Hurricane Ike
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September 18, 2008:
I've had a very long week due to hurricane Ike, so here is a very long blog entry with the email updates I sent my family as it was happening. On the bright side, ProtoCon issued full refunds!
Worrying
Sept. 7th
Pam and I discussed the current path of Ike, and if it looks like it's going to hit Houston, we're going to head to Austin if it's really strong, or we're going to stay in Houston if it's only a category 1 or 2. Either way we won't be going to College Station because we don't have to risk leaving our cats here alone without any power.
But for now we'll just play it by ear. It's too far out to know for sure where it's headed. I just wanted to let you know what our plans were.
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In case it wasn't clear, we're still going to College Station if it doesn't look like it's going to hit Houston.
Sept. 8th
Let's hope it keeps going south
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Looks like all the computer models are aiming towards south Texas now, so this weekend is still looking good :)
Sept. 10th
Looks like the path has the eye going right through Austin as a possible category 1!
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The 10pm update had it going directly to the west of Houston with landfall as a category 3.
If the path looks pretty much the same tomorrow morning and Harris County issues the voluntary evac. order, we're going to head to Austin tomorrow
instead of going to work.
Preparation
Sept. 11th
8:11am: If you are all watching the news, I'm sure you're worried about us. Heck, I'm worried about us!
We went to the store last night and bought everything we needed to wait out the storm (water, non-perishables, batteries, etc.). Of course this was before the projected path was changed to go right through us. Even though we're 50 miles inland, they're still projecting category 2-force winds in our area (100 mph sustained winds). So now we're considering evacuating to Austin.
Right now all the coastal areas are under mandatory evacuation. My in-laws are about 1 1/2 miles away from that border. The county leaders are urging that everyone stay put until the coastal residents can evacuate. After rush hour tonight, they will re-assess the storm and possibly issue a wider mandatory evacuation order as well as a voluntary evacuation order for the rest of the county. They're standing by with hundreds of charter buses to evacuate special-needs residents. They're ready to open contraflow lanes if a massive evacuation is needed. Houston is ready, and so are we.
I'll send out another update after work.
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2:44pm: Hey all,
After giving it very careful consideration, based on the strength of the hurricane, advise from county leaders, and speaking with friends and family, we have decided to stay and ride the storm out. The Yenetchis are also deciding to stay. We are expecting 90-100 mph winds in our area, which may cause some roof damage, but most likely won't blow our house down. We have removed all debris from our yard (I just wish that our neighbors had...). This storm is considerably weaker than Rita (which we evacuated for), which was expected to be a category 4 or 5 by landfall.
We are not at a risk for flooding where our house is, but we are told to expect a power outage, possibly for days. Luckily, we are prepared for that. Since we're so close to downtown, we're hoping that any power outage will be short-lived.
If it looks like the storm is going to unexpectantly strengthen at the last minute, then we are going to go to the shelter at George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
The tropical-storm-force winds will begin mid- to late-morning tomorrow, and then strengthen until the eye makes landfall late Friday night. I do not have a landline, so I may be out of contact for a while if the cell phone lines are congested. I have internet on my cell phone, so as long as I have cell service, I should be able to keep up with email updates, even without power. Usually text messages will get through when cell phone calls won't, so if I can't call my parents, I will try texting them so they can let everyone know we're OK.
Sept. 12th
6:18am: We're going to ride it out with our cats at a friend's house (a "hurricane party"). They're only expecting cat 1 winds in our area now that the storm has shifted so that we're on the less windy side of the storm, and our friends are even further away from that projected path (they're only expecting strong tropical storm force winds). Even though the eye is hitting late tonight, we can expect high winds starting around noon today, so we're going to get over there this morning.
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7:31am: The scariest thing about this storm isn't the strength, but the size. There are going to be hurricane force winds 60 miles from the center, and tropical storm force winds further out than that.
The storm has recently shifted, so Austin won't be hit as bad as originally expected. Dad has a flight in at 10:20 tonight, and he's hoping it doesn't get canceled.
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10:45am: We're at our friend's house now. Our cats have solidified themselves under the guest bed.
