16 Days

Powerless. I don’t know the meaning of that word as vividly as some people I know. Mainly my sister. Her house in Houston came through Hurricane Ike essentially unscathed.

But the electrical power went off. Three huge power poles down the street from her house were snapped like twigs during the storm.

Her house was without electrical power for 16 days. Yes:  SIXTEEN DAYS. She was able to buy a small gasoline-powered generator in order to have a few lights and a fan or two running, and could run the fridge off of it.

But she often didn’t bother to run the fridge. Because it’s still hard to find food to buy in Houston, and pretty much impossible to cook at her house without electricity. 

The electrical power was restored at my sister’s house on Sunday afternoon. Day before yesterday. She’s tired and lost money due to lost work days and extra expenses, including eating out and doing laundry at laundromats and buying gas for the generator. And all that crap.

Last night she said her cable internet service is working again, the cats spent Sunday afternoon and night in blissed-out slumber in the once more air-conditioned house (she thinks that neither of them moved an inch for literally hours), the dogs are happier too, and after the power came on she had a nice long sleep too. At least, all she needs to do now is serious housecleaning, not serious home repairs. 

People, this happened in Houston which is 40 to 50 miles inland, not in a town right on the coast. One of our nation’s largest cities. It wasn’t wiped out like New Orleans was by Katrina, but I am really bothered that it was possible for so much of a major city’s infrastructure to be wiped out by a single storm and for restoration to take so long.

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Relieved

I came home this afternoon to find a voice mail from my sister in Houston. The storm’s now passed and its only damage at her house was a board off the fence. No flooding, and not as much damage as some of her neighbors’ homes suffered (trashed trees, roof shingles ripped off, and even several garage doors blown off which she said really surprised her). There’s been no electricity since midnight, and that could turn into a big issue later, but at least she’s safe and in an un-flooded undamaged house. And has cell phone service.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts.

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Waiting

My sister lives in Houston, and Hurricane Ike is approaching the Texas Gulf Coast. She doesn’t livein the A or B zones, the coastal and near-coastal areas which have been ordered to evacuate. But she is in Zone C. We’ve talked; she’s staying put in her house with all her pets and after most of her life in Houston knows how to deal with hurricanes. Last night she told me that all the stores are sold out of ice, and good luck trying to buy gas anywhere.

I’ve been watching the Weather Channel for too long today, and just checked online for status. With landfall still many hours away, the water is rising fast and seriously in Galveston and the coastal areas.

I’m worried but there’s nothing to do but wait and see. 

Thanks to technology I can look at live weathercams in my sister’s part of town, and I bet I don’t close that browser window much in the next day or so.  I also found this specific forecast for her zip code (the stuff that makes me gulp, I’ve bolded):

Rest of Today - Tropical storm conditions expected with hurricane conditions possible. Cloudy. Scattered showers and thunderstorms in the morning…then showers and thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Highs around 90. Northeast winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts to around 35 mph in the morning increasing to 30 to 35 mph with gusts to around 70 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 40 percent in the morning increasing to 60 percent in the afternoon.

Tonight - Hurricane conditions expected. Showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall. Lows in the upper 70s. Northeast winds 40 to 50 mph with gusts to around 80 mph in the evening increasing to 55 to 75 mph with gusts to around 90 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 90 percent in the evening increasing to near 100 percent after midnight.

Saturday  - Hurricane conditions expected. Showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall. Highs in the mid 80s. Southwest winds 50 to 70 mph with gusts to around 90 mph in the morning decreasing to 30 to 35 mph with gusts to around 60 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain near 100 percent.

Saturday Night - Showers and thunderstorms likely. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall. Breezy. Lows in the upper 70s. South winds 20 to 25 mph with gusts to around 30 mph. Chance of rain 60 percent.

And of course that doesn’t talk about possible flooding. Inevitable power outages. Cell phones may not work if towers are taken out of service by the storm.

I grew up there, and lived through a lot of hurricanes. Ike is a big big storm. I am worried.

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Random political thoughts

Quote of the day:

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. –H.L. Mencken

By definition a hobgoblin is a “fearsome mythical creature,” so “imaginary hobgoblin” is over the top. I still like it.

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I’m telling everyone

. . . to see Tell No One, an utterly riveting film. I saw it last night.

Wowzer. I thought they weren’t making movies like that any more.

The NY Times review explains it better than I could.

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Who needs immigrants, we’re growing a great work force here at home

Just go read this over at Miss Kitty’s blog.

But don’t blame me if you then bang your head on your desk.

Anyway, I’ll be busy working on a new book, Great Expectorations. The narrative of a road trip across the South in search of the region’s best cuspidor collections.

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