Westbound traffic was heavy, but typical. If TxDOT had finished the westbound lanes of the Katy Freeway by now (instead of the scheduled completion in October), I suspect there would have been no backup at all.The evacuation has gone like clockwork. The State of Texas has clearly learned how to do this right. Of course, unlike Rita, the entire city of Houston isn't panicked and evacuating, just the people who truly need to. I will never forget that night as long as I live.
Ambulance convoy. These came speeding by at regular intervals. I assume they are moving critical care patients from UTMB Galveston inland.
Only a few people are boarding up in Katy. Good thing we've been in a mild drought lately. All of the storm water detention basins are empty. The non-descript house above: He did a great job boarding up, but that roof doesn't look so good.
Toilet water is ready to be flushed. Like most people out in the County, we live in a M.U.D. Power goes out, so goes the water for our subdivision. Most people in Houston are hooked up to the city water supply, so while they'll be sweaty and uncomfortable like us, at least they'll be able to flush at will.Update: Some seriously good news. The NWS says the first cool front of the season will arrive Monday. This is great! Being without power is far better without the massive humidity and 95 degree highs typical of a Texas Gulf Coast summer. I'll take a high of 85 and dry air anytime. A high of 85 and a low of 65 with dry air? That's Chamber of Commerce weather. Once Ike is past, summer will be over for us. Yippee!
Doug: "I dare you to do a real estate bike ride while Ike comes through." Heh!
12 comments:
After getting my students off back to their parents today I tried to stop at WalMart, ironically not for storm supplies. It was to get paint and grout for the bathroom project I'm completing tomorrow. They were closed. I've not been watching the news as much as I usually do thanks to a hectic begining to the school year. Wal Mart being closed was one of those "oh crap, this is actually serious" moments.
Beltway 8 was packed heading west to home and I too saw a few ambulance convoys but they were heading back into town.
I assume the convoys were to either go back and pick up more people or to preposition them down towards the coast if needed.
Sorry about the MUD Lou. That stinks no pun intended. I'm glad I'm here in Houston proper. Best of luck man. Stay dry.
I hope you and your family remain safe.
Earthquake country looks pretty good in comparison.
Earthquake country looks pretty good in comparison.
Don't know if I agree. With hurricanes you can prepare and be ready. You know when and where they will strike at least a few hours in advance. You can prepare for earthquakes, but they come with no warning.
Scott,
Which Walmart was closed? All the ones I've seen are open.
The one in Pasadena at Beltway and Fairmont. They were shushing people away and pushing in all the carts. It may have been one of those store manager level decisions. Who knows.
Stay safe, Lou. You really should get a generator.
The house with the bad roof will be okay if the windows don't blow.
Its when there's a breach into the house is when the roof fails. And boarding the garage was smart move, garage door failures are cause of most roof failures.
We got us a new CAT 5 Miami-Dade rated garage door and accordion metal shutters along with a new roof, hurricane straps and a generator that will pull two fridges, three fans, the TV and/or computer game system. It won't pull the AC so the chance of us getting a hurricane in Jupiter is 5% not 0. If I upgrade and get a generator to pull the AC, then it drops to 0.
I went by my credit union during regular business hours, and they were closed, even the blasted drive through lines (we don't have ATM/Check cards, otherwise we'd be broke).
So I bought a few supplies at Kroger just so I could get an extra $20, then went to Walmart to get an extra $20. Now we have less than $100 combined. Good thing we have gas, water, canned food, cooking fuel, lantern fuel, but I feel creepy without money. Maybe after this is over, I'll get a check card and hide it LOL
So while I was buying a plastic storage bin, and 3 blue ice thingees at WM (so I could get $), they closed earlier than they planned. Their reason was because of the storm time being moved up.
This is the WM on 45/Shaver, so I can't really blame them, since we're next door the mandatory evac zone. But stupid credit union closed waaaay earlier. Are all their employees living in Clear Lake or what?
I would have picked up cash yesterday, but I was grieving the unexpected loss of my beloved cat, which really threw off my prep plans.
Well back to planning: I had "the talk" with hubby about us riding it out in the central hall, which also has the attic entrance in the slim chance the surge is way worse than Allison. The water only got a bit over my ankles then, so I'm probably worrying about moving to the attic for nothing.
But we'll have our supplies in boxes ready to put up there, and also charge up power tools (not that I think we're at risk of drowning, but if there's really deep water in the house, we'll be glad we brought the tools up there. I better add some of my stored water to the "just in case". The media's doing a much better job about not scaring us, but I've read personal comments and blogs about how high the surge is in states as far as Florida, so that's how I came up with my attic plan ROFL
"word" from up in Bastrop. We filled up the gas containers yesterday and today the Sears truck arrives with its load of generators. We're on the list for one of them.
Now, they're telling us we'll be lucky if we get 2 inches of rain.
Want to buy a generator?
Wal-Mart doesn't limit you - at least in Mississippi - to $20. More like $100, same at Target. FYI. Kroger will do, I think, $40.
Here's what you need to store a ton 'o drinking water in your tub:
http://www.waterbob.com/
Generators:
1. standby running off natural gas if you can afford it (and the natural gas lines have a history of working through local disasters),
2. portable DIESEL genset otherwise
Diesel offers better fuel efficiency, plus it's a safer fuel to store & handle than gasoline.
If you put in a standard (275? gallon) above-ground heating oil tank and fill it with diesel you won't have to worry about standing in line for hours at the local gas station to get fuel to run your generator!
Your premise on the ambulance convoy is correct. The UTMB patients are here in Austin, now.
I second what Bob said. God bless natural gas. After Alicia took literally everything out, all the neighbors got together and had a BBQ for all the meat etc that we knew was going to end up rotting. The natural gas always worked throughout the whole ordeal. Power, phones, tv, etc all got knocked out or blown over.
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