Right now, it's a little breezy in Meadows Place (southwest of Houston), but still sunny, hot and humid. The news is all about Galveston right now, in which the tide is already up to the top of the seawall. Many stupid people are just now realizing that maybe they shouldn't stay there and trying to get out now. They're expecting the worst of it to be between 1am and noon tomorrow. They're expecting the higher winds and outer rain bands to start hitting in 2-3 hours from now.
Gas stations have been refilled and there is no real gas shortage anywhere. There is only a little bit of traffic on I-45 on the way to Dallas. We probably could of made it to Austin in no time if we wanted, but driving 7 hours round trip with cats should always be avoided if possible. Most people here are waiting this one out, so they didn't even need to open the contraflow lanes. The worst of the traffic was last night when all the people in the mandatory evacuation areas (where a 21 foot storm surge would inundate the area) were leaving. They're expecting at least a 15 foot storm surge in Galveston Bay, which is unprecedented.
On the way over to our friend's, convenience and grocery stores were packed with people buying last minute supplies. Ice and propane are pretty much sold out everywhere. Not many houses are boarded up in our area, only about 1 in 30, I would say. Once it gets inland, this storm is looking like it's going to have long periods of high wind, but not necessarily that strong. The #1 concern is clearly the storm surges.
The Storm
2:30pm: (by Theresa) We just came back from a walk. The winds are picking up, it is very cloudy and we've starting to get some drizzle. So far so good. Very few houses are boarded up so we are not the only ones who didn't put up wood.
Galveston and places around there...let's just say don't plan any trips there for a while.
-----6:19pm: My friends decided to produce a short video of what it's like here on the Texas Coast right now. So far it's very anti-climactic, but the worst is still yet to come.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Skyfox3d
These are different friends than the last email. For reference, they're about 15 miles east of us right now, just north of Pearland in Houston city limits.
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9:40pm: Last update for the night. It hasn't started raining yet, but the winds are picking up. We still have power, but we're not expecting to for much longer. 300,000 in the area were reported to be without power and Ike hasn't even made landfall yet.
The cable went out about 5 minutes ago, so we decided to go to bed. We'll probably be awaken by strong winds and thunderstorms sometime during the night. There is a tornado watch in our area, so hopefully we won't be awaken by that!
Wish us luck
Sept. 13th
12:58am: Woke up to high winds and power outage. Updating from cell phone. So far no damage here. Friends back in our neighborhood had a tree fall on their house (they're ok), so we're a little worried about our house. At least we're doing OK
3:23am: The eye is just reaching Baytown now to our east. It's extremely windy. Our friends already lost our gutter, and every once in a while we hear something bang against the house. The last few people I knew without power have now lost it. But we're doing fine. Pam is actually sleeping! I can't believe we're not to the worst part yet. We should be at our closest to the eye wall in about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
5:51am: The eye has passed completely through baytown now. I haven't heard from the Yenetchi's, but I have a feeling they're ok. The latches for the gates here and next door broke, so it's hard to sleep with all the gate-slapping. The big trees are holding up, but there aren't many leaves left on them.
Nearly 2 million without power now. They are estimating 7 billion in damages, mosly in the storm surge areas.
The Aftermath
5:01pm: I'll keep this one short. We took a drive around the neighborhood here in Stafford and there was a lot of fence and tree damage, but not much damages to houses. The Mayor is telling everyone to stay off the roads, so we're going to stay here another night. Even though we have power and water, we still have to fend for ourselves since there aren't any eateries open yet.We spoke with our contractor and he said our house is fine. Some of the panels of our metal shed fell off, and the doors to our smaller garage also fell off (but we were thinking of removing them anyway). Our friends in the heights, however, were not as lucky. The tree that hit their front porch is going to require major roof repair, and their landlord is hinting that they need to move out. I guess we'll find out.
Pam's parents are still without power, and it could be up to 2 weeks before they get it back, due to the infrastructure itself in that area being damaged. They're going to have us look for a generator on our way back. If we can't find one, they may have to crash with us for a bit (since George has to work on Monday).
All in all, it wasn't too bad. We hope that this was one of our "every 25 years" storms so we don't have to go through it again anytime soon.
