Hurricane Ike September 11 2008
Friday
We had made our decision not to evacuate. We based this on the evacuation for Rita a few years back. That was a disaster in itself. We figured that if we were going to suffer and that seemed a given, we might as well be in our own home. It was the right decision.
Looking back on our preparations this time I see now things we might have done better, or at least done more of, and things we did right. I think if we could have known or assumed or even thought it possible to be without power for a long time we would have bought and filled more gas cans.
We did buy bottled water and filled up bottles we had saved up. We filled the tubs so we would have water to wash with and water to flush the toilets.
We have a full supply of medical things we may need and will need. I got stuff I was hoping we wouldn't need but if I saw it in a store and thought there was a possibility, I got it.
We were stocked up on food and prescriptions mostly. One script I could not get filled because Walmart said I had to wait 2 more days which put me as running out this morning. Luckily
it's my script for arthritis and not my diabetes one.
For food we had purchased stuff last year and tossed out stuff that expired and bought more. I keep totes of food that is single serving or easily preparable in case we are stuck on the road somewhere. I also bought tins of meat products when we were scared by the media about a possible bird flu attack. Some of these I worked back into our regular groceries and some I just left there. These are all safe to eat things and already cooked.
We filled a tote with batteries and flashlights. Al bought 2 lamps some time ago, I think before Rita and these are really great. We also filled a small cat carrier we don't use anymore with all the candles we could find. We hope to not have to use candles at all.
I also got two small personal book lights. We found these to be helpful for navigating corridors that are unlit at night.
I took photos of the house and furnishings in case of a disaster. I also took photos of the plywood we put on the windows.
I emailed some of our friends to let them know we would probably be a few days without power and internet. The power and internet went down at about 6 PM. I forgot about the phone. That went down too. Thank God for cell phones!
We went to bed that night expecting landfall about 40 or 50 miles away from us at 1 am. We were warned on TV of surges of water being forced into the waterways and possible floods.
On TV the night before a woman was interviewed who said she was not leaving Galveston. She was having a hurricane party. She had plenty of booze she said.
I watched a man with his son who looked about 6 or 7 standing on the beach in Galveston letting the waves crash over them. This was so stupid. In the first place the water was full of planks from docks with probably nails in them and huge blocks of stone along with God knows what kind of bacteria! In the second place this waves were tremendous going up about 4 feet above the
man's head. The undertow could have sucked him or his son out to sea and no one could have done a thing.
Saturday
I awoke at 4 AM to the loss of power. Al was still asleep. I noticed the water was off also. During the day the water came back and that was a big relief as most of Houston does not have water to drink or flush but has plenty of it in the streets and bayous. Most of Galveston is now a pile of matchsticks and rubble.
It's hard to watch TV but at least we can.
Al powered up the generator and plugged in the fridge, microwave, fan, one TV, and off and on the freezer. We thought we might be able to pick up something because as I stood in front of it I could hear the faint sound of Channel 13. We bustled around and found an old set of rabbit ears and made it work. Amazing! We even got a clear picture. Now we could see the news and news was all we got. Around the clock coverage of the storm. It was so sad and depressing.
110 mph winds were reported.
Most of us around here have lost fencing and some have trees down. I took a walk down to the catchment. The high level could be seen from the road.
It's going down the drains and the streets in my part of town are not flooded.
My cell phone wouldn't work and a neighbor loaned me his but it wouldn't work for me. Later I would hear that FEMA had restricted use of our phones. I'm not sure how true that is. At first all I could get was messages saying "not allowed", or "Network busy" and "call failed".
Al and I drove around the circle taking photos of trees and failed fencing for the most part. Homes in the older developments lost a lot of shingles. Some blew into our yard.
The catchment is full of water with lots of its fencing gone. I took some photos of it.
Back home we took down most of the plywood to let some light inside.
My phone beeped but no one was there. I figured out how to shut it off to save power. I think it was beeping to let me know it couldn't find a tower. I wanted so bad to be able to call and let my son and sisters and friends in lofty places know we survived the night. I think cell phone towers might be down somewhere.
I tried the phone from different places and got through once to my son. I told him to go into my email and send an email to the others to let them know we were fine but had no phone or power. We were cut off but he got the message first. I tried calling back and the
"emergency calls only" popped up again.
The surge was not as big as expected but Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula were hit hard, very hard.
I saw on the news that a boat storage place on Galveston had caught fire and burned taking about ten more houses with it because fire crews could not get there to do anything about it.
The Flagship Hotel built on a dock out over the water had survived many other storms. This time it was not so lucky. There are big holes in it now.
A hospital that had a lot of fancy glass ceilings in the hallways had a lot of that same glass come crashing down. I think this was on Galveston but it may have been in Houston.
