Ike Yikes!

[AvoidingRealWork]

OK, now we're getting hammered pretty hard. Heavy, sideways rain and 40 mph gusts.

Amazing that it's still this intense all the way up almost to Chicago.

 

[R. Richard]

Good to hear that Lisa and AvoidingRealWork are OK.

As Lisa says, pray for the rescue crews. The people who stayed did so because they wanted to. The rescue crews go in because its their job and they have to.

For those of you not familiar with Texas, there are snakes that can swim who live in the Lone Star State. You wade halfway across a flooded ditch and you come face to face with a snake looking for a meal. Not fun.

 

[Katyusha]

OK, now we're getting hammered pretty hard. Heavy, sideways rain and 40 mph gusts.

Amazing that it's still this intense all the way up almost to Chicago.

It was still that intense north of Chicago. We're flooded out up here with branches everywhere. And we're due for some more rain later tonight...like we need more rain...

How do you go from drought conditions to floods in less than a week?

 

[SlickTony]

My mother and daughter are now back home in Taylor Lake Village, as my mother didn't want to impose on my daughter's boyfriend anymore, and was anxious to see what her home looked like. Fortunately, there's minimal damage; a neighbor's tree fell down and poked a hole in the roof of the garage; a tree belonging to her fell near the lot line and possibly damaged the fence; no water got in the house at all. Everything is pretty messy, of course, and no telling when they'll get power again.

My sister and her husband are OK, too, as of last report, although it's hard to get in touch with them because a cell tower between Houston and Galvestone went down. They live over a restaurant in a two-story loft apartment across from the Opera House. They said their landlord was crazy not to remove his swinging sign before the storm got there. Some water got in the Opera House. They could look out the window and see the water rushing through the street.

 

[R. Richard]

Hurricane Ike has passed. Now the aftermath. Comments?

Nearly 2,000 brought to safety in Texas

GALVESTON, Texas - The death toll from Hurricane Ike rose to 21 in nine states Sunday, as rescuers said they had saved nearly 2,000 people from waterlogged streets and splintered houses. Glass-strewn Houston was placed under a weeklong curfew, and millions of people in the storm's path remained in the dark.

As the floodwaters began to recede from the first hurricane to make a direct hit on a major U.S. city since Katrina, authorities planned to go door-to-door into the night to reach an untold number of people across the Texas coast who rode out the storm and were still in their homes, many without power or supplies.

Many of those who did make it to safety boarded buses without knowing where they would end up, and without knowing when they could return to what was left of their homes, if anything.

"I don't know what I'll be coming back to. I have nothing," said Arma Eaglin, 52, who was waiting for a bus to a shelter in San Antonio after leaving her home and wading through chest-deep water with nothing but her clothes. "I'm confused. I don't know what to do."

The hurricane also battered the heart of the U.S. oil industry: Federal officials said Ike destroyed a number of production platforms, though it was too soon to know how seriously it would affect oil and gas prices.

Ike was downgraded to a tropical depression as it moved into the nation's midsection and left more harm in its wake. Roads were closed in Kentucky because of high winds. As far north as Chicago, dozens of people in a suburb had to be evacuated by boat. Two million people were without power in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Of the 21 dead, five were in the hard-hit barrier island city of Galveston, including one body found in a vehicle submerged in floodwater at the airport. Many deaths, however, were outside of Texas as the storm slogged north.

Ike's 110 mph winds and battering waves left Galveston without electricity, gas and basic communications — and officials estimated it may not be restored for a month.

"We want our citizens to stay where they are," a weary Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas said. "Do not come back to Galveston. You cannot live here at this time."

Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city, was reduced to near-paralysis in some places. Power was on in downtown office towers Sunday afternoon, and Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical complex, was unscathed and remained open. Both places have underground power lines.

Its two airports — including George Bush Intercontinental, one of the busiest in the United States — were set to reopen Monday with limited service, but schools were closed until further notice, and the business district was shuttered.

Five people were arrested at a pawn shop north of Houston and charged with burglary in what Harris County Sheriff's spokesman Capt. John Martin described as looting, but there was no widespread spike in crime.

Authorities said Sunday afternoon that 1,984 people had been rescued, including 394 by air. In addition to people who were literally plucked to safety, the figure includes people who were met by crews as they waded through floodwaters trying to get to dry ground.