Sept. 14
Seems most everyone in the storm survived, but there is widespread damage, mostly in the form of downed trees (thus hitting houses) and fences. There is also roof and window damage where the storm was at its worst, mostly east of town. As of last night, there were only 4 confirmed deaths in the storm.
The friends we're staying with got power back pretty early, as well as water and cable, so we're not rushing to get back to our neighborhood, which is still without all three.
Of course last night, with more than half the city without power (nearly 2 million), gave me a little bit of a worry about looting, but I guess there isn't much I can do about that.
It looks like I'm going to be working from home for a few days, since windows from skyscrapers downtown decided to break all over the roads. They have downtown completely closed until they can clean the mess up.
There is also massive bayou flooding that has put a lot of streets and some freeways under water. My friends who stayed in the heights showed me a photograph of Memorial Parkway completely under water, by about 15 feet. All of our bayous drain out to the Galveston Bay, so when there is a 15-20 foot storm surge in the bay, there is nowhere for the water to go.
A few stores last night opened and it was immediately followed by a line of shoppers around the block. Mostly people who didn't take the warnings about having enough food and water for at least three days seriously, like we did
In some areas, however, they're saying that it may take up to 2 weeks to get power (mostly out east, like Baytown). The Yenetchis have asked us to try to stake out a generator, but I don't think we'll find one, at least until most of our area gets power back as well.
That's about all the update I have. We're going to head back to our house today if officials let us. I probably won't give another update until we get back home.
Sept. 15th
Pam and I got back to see the damage wasn't that bad. The garage doors were torn off and we had one broken window. Unfortunately when we got inside the house, we noticed that something was not right.
Either the storm or the criminals removed the back window A/C unit and climbed in. They took two of my video game systems, my LCD computer monitor, and dumped out the contents of our dresser drawers on the bed. They threw everything in my pillow case and left.
We still don't have power, so we're at another friend's house who does. I'm taking another day off of work to clean up tomorrow.
I suppose it could of been worse. They could of really trashed the place. But now we're seriously considering getting a security system and a new fence. This isn't the first act of vandalism on our property.
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Well here's a little bit of a silver lining: We made a claim with our insurance and they said structure damage was covered up to $105,000 with 2% deductible and contents (the stuff that was looted) is covered up to $63,000 (with no deductable). It will be 4 days before an insurance adjuster gets out here, but that's still great news that I'm going to get a big check to cover the damages and lost items. Just estimating the damage to the outside, it will probably only cost us $10-$15 in deductible payments.
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My in-laws are still without power, and probably will be for another week and a half at least. They were announcing even that they would be without water for a day and a half while they got everything back online and working. But last I heard they found an alternate water source so they weren't going to shut it off.
They are worried about one of their cats, since the cat is on insulin and they have no way to keep it refrigerated.
Officials are still urging residents to "stay away" from the Baytown area, but with 6 cats, it's difficult for my in-laws to go anywhere. I've offered our place since we have power now, but since George has to work in Baytown and gas is in short supply, they declined our offer.
Sept. 17th
At around 8:45 last night, our power and internet came on. Our cable came on shortly after at around 9:30. So now we're back in full force. Our house is cleaned up and I'm back at work/school. Pam's school is still closed "until further notice." Grocery stores and restaurants are slowly opening. Fresh produce is still somewhat of a rarity and there are still long lines for gasoline. As of last night at 8pm, 1.43 million were still without power.
Thanks everyone for your kind emails during this difficult time.
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I just got a call from the insurance. Seems my deductible is $1,050 (1% of 105,000 wind and hail and/or 2% of 62,500 theft). They're going to have to do some research on my policy (the adjuster said this was the first time she has had two different events on a property with two houses before). Worst case she'll ring it as three separate policies (wind big house, wind small house, theft small house) in which I will get roughly nothing, since none of the damages from those three claims will be more than $1,050. Even best case they'll lump everything together and I'll get maybe $500.
The adjuster will be out to inspect the property Monday morning. I hope when she calls back it will be with good news.
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I did the math wrong, but you get the general idea.
So everything is going a little smoother now. The insurance adjuster is coming out Monday. Construction on our house has resumed (we're getting countertops today and a kitchen sink tomorrow). I'm back at work and going to go to my first class back tonight.
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