Several buildings along the seawall in Galveston were reduced to piles of rubbish and matchsticks. Places we had been to before lay in piles.
People did survive on the island. They must have been very lucky. With the storm over, homes damaged no water, stores or medical help, survivors did not want to leave, knowing they would not be allowed back. Most folks who live there seem to be a tenacious lot and cling to what they know and have. They have lived there most of their lives if not all and as bad as it is,
it's still home.
All this time, I kept trying the phone when I thought about it. I did get my
sister's OH to answer once and when my sis picked up she couldn't hear me talk. I gave up. She knew I was ok and
I'd call when I could.
They are saying now that power may not be restored for a month. I worry about gas for the generator.
It rained a lot today. It's almost nine PM here and the rain has lessened but the lightning and thunder is so bad,
it's almost like being in a war zone. I've never heard thunder in "rolls" like that. It sounds like volleys of gunfire.
Al is working on the garage door. It's not opening easily manually and he may have to hook it into the generator to get it to open. That would be a nuisance.
I feel for all of you because this storm is so huge and now it's projected path is curved and is heading for New York.
On TV I see people in Sugarland lined up waiting for an ice machine to make ice. It makes about two bags every half hour.
There was a warning on TV to people dumb enough to use a generator inside the house or in a way that the fumes backed up into the house. I wonder, will they start requiring us to pass an IQ test before purchasing one? Al told me in the past that dumb people put them in the basement and fumes naturally came upstairs.
I drove out for a bit looking for gas cans and gas. All stores near here are closed. Deerpark Walmart is closed but the gas station is open with a long line of cars waiting.
Sunday
"Flight Of The Hummingbird"
We filled 3 one gallon ziplocks with ice from our fridge to cover the top layer in the freezer outside to help keep stuff frozen on the top. The bags of ice in the bottom are still frozen in cubes so I know nothing in there has unthawed. We plug it in every now and then and run it a bit and try not to open it much. I moved some small stuff inside.
It's stuff I can microwave easily for dinner.
As we closed it down after adding the ice a tiny hummingbird flew in the garage and got disoriented.
"She" couldn't find her way back out and was zipping around. We tried to lure it out but kept going behind the garage door where we
couldn't reach it and there is no outlet.
I forgot all about the camera so I have no photos to go with this small vignette. I got a broom and tried to direct its flight. Is it male because it
doesn't stop and ask for directions? I'm sure Al thinks it's female because it
doesn't follow directions.
Steering a hummingbird's flight is no easy task. We went back and forth from the open door in front to the open door in back.
At one point, Al closed the front door to drive her to the back one that was propped open. She was close but we think the sound of the generator or the wind it kicked up kept her from going through it.
In any case, just as she got close and we thought she'd make it the darn door got caught by the wind and slammed shut sending her in a tizzy. She hid behind the radio for a short time and Al got her out with the broom.
A couple of times she even relaxed or at least rested on the broom but when he tried to move her towards the door,
she'd come alert and take off again.
I tried talking to her sort of pep talks to a humming bird. I kept saying,
"Come on, you can do it." But she wasn't listening.
Al opened both of the front garage doors to give her a wider window of opportunity. It took us ten or fifteen minutes before she calmed enough to see the opening and flew out and disappeared across the road.
I suppose on looking back that if we'd just left her alone and came inside she would have eventually found the way but maybe not.
Sunday 2:45
We drove to Walmart for gas. The gas station is open but the line that was down to the first turn this morning is now 4 times as long. We gave up. Since I drove out this morning, about 5 or 6 power poles are leaning way over at the turn off to Walmart and lines are in the road on the left side with cops stopping traffic. I think it looked like some cars had the lines on them. We came home a different way and saw more poles leaning. Getting the power back on is going to be an enormous task and take some time.
At home we talked to some of our neighbors and one told me that FEMA took over our phone lines this morning and are not letting us make any calls except 911 or 311. I really think this is wrong because we pay for our phones for the main purpose of emergencies like this to keep in touch and
here's the government saying we can't use them for that purpose.
I have been listening to the news whenever we have the generator on and I heard on there that news people are not allowed onto the island of Galveston except the ones already there. But the real kicker is that they are not allowed to fly over the island. I also heard the mayor of Houston I think it was, saying they would give the reporters a list of places they could film and places they were not allowed. It makes me and others think there is something they want to hide. We know it can't be the storm so what else is there. This will lead to many cries of
"controversy"
Monday September 15th 5:00 PM
This morning about seven thirty we loaded up the car with our empty gas tanks and headed out to the Walmart gas station. It was open and the line was at least 4 times as long as before. We got in line. At least we had a nice breeze and the station did have gas and was open. These are all plusses in my mind. Also there were police there to keep order and direct us all. I counted at least 5 lines to get into the possibly ten pumps. The line moved easily if not fast for the circumstances. I did take some shots along the way.