Still others chose to remain in their homes along the Texas coast even after the danger of the storm had passed. There was no immediate count Sunday of how many people remained in their homes, or how many were in danger. The Red Cross reported 42,000 people were at state and Red Cross shelters Saturday night.

The search-and-rescue effort was the largest in Texas history, including more than 50 helicopters, 1,500 searchers and teams from federal, state and local agencies.

Once evacuees were safe and dry, there was another problem — where they would go. Some buses went to shelters in San Antonio and Austin. Shelters across Texas scurried to find enough cots, and some arrived with little cash and no idea of what the coming days held.

From the city of Orange alone, near the Louisiana line, more than 700 people sought dry ground — "a Herculean effort to organize a reverse evacuation that nobody had ever planned for," Mayor Brown Claybar said.

Hundreds of people wrapped around a high school in Galveston, some with pets, overstuffed duffel bags and medicine as they waited to board a bus to a shelter. Some didn't know where they were going, and even more didn't know when they could return.

"I have nowhere to go," said Ldyyan Jonjocque, 61, waiting for a bus while holding the leashes of her four Australian shepherd dogs. She said she had to leave two dogs behind in her home. She wept as she told of officers rescuing her in a dump truck.

Rescue crews vowed to continue the search until they had knocked on every door, and planned to work through the night for the second day in a row. They were helped by receding floodwaters, but there were constant surprises as people rowed and sloshed through towns.

Two people who took a flat-bottom boat to check on a funeral home in the city of Orange passed by the local cemetery and found dozens of caskets had popped above ground in the floodwaters. Only a chain-link fence kept them from drifting into the surrounding neighborhood.

"I haven't seen any bodies, just caskets," said one of the men, Warren Claybar.

The storm also took a toll in Louisiana, where hundreds of homes were flooded and power outages worsened as the state struggles to recover from Hurricane Gustav, which struck over Labor Day.

In Hackberry, La., about 15 miles from the coast, workers moved a large shrimp boat out of the highway with a bulldozer, but the team had to stop because of strong currents in the floodwaters and difficulty in seeing the roadway.

Ike, which killed more than 80 in the Caribbean before reaching the U.S., has killed seven people in Texas, including a 4-year-old Houston boy who died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the generator his family was using for power. Two people died in Louisiana.

President Bush made plans to visit the area Tuesday. On his trip to Texas, Bush said he intends to express "the federal government's support — sympathy on the one hand and support on the other — for this recovery effort and rebuilding effort."

The oil industry was trying to find out how severe damage was to at least 10 production platforms destroyed by the storm. Specifics about the size and production capacity of the destroyed platforms were not immediately available, but the damage was to a fraction of the 3,800 platforms in the Gulf. By comparison, Hurricane Katrina destroyed 44 platforms.

As the remnants of the hurricane broke down and streamed northeastward, torrential rain caused flooding and power outages in parts of Kansas, Missouri and Illinois.

More rain fell in Chicago on top of 6.6 inches Saturday, and work crews placed 30,000 sandbags along the Chicago River, which was 2 feet above its normal level Sunday. Forty people in suburban Albany Park had to be evacuated by boat.

SWAT commander Sgt. Rodney Harrison and five other members of the Port Arthur Police Department drove a 2 1/2-ton truck into the waters to search for victims in Sabine Pass near the Louisiana border Sunday morning.

The waters were so intense and the roads so blocked that a gear shift broke off in the driver's hand. After two hours of struggle, the team had little to show for their work other than sopping wet clothes and exhaust-streaked faces. They even dodged an alligator.

"You have people that have families at home who put their lives on the line to come out here and save somebody that made a bad decision," Harrison said. "I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair to everybody."

 

[JagFarlane]

Phew, finally heard back from the stepsis and her family. They're about 30mi from the coast in Texas, and apparently didn't evacuate [her first hurricane, and now swears she will evacuate from now on ]. Their sewer is out, and are being told power will be out for up to one month. In the meantime going to their inlaws. The sewer works there...and they have two generators.

 

[matriarch]

Just had a call from big bro in Alvin......he;s still ok, but still no power, no water. He;s one of the lucky ones, he was prepared, a large stock of tinned food and milk, gallon bottles of water in the garage, a barbque with grill and oven and plenty of fuel, but as he says, now he's getting bored. What he hates most is not being able to shower.

He's back at work, the rice mill has power, so he can use his kettle at work and make his beloved cup of tea in the morning, and refill his water bottles.

