Posted on 09/12/2008 11:29:13 PM PDT by NautiNurse
AAh ... cool air. Has to feel
wonderful. And yes, it is sadly
another epic event on planet earth.
God be with them all.
Silly sidebar: algore’s new 100 ft.
houseboat could hold at least a couple
hundred folks. What kind of help did
he offer? (stupid, fatigued joke attempt
by me)
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gore-hits-the-waves-with-a-massive-new-houseboat/2/
I’m so happy that everything turned out so well for you :-)
I’m betting the people with the tree that fell on their house are gone and will wander back around soon to much less good news than you had :-(
Now when the heck is Walmart going to open???? I had to go to the doc this AM and there are long long long lines everywhere there is a gas station open. The gas lines are less than two days ago but still unbelievable. I’m still on full and the amount of miles I drive my car, I could be on full for 3-4 weeks. It takes me over 2 months to use a tank of gas now that I’m retired. We run around in one of my husband’s vehicles, he won’t let me take my car to Walmart. LOL
Here’s a funny story I haven’t seen in the news - file it under the category “Only in Texas”.
A guy cut into the front of the line (probably 50 or more cars long) to get gas and the guy he cut in front of shot him. The gals at the docs office were telling me about it because it happened near Bayshore and they were out looking for lunch about the time it happened. I know it’s terrible but I’m just not feeling too sorry for him. He won’t need any gas while he’s healing in the hospital.
Just north of Texas City. There is a bridge that joins the two areas.
Wow, that’s an amazing story! I’ve been wondering why we haven’t seen any video of rescues (aside from the footage of Friday’s rescues). Perhaps the rescues aren’t or weren’t happening? The media blackout makes it look like no one is being rescued. JMHO.
Well, if they can afford it fine. No
problem with that. The wealthy can
afford to self-insure and do, and they
have the bucks for it all, pre and post
calamity.
Life, disasters happen. I sure know
that. I’ve been displaced by them,
and I’m an empathetic and compassionate
neighbor when they’ve been in the same
boat.
But I’m kinda starting to get just a
might turned off by excessive govt
(yours and my) funds being expended
in these areas of documented and many
times repetitive severe risk, loss and
rescue, when D-Day finally comes.
Barrier islands .. I just don’t think so.
Rebuilding NOLA? I’m having real
difficulty grasping the logic of that,
in light of the topography/elevation,
except for the vital coastal petrol/refinery
areas and housing for the employees.
Maybe I’m just dense.
BTW, if those barrier island residents
aren’t paying tons more than folks in
safer locales, who thought up that plan?
That’s unconscionable and illogical, if true.
The maps seem to have San Leon all over the place. On Yahoo maps, type in Bacliff, Texas - San Leon is the area just south and east of there. It curves around Dickinson Bay.
My favorite place to go in San Leon to watch the pelicans glide over the bay and the Monk’s Parakeets nesting (see photos):
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=59649
EXCELLENT!! I knew you would be okay if you weren’t right on the water.
Nice survival story until this poke. It's always the government's fault.
Yes, I heard he landed at Ellington before 10:00 AM and was going to survey Galveston from the air. Welcome home Mr. President!!
He didn't know a storm was coming? Did someone tie him to that tree and force him to stay? He got a lot more assistance than he knows. God gave him a tree to cling to. Stop complaining Bud. Cowboy up and just be grateful that you survived.
So happy to see you!
Thanks for taking a minute to check in !
Welcome home sir. Stay awhile if you can.
Still no power but we did just get internet back.Gas for gen should hold out till friday am but downtown Huffman has power and a few gas stations are open. So, I thought I would cook some spare ribs on the pit for tonight and celebrate having a internet connection. On a side note, just heard on TV they are going to remove everyone from Bolivar peninsula. This is disturbing as there are plenty folks who can get back and forth by water. Told wife is my guess is after everyone is removed, the government will condemn the whole peninsula and no one will be allowed to reside there anymore. Lets hope that does not happen folks.
Sometime the smart way cost almost nothing extra. Brick ties, eg.
http://www.khou.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29031
Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:39 am Post subject: First hand account
http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080915/NEWS01/809150284
File photosMark Collette and Rhiannon MeyersThe following is a first-hand account of the destruction of Galveston Island by Hurricane Ike by Mark Collette, former Tyler Paper reporter, who lives there with his wife, Rhiannon Meyers, also a former Tyler Paper reporter and now a reporter for the Galveston County Daily News.
Collette sent an e-mail, from which this information was included, to let friends and family know they are doing fine.
The island, as a whole, looks like a war zone. The structures that weren’t destroyed have been ruined by water. Fire destroyed at least 17 buildings. One entire apartment building collapsed.
Every structure built over the water in front of the Seawall was destroyed and left little trace, except for the Flagship Hotel, which was severely damaged and separated from the island.
Some people are believed to still be inside but cannot be reached immediately because the pilings on the building were damaged, so a helicopter can’t land on top.
