in as ok today -- although the cousins out in La Porte have no idea how bad a hit their home took. I do also have an estranged aunt in Galveston that I am forbidden to contact or mom will disown me that I have no clue about -- but I am hoping she got the hell out when told to do so.
Now it is time for us good folk of Texas to pull together. I've sent money to the local Red Cross and the San Antonio Food Bank via their website and will open a vein at the Blood Bank when I hit town. I have to leave town Monday or I'd look into volunteering as well. But if the clean up is as major as I think it will be, there will be plenty of things for me to do when I get back.
No sweat. I'm not about to blow you off because we had an argument. That's kid stuff. You will cross swords with me in the future, I am sure and that's OK. Spirited give and take is the essence of this forum, and more people should dive in. You're still a friend.
On the storm, I have some worries about a buddy of mine that recently moved to Galveston, and I am hoping he's Ok. His bike is probably gone, (He lashes it to the stilts that support his house, he's right on the ocean, and I'm betting it's new owner is Davey Jones)
You can get into a world of shit with the weather down there, I know. My Mom was born and raised in Houston, and I have a lot of family down that way. I got caught in that hideous flood in Houston about 8 years ago. That was pretty wild, even by my standards. Stuck on the second floor for a week in an extended-stay hotel in S. Houston, right by Hobby airport. Nasty business, that.
Just good to hear you're OK. Have a nice ride.
H-E-B sending convoys
H-E-B deployed a convoy of vehicles equipped with supplies and essential services from San Antonio to Houston at 11:15 a.m.
To provide relief to areas most affected by Hurricane Ike, the convoy of 30 to 40 vehicles includes a disaster response unit, mobile kitchen, water and fuel tankers and 12 H-E-B trailers of supplies.
The destination of the vehicles, however, is still undetermined.
Almost 200 H-E-B employees will accompany the convoy and assist affected residents.
Supplies to be delivered include baby products, dry and canned goods, bottled water and toiletries.
H-E-B's disaster response unit is equipped with a pharmacy and business services allowing displaced residents to receive medications, cash checks, use an ATM and pay bills.
The Eddie Garcia Mobile Kitchen is a 45-foot-long food preparation facility designed to serve about 2,200 meals per hour. It will serve hot meals to victims of the hurricane.
Also -- the folks burned in the restaurant fire are still alive, but hurt badly.
There is no electricity and they are supposed to boil the water. One guy insisted he had to drive back - his business is related to the port and he needed to assess damages. I invited him to return to the land of air conditioning and potable water when he was done.
The electrical outage is causing water problems. One of Houston's pumping stations is out and as a consequence the water pressure which is normally 60 psi has fallen to 20 psi -- resulting in calls for conservation and boiling.
IMHO, Houston is the most miserable area in Texas even in the best of times. Air conditioning only just makes the extremely high humidity and heat bearable. I can't imagine wanting to hang out there with no A/C and bad water -- but folks wanted to get back to their homes.
I found this creative list over at the Houston Chronicle:
Survival guide: Living without power
Power out? CenterPoint Energy has said that it expects some places to be without power for at least two weeks. Here are some tips on how to survive from CenterPoint Energy and people who have done it before.
·Move in with friends or family who do have power. Or visit frequently for a cool drink and bit of air-conditioning.
·If you have a generator, use it with care. Keep it out of enclosed spaces. Do not connect a generator to the home's wiring system without proper isolating equipment. Turn it off when you leave the house.
·Try to keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as long as possible. Some experts recommend putting items such as drinks that need to be accessed often in a cooler to keep those doors closed.
·Don't eat the canned goods until the perishable items are gone.
·Treat all lines on the ground as if they were energized. That means, stay away from them.
·No need to call CenterPoint Energy to report power outages in the first days after the storm. They know.
·If the rest of your neighborhood has power and you don't, call CenterPoint.
·Cook meat on a gas stove or barbecue grill and start eating it right away. Share with friends and neighbors.
·The best light comes from candles with hurricane globes.
·Read during the daylight hours
·Take time to catch up on your sleep
·Embrace good old-fashioned entertainment like games, story-telling and conversation.
·Remember that children and the elderly are sometimes more troubled by power outages. Be kind to them.
·Be kind to adults, too. Everyone will be emotionally drained.
COMPILED BY MELISSA AGUILAR
They did get the pumping station back on line, but they won't know if it is OK to stop boiling drinking water for 36 hours.
There is a curfew.
No word yet on what rescue crews are finding as they search for the 250,000 folks who ignored the mandatory evac calls.
Good to hear your people got out.
My last batch of cousins - the Ft Bend folk - checked in this past hour. They lost power and had some high winds, but were never threatened.
On a sad note, Galveston reported the first Ike related death. A 65 year old woman died this afternoon when the generator powering her oxygen equipment failed.
Houston hospitals are reporting problems with the non-sterile tap water. They are using saline and anti-bacterial gel, but supplies are limited.
Folks who left the mandatory evac sites are being asked not to return until at least Tuesday. Evidently, in addition to power and potable water, sewage is also an issue. Just thinking about free floating sewage brings terrible cholera images to mind. Yuck!
My friend who works at the ports couldn't get through today. He is holed up at his place with no a/c and bad water. He does have a generator though. The ports themselves are supposed to be in good shape, but the roads out have debris issues. He said he would be coming back to Saytown Monday if the roads remained impassible. No reason to sit in the dark like McGarrett50, after all.
In the comment above I said first death and by that I meant first death for Galveston. From what I've heard, the rescue folk have just started to search houses there. I hope those that stayed behind come out OK and that number stays in the low single digits.