His battery operated camping light uses batteries like it was going out of fashion, so he's onluy using it when he has to, otherwise it's candles. He buys them up cheap at end of line sales, and stores them.

My only concern is his health. He's recovering from chemo and radiotherapy on a spine tumour, and was due for a chemo last Friday. It was cancelled, and he's waiting for them to call him for his next chemo. The hospital is in Houston, which thankfully mostly has power pack on, but it'll be weeks before it reaches the sticks.

He also has to go to Immigration on Saturday to renew his green card, but he can't get through to them to find out if the appointment is still on.

He was telling me about the lines for gas....30 cars long at each pump...but he managed to find a station with only a couple of cars waiting when he took his daughter back to her mother a 20 mile trip away. (They have power and water back on, so he managed a shower !!). It was expensive, but worth it.

There are lines of cars waiting at FEMA stations, where they are distributing food and ice.

He told me about the places he passed where the houses have just been flattened, nothing left. People who stayed in Galveston Bay and survived, are being allowed to stay, but if they leave Galveston for anything they aren't being allowed back in. It's going to take around 4-5 weeks to get the power back, and around a year to clear it up !!!

He told me about the old people who have lost their houses, everything, and just don't understand what's going on. My heart goes out to them.

But, on a personal level, I'm just delighted he's ok, that his spirits are still high, that he's managing to feed himself properly - his health depends on it. The last thing he needs now is any kind of infection.

 

[matriarch]

Today's update from one of the power companies covering the Galveston Bay Area/Houston....

Texas-New Mexico Power Co.

 

[R. Richard]

Matriarch:
Thanks for the info!

It would appear that your brother is making the best of a very bad situation. The only thing I can do is senf best wishes.

You have to applaud the work of the Texas New Mexico Power people. Their out there getting the power back on, with critical services first. To have to remember that many of the people in the TNMP crews are also living without power, water, etc.

There are a lot of quiet heros in the Texas areas that felt the wrath of Ike.

 

[tickledkitty]

We had the remnants of Ike here in Ohio Sunday afternoon and evening. We had 70 mph winds and 300,000 people without power. Ours was out from early Sunday evening until around 10:30 Monday night, and we were lucky. Our relatives are still without power. I've never experienced wind like that here. With all the uprooted trees and downed power lines here, thousands of miles away from where it hit land, I can't imagine the devastation it caused down there.

 

[Shwenn]

I'm alive.

Lost a lot of our fence. Cleared a lot of branches. It's sad to see these live oaks blown down, thinking of how old they must be. Lost power for about four days. Lived on granola bars and cereal for a while.

Discovered that our governor doesn't know how to pronounce the word "potable" (he prounces the 'pot' as in 'pot of tea').

 

[R. Richard]

Now it appears that the federal governemtn may not rebuild Galveston. Say what you will, but I believe that the proposed action is intended as a slap at Glen Campbell.

 

[sweetness6280]

I'm alive.

Lost a lot of our fence. Cleared a lot of branches. It's sad to see these live oaks blown down, thinking of how old they must be. Lost power for about four days. Lived on granola bars and cereal for a while.

Discovered that our governor doesn't know how to pronounce the word "potable" (he prounces the 'pot' as in 'pot of tea').

Good to see you alive!!

Honey, Perry is worse than Bush when it comes to mispronouncing words.


Now, has anyone heard from Lee Chambers? He was last seen as the storm was hitting Baytown, determined to ride it out.

 

[R. Richard]

Yet more trouble for Galveston. Comment?

Some Ike victims may not be allowed to rebuild

GALVESTON, Texas - Hundreds of people whose beachfront homes were wrecked by Hurricane Ike may be barred from rebuilding under a little-noticed Texas law. And even those whose houses were spared could end up seeing them condemned by the state.

Now here's the saltwater in the wound: It could be a year before the state tells these homeowners what they may or may not do.

Worse, if these homeowners do lose their beachfront property, they may get nothing in compensation from the state.

The reason: A 1959 law known as the Texas Open Beaches Act. Under the law, the strip of beach between the average high-tide line and the average low-tide line is considered public property, and it is illegal to build anything there.

Over the years, the state has repeatedly invoked the law to seize houses in cases where a storm eroded a beach so badly that a home was suddenly sitting on public property. The aftermath of Ike could see the biggest such use of the law in Texas history.