Walmart itself was not open with the windows and doors boarded up. I saw no stores open anywhere and still no power. The station must have been working on generators. Traffic lights are not working and seem to use a courtesy system that in La Porte and Deer Park is working. The station was only selling gas as I heard someone ask for cigarettes and was told they were not allowed to sell anything but gas and soda pop.
All pumps had to be prepaid and you could not pay till you were at the pump ready to pump. Thus the person ahead of you had to stand in line to pay first, then pump, then go back and stand in line again to get there change with us standing in line for our turn. Even those paying with credit cards had to go through this leaving their card inside while they pumped.
I brought my cell phone with me and this time I got some calls to go through. I'm not sure if it was true or not that FEMA had taken over our phones as I was making calls while in Deer Park but got messages in La Porte that said "emergency calls only", "Not allowed" and "Network busy"
I called Tom but he wasn't up yet, and I left a message on his phone. I got through to Sue and explained about the lines. We talked for some time about what we'd both been seeing and hearing in the news. I got calls through to Carmie and left messages on Boredy's phone. I could not get through to my sister in Dallas. The message this time said, "call failed" I know she was expecting floods but her house is on a small hill and I have heard no damage reports from there.
Today I took some photos off the TV too. They are not all clear and most will already be on the net but it was fun to see if I could do this.
The sad news is that most of Bolivar Peninsula is devastated if not a total wasteland. Crystal Beach is no longer a community of homes but is now a sand wasteland.
One of the news people had said they were told that the black lighthouse on High Island had sustained wind damage that sheared off its top, however this afternoon they were finally given permission to fly over and one reporter was allowed to land at Crystal Beach. In the fly overs the lighthouse still stands and I saw no damage with its top looking intact to me.
This reported said he saw only game wardens patrolling. He reported that in previous disasters when search and rescue had gone into an area they would spray paint on dwellings that they had checked it out and whether or not victims had been found or survivors rescued. There was no evidence that anyone else had been there. The fish and game folks did rescue a couple who they found at one spot. They were relieved to get off.
You could see way out in the water about 50 big ships waiting for the ship channel to open so they could pick up or unload cargo.
There have been at present 4 confirmed deaths, but no one knows yet about these other areas. (Today Sun the 21st, I heard there have been 26 deaths in Texas but still a lot of missing.)
On Galveston one man had to be airlifted to a hospital because of an acute attack by mosquitoes. There have been eleven arrests of looters on Galveston or as the reported called it, "shopping"
Tuesday September 16th Noon
We took the food we had in totes in case of an evacuation and drove to the New Life Church where a FEMA POD site was set up. At first we were told they were not allowed as it was a FEMA operation. It was exasperating to have good cans and packs of easy open and eat food and be told they couldn't take it.
As we were about to leave the lady came back up and said they could take it in the church and she had two young boys come and take it and bring us back our containers. Al told me she was one of our neighbors. I just didn't "see" her because she had dark glasses and a base ball cap and to be honest I was too shook up by it all.
While I waited, I took photos of some of workers, mostly local and National Guard. The line of people waiting to get in went all the way back to the light on Spencer.
In the afternoon we learned that residents still living in Galveston were being offered a chance to evacuate as there was nothing there for them at that time. We heard there were only a few hundred but when this was announced folks came out of hiding from all over. A total of over 3000 had stayed through the storm and a lot were evacuated but still others refused to leave.
This seems strange to me when they also reported a live tiger on the loose somewhere on the island and the reported said he was hungry. The tiger, not the reporter.
(Sept 22 - I saw on TV that not only a tiger but a lion as well were there. The lion and his owner took refuge in a church. The man was also the owner of the tiger.)
On the news a reporter said he had heard that some of those big containers that you see on semis were seen rolling end over end down the street from the docks where ships unload at the port.
We took a drive around La Porte and down or over to Morgan's Point to see what we could see of the damage to La Porte. Someone told us the weather channel had reported massive damages to our town.
I'm almost certain there are tons of tree branches and whole trees down here. A lot of shingles were lost around town. I saw a lot of downed power poles including one that seemed to be trying to order from Burger King.
I took some photos. I missed the Burger King one. I really think the thing that hit most of us the hardest was loss of water for some and loss of power and phone lines for most of us. With the loss of power, the stores and gas stations could not operate.
I'm hoping there will be fresh frozen foods and meats, breads and produce in the stores when we next go shopping. All of that stuff had to be discarded and if you
didn't have a generator at home all of that stuff in your freezer and refrigerator had to be tossed as well.
It is now Sun and although our power is on there are over a million in the area who
don't have power yet.