I poked around and came up with this -- evidently they are not counting/haven't heard about the lady in Galveston yet:
two each in Texas and Louisiana. A woman was killed in her sleep when a tree fell on her home near Pinehurst, Texas, in Montgomery County. A 19-year-old man slipped off a jetty near Corpus Christi and was apparently washed away. Terrebonne Parish coroner senior investigator Gary Alford says a 16-year-old boy drowned in his house in Bayou Dularge, La., when he fell through wooden pallets used as flooring and floodwaters rose. Alford also said a 57-year-old man died from a broken neck after he was blown over by wind.
Despite restoration of power to some communities about 3 million folks are in the dark tonight which as I mentioned before in Houston is a major deal. It is supposed to stay in the low 80s all week, but the air in Houston is always thick and nasty. So 80s there always feels warmer with humidity. No a/c in sight.
Folks who stayed behind in the mandatory evac zones are starting to tell their stories. I found this quote quintessentially Texan:
Sedonia Owen, 75, and her son, Lindy McKissick, stayed to shoo off looters. She was armed with a shotgun, watching flood waters recede from her front porch. "My neighbors told me, `You've got my permission. Anybody who goes into my house, you can shoot them,'" Owen said.
@Joe Blow: The floods you're talking about were June '01, from Tropical Storm Allison. Bad enough that they retired the name. I had a foster parent who floated her foster baby out in the baby bathtub in chest-high water; she and the baby went to one shelter, her other kids and their grannie went to a different shelter; she didn't know for sure where they were or if they were OK until the cellphones came back online 2-3 days after. And the mosquitoes!!! OMG, mosquitoes in Houston are bad enough in normal times; with all those ditches to breed in, they were hellacious. ::shudder::
@LT: I love that quote. I can just about see her in my mind, too. As you said, quintessential Texas. The neighbor referenced above sheltered in place with his family, and planned to use his son's "redneck canoe" to evacuate if the water came that far up from the bayou (didn't, they're OK except for no power). He, being a native Texan, and from deep-woods East Texas at that, has the typical Texas arsenal in his house--he was prepared for any and all possible looters (a very big possibility, the neighborhood is surrounded by poor, gang- and crime-ridden apartment complexes). It all brings to mind the picture, "Drunks With Guns U Loot We Shoot," from SE Texas (hurricane Rita): http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/messagetopic.asp?p=9578013
And you know all those good ol' boys didn't have to go buy any of those guns, either--they already had them stashed in their houses and trucks. :D
Thanks for links for donations, I hated Houston but I have friends there and will be making a donation.
Merwoman, good to hear your friends are OK. San Antonio is gearing up for even more Ike victims as the prognosis for power is not good right now. Houston lost two thirds of its transmission and has extensive high voltage line damage. One of my relatives retired a few years back from Central Power and Light -- which covers South West Texas. Many of his co-worker buddies still working for CP&L are leaving for Houston and Beaumont tonight/tomorrow, but is could be weeks before folks have power again.
I know I keep going on about Houston's miserable climate -- but seriously. I have spent my life "embracing the suck" -- a daily discipline for military folk -- but Houston without power is a special kind of suck. What with all the standing water the skeeter population is going to boom.
Skeeters in Houston and especially Beaumont are legendary. They can carry off infants and small dogs. I remember stepping out of my great Aunt Lucille's Beaumont house to see what the adults were saying on the porch. Each had a cloud of mosquitoes buzzing about them like their own aura. Nasty, blood sucking, disease spreading bitchez.
I still have my fingers crossed for the folks who stayed behind in the death zones. Today will be a major search and rescue day.
Ray is a 67 year old disabled carpenter and Marine. He had planned to catch a ride with a neighbor, but when the neighbor couldn't get back to get him decided to ride it out. The Houston Chronicle has an article about his storm experience - 'Crazy hardhead' stays behind in Surfside. The picture of him on his balcony sitting in the chair where he spent the storm is classic.
The problem in Houston right now with the electrical outage is the pumps at the gas stations aren't working. So folks there don't even have the opportunity to be gouged.
If you are wondering what happened to OSer McGarrett50 of - Ridin' the Storm Out -- he and his made it through, but he is stuck with no power and bad water. He posted briefly at - No Power, No Water, No Problem.
No word yet from elizabeth camp of StormWatch - but while her area there by Galveston has no power and some serious debris issues, there haven't been any reports of recovery ops either.
During normal times, they have these mosquitoes called Asian Tiger mosquitoes--the bastards are out during the day (that's right! No escape from skeeters even in daylight!) and they're so big you can see the stripes that earned them the name.
After Allison, which dumped from 19" to 36" of rain on Houston (worst in the northeast) over a 5-day period in which it stalled over the area 3 times while zig-zagging, the PTB decided there was no reason to spray for mosquitoes--they weren't yet at a "dangerous" level. Only when some test measuring number of bites within a certain time frame hit "critical" did they send out the trucks. Meanwhile, we were all being eaten alive. I couldn't even walk out my front door without breathing in mosquitoes (seriously, then went up my nose and in my mouth, it was disgusting). So in June heat and near-100% humidity, I put on long sleeves and pants, a gardening hat with mosquito netting, gloves, socks, and tennies and I went out and sprayed my own yard. It kept me relatively sane until the city decided to do something about it a few days later. I hope they're not that dimwitted this time.
I was stuck on an island when 140 mph Hugo roared over in '89. Every single moment of that experience is crystalline clear. An experience like that is either life-ending or life-altering. The reason that few died in PR in '89 is basically architecture. The traditional building method there is poured concrete reinforced with rebar and mesh - floors, ceilings, and walls. Nothing destroys that.
Other islands in the Caribbean use less substantial construction materials. In those locations there were huge casualties.
Glad you are ok. I truly hope the toll is small.