"I don't like it one bit," said Phillip Curtis, 58, a Dallas contractor who owns two homes — a $350,000 vacation home and a $200,000 rental — on Galveston Island's Jamaica Beach. "I think the state should allow us to try to save the houses. I don't appreciate the state telling people, `Now it belongs to us.' It breaks your heart."

The former state senator who wrote the law had little sympathy.

"We're talking about damn fools that have built houses on the edge of the sea for as long as man could remember and against every advice anyone has given," A.R. "Babe" Schwartz said.

Ike's 110 mph winds and 26-foot waves obliterated the 4- to 6-foot dunes and redrew the tide lines along a broad stretch of the Texas Gulf Coast.

Texas General Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican whose office is responsible for policing the beaches, said he saw hundreds of houses in jeopardy of being declared on the beach unlawfully as he flew over the coastline this week.

"And those are the ones still standing," he said. Other homes, he said, were reduced to pilings sticking up out of the sand or water.

Patterson said no decision on whether homeowners can continue living there would be made for at least a year, while authorities watch the ever-shifting boundaries of the beach.

"You want to have at least a complete all four seasons and find out what Mother Nature is actually going to do until she finishes what she's going to do," Patterson said.

That could put homeowners in a bind. Many may be afraid to spend money on home repairs if there is a chance the state is just going to condemn the property.

Those whose homes were destroyed can collect insurance. But it is unclear whether those whose undamaged homes are condemned under the Texas law will get any compensation, from the state or anyone else. Land Office spokesman Jim Suydam said the agency used to offer people up to $50,000 to move, but he didn't know if that fund still exists.

Rebuilding the eaten-away beaches does not appear to be an option. Schwartz said that the Gulf of Mexico does not deposit sand on Galveston Island and other nearby beaches, and that trucking in huge amounts of sand would not work, because storms would just wash it away within a year or two.

The law was enacted when there were far fewer houses on the Texas coast. In fact, there are lot more houses on the coast now than there were in 1983, during Hurricane Alicia, the last time the law was invoked against large numbers of homeowners. Many of the beach homes on Galveston and other nearby beaches are second homes, many of them rather modest.

Schwartz said the area's homeowners should not be surprised.

"Every one of them was warned of that in their earnest money contract, in the deed they received, in the title policy they bought," he said. "And whether you like it or not, neither the Constitution of the United States nor the state of Texas nor any law permits you to have a structure on state-owned property that's subject to the flow of the tide."

California and Oregon have similar laws.

State Rep. Craig Eiland, a Galveston Democrat, said he is not aware of any move in the Legislature to change the Open Beaches Act. And the track record for those who choose to fight the state in court is grim.

"No one has ever succesfully ever beaten the state when the state comes after you under the Open Beaches Act," said Charles Irvine, a Houston coastal law attorney. "But everyone still tries to think up innovative arguments."

Susan Holman, 60, of Dallas, owns a house with her brother on Pirate's Beach on Galveston Island. Her parents built it 25 years ago as a vacation home. The home is still intact, but the water's edge is now close, meaning the house might be seized.

"Until we know more, I'm not going to worry about something that hasn't happened," she said. But she added: "If that did happen, it would break our hearts."

 

[matriarch]

What an amazing picture!

Last house standing??

My brother was telling me about this.

Unbelievable.

 

[TxRad]

Last house standing??

My brother was telling me about this.

Unbelievable.

USGS has before and after photos of Bolivar Peninsular. They did aerial photos on the 9th and then two days after Ike. You can't believe the difference.

 

[sweetness6280]

USGS has before and after photos of Bolivar Peninsular. They did aerial photos on the 9th and then two days after Ike. You can't believe the difference.

Damn good to see you, darlin!


I saw those photos. I have spent so much time in Galveston and on Bolivar, it is unreal to see the devastation. So far, everyone I have talked to that has/had property in either place has nothing left.

 

[matriarch]

Incredible photos from post-Ike.

Hurricane Ike photos.

Unfreakin'believable.

 

[R. Richard]

I read of people in Houston who still don't have power back on. They aren't even trying to get power back in in some of the areas around Falveston, since there aren't many people there to use the power and the need is greater in other areas.

I talked with a guy who was in Ohio when Ike passed through. He tells of 70MPH winds and trees down.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Last house standing??

My brother was telling me about this.

Unbelievable.

This guy was smart. The last little piggie He built his house to withstand a 20 foot surge... and 130 mile an hour winds. It CAN be done.