Much if not most of the property on the Bolivar Peninsula is now debris. Homes on the West End of Galveston Island that used to be behind the dunes are now over open water. The Seawall was covered in chunks of concrete that weigh hundreds of pounds.
Authorities are still in search-and-rescue mode. About 24,000 people didn’t heed evacuation orders. Rescuers are leaving the dead in houses and moving on to look for the living.
Unlike in New Orleans after Katrina, they are not spray painting a giant “X” on a building when they find bodies. Instead, they are putting discrete stickers on the buildings. On the one hand, government officials seem to be trying to keep the media from portraying the true extent of the disaster, but on the other hand officers are tipping off reporters about deaths and rescues.
Rhiannon said the amount of buildings reduced to rubble suggests that more bodies will be found and the magnitude of the disaster will become clearer in the coming days.
A couple thousand have probably been rescued, a couple thousand have left the island on buses since the storm. Thankfully, for those who remain, the government has arrived with food, water and ice, and the weather has cooled so that people can stay comfortable just with open windows.
Rhiannon said those now choosing to remain on the island are mostly poor, homeless, sick and/or elderly. One guy on Bolivar refused to leave because rescuers refused to accommodate his pet lion. The folks on the peninsula are a different breed.
Boats and other debris crashed into the causeway linking the island to the mainland. Construction on the new causeway was almost complete before the storm, but the southbound side was still a section or two short of reaching the mainland. Now, the lanes of the northbound side that were being used for southbound traffic are inaccessible because the road buckled in the storm.
Because of that and lack of services, it’s going to be a while before anybody is allowed back on the island. There’s talk that the city plans on letting only residents back in on Tuesday, and even then making them return to the mainland by nightfall. I doubt this will happen by Tuesday because of the ongoing search and rescue efforts.
As for our first-floor apartment (located a few blocks inland from the Seawall), there were 8 inches to a foot of water inside. This means water at street level was at least waist deep, and it also means there wasn’t any part of the island’s surface that didn’t get submerged.
The walls in our apartment that are parallel to the Seawall had watermarks as high as three feet, suggesting that waves rolled through the building somehow, even though the windows didn’t break. Rhiannon said the smell is awful. But we have renter’s insurance, and I took all the photos and most of the other keepsakes with me when I evacuated.
At the top of a fence at a school near our apartment, Rhiannon saw debris that got caught when the water was at or above the fence. That means that area was under at least 8 feet of water.
(During the hurricane) Rhiannon and about 800 other reporters, city officials and emergency workers holed up in the San Luis Resort hotel on the Seawall. The hotel is built atop an old military bunker and is probably the highest point on the island.
The storm surge never made it into the lobby, but rainwater penetrated the upper floors, drained through the walls and bubbled into the lobby, covering the floor by a few inches.
Before the wind got too strong, Rhiannon was on the 15th floor with a group of firefighters who watched fires burn around the city and were unable to do anything about it because most of the island was already under water. When the wind picked up, everyone went downstairs.
She and the rest of the newspaper staff have been resilient. The newspaper’s normal disaster plan calls for establishing a temporary copy desk in Houston while some reporters stay on the island at the Daily News, a super sturdy building with huge generators.
No one counted on water rising high enough to flood the generators. Editors were cut off from reporters, and reporters from each other, so for the first day following the storm, the reporters were basically operating on auto-pilot with very little coordination, but you wouldn’t know it from the stories they filed.
Many thanks for all your thoughts and prayers
http://www.oe.energy.gov/news_room_and_events/events.htm
From there I eventually get to this report of today’s situation:
Situation Report for September 16, 2008, 10AM
http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/docs/2008_SitRep_5_Ike_091608_10AM.pdf
My approximate summary is:
- 2.2 Million “customers” (not people) are dark now in TX, 1.0M in OH, 0.1M LA & AR, 0.4M in KY
- LOOP oil tanker terminal has resumed offloading
- Many Oil facilities shut down, but no reports of substantial damage as of yet.
- Natural gas pipelines seem to be OK. No major infrastructure damage reported. Need electric.
- Generators being installed by Exxon& Chevron and others.
- More than 90% of gas/oil wells in the GOM are not producing due to preemptive shutdowns.
- Nat Gas Damage assessments under way. Flooding. Lack of power. Some may take several weeks to cleanup & repair.
- Minor damage to some off-shore facilities. Too early for detailed repair estimates, but probably not more than a few weeks.
The largest affected distribution company, CenterPoint, reports 3/4 of their customers dark. Facilities still out of service include 90 transmission facilities, 126 substations, 1348 distribution circuits. (In addition, 55 tf, 119 sst, and 342 dc’s have already been restored.)
CenterPoint estimates that 50-75% of its customers will have power within 7-10 days. The remainder within 3wks [sounds optimistic to editor] Over 11,000 personnel are working with CenterPoint.
[IF you look at that report, I caution you that the 90%+ of oil facilities out is meaningless as far as anything having to do with damage. That simply means certain facilities are not producing as of this report.]
bttt
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