If you're going to build houses on the coast where you know hurricanes come in... why aren't you building them to withstand hurricanes!??!

 

[sweetness6280]

This guy was smart. The last little piggie He built his house to withstand a 20 foot surge... and 130 mile an hour winds. It CAN be done.

If you're going to build houses on the coast where you know hurricanes come in... why aren't you building them to withstand hurricanes!??!

Because WE are MAN... hear us roar. WE have dominion.

Until Mother Nature reminds us of our place.

 

[R. Richard]

This guy was smart. The last little piggie He built his house to withstand a 20 foot surge... and 130 mile an hour winds. It CAN be done.

If you're going to build houses on the coast where you know hurricanes come in... why aren't you building them to withstand hurricanes!??!

First, the house in the picture was ruined, with the inside flooded.

A dome house can be built, without too much trouble to withstand 200MPH winds. It can be placed on a 30 foot high berm, to insulate it from at least a 20 foot surge. However, the people behind the berm, with their view cut off tend to complain.

Now comes the trouble. The storm passes and you have no power, no water, no gas. You can run an emergency generator as long as you can get fuel, but you really don't want to store too much fuel on site, as it's like storing dynamite. You can drink bottled water for a while, but you don't flush with bottled water. You don't get the gas turned back on until the local gas company is back up and running. In the meantime, you have to deal with looters. (I have no problem with shooting looters. For some unknown reason many people do.)

 

[matriarch]

I read of people in Houston who still don't have power back on. They aren't even trying to get power back in in some of the areas around Falveston, since there aren't many people there to use the power and the need is greater in other areas.

I talked with a guy who was in Ohio when Ike passed through. He tells of 70MPH winds and trees down.

My brother has now been 10 days without power or water......to use his words, it's getting boring now, cooking on the bbq. I think that's putting it mildly.

He had an appointment on Saturday at the Immigration Office in Houston to renew his green card. He needs it, obviously to work legally, and also to get back into the country after his impending visit back home. He couldn't get through to the office to check on the appointment, so drove a 65 mile round trip to see what he could find out. There was a guy on the door/desk, who was unbelievably rude. This is what bro told me: "I told him I would shortly be going out of the country, his reply “you won’t get back in”, very helpful and constructive. The woman sitting next to him was more helpful saying I would get a sticker on my expired card until my new one arrives." Nice guy. He did at least manage to get his chemo which had been put off for a week. Compared to so many thousands of other people, particularly those poor souls in Haiti, he's doing pretty well. He's safe, his home is safe

 

[Lee Chambers]

I made it through the hurricane. I will make it through the fucking apocalypse. The world will end and it will be me and the fucking cockroaches and I will wear a paper crown and declare myself king of the cockroach empire.

I have a lot of pictures and video from around the Baytown area. Some of you saw the videos I posted on YouTube and I'm going to slap everything together on a video and post it up. But we have to get power back at my house first, which hasn't happened. I'm currently operating from my mother's house and stealing my neighbor's WiFi.

All in all it has been a shit week. Power still out for a number of places in Baytown, traffic lights destroyed although many have been destroyed. But the result was nightmare traffic even in the less traveled parts of town.

I spent ALL of last week working except for Saturday because my company is a bunch of cheap cock suckers and we aren't getting any kind of compensation for the time we lost because of the hurricane. My shift was supposed to start the morning the hurricane rolled in and continue for four days. So much for that.

My sister was due any day and fortunately did not go into labor during the storm. But she had to have labor induced and that happened last Thursday. She now has a beautiful baby girl.

The worst part, however, is that my father passed away Saturday afternoon. He was dealing with liver cancer before the storm hit and we were told he had six months left. However, after the storm he was laid up because of the heat and no power to keep cool. He developed pneumonia shortly after the hurricane passed and quickly went down hill.

It's been hell trying to deal with his death, trying to recover from the storm, and my sister's new baby. Because things are in such a mess we've been over a barrel with funeral arrangements and I've had to take three more days off of work because of it. My company, as I mentioned, are cheap cock suckers and they offer no kind of pay coverage for family deaths. But I was told any days I take off would be excused. How nice.

Anyway, not sure when I'll get the video up with the pictures. Baytown wasn't hit too badly but some spots are really bad. Anyway, hope others are doing well. Take care all.

 

[R. Richard]

Glad to hear you made it through Ike.

After they get things more or less back to normal, you really need to find a new place to work.