http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/19/ike....ap/index.html

this isn't neccessarily an update on recovery, but interesting nonetheless

My cousin outside of Houston just got her power back two days ago!!! She has three little ones....I am sure she had fun in the heat!!! :eek:

Luckily, we've had a "cool front" the last couple of days, so your cousin didn't have to suffer TOO much from the heat. But the lack of television with three little ones - that may have been tough. There are only so many games of Candy Land you can play before you lose your mind! :eek:

Our power was just restored on Wednesday. Thank God for the cold front! There are still 1400+ people in our county without power.

Fun with FEMA
 

If your house is unliveable, FEMA will help. Yeah!
BUT - you have to be willing to move out of the area. Boooo . . .

So if you have a job here, tough darts farmer. This is NOT the way to enable us to recover. We need all hands on deck, and we need our paychecks.

I STILL HAVE NO POWER!!!! UGGGH!!!

I haven't seen any power trucks either, so I'm losing hope that their projected "power by Monday" map is correct!!!

Also, the wonderful cold front left over the weekend, so we spent the last two nights sweltering in bed. We are trying to be economical with the generator (it's running us around $90.00 per day in gasoline), and don't feel we can justify running it all night to only power a fan.

Interesting thing happened last night, and indicative of the paranoia that is rampant.-

My 16 year old son was driving his girlfriend home after watching a movie at a friend's house who has power :), it was around 11:00 pm (no school yet!!). They started arguing, so he pulled over (this is within a couple of blocks of our house), well, within minutes, they were surrounded by 3 cop cars, with lights flashing. Apparantly, a neighbor saw the SUV and called the cops, thinking they might be "suspicious characters." So, the cops check my son's drivers license and called us at home, had to try 3 numbers because our land lines don't work, so tried my husband's cell which didn't ring, then mine, which - THANK GOD - did, they told my son that if they couldn't reach us, they were going to take him in to a HOLDING CELL!!! His girlfriend's parents who are running a generator and have no land line either, didn't answer the phone because the generators drown out any other sound (y'all have no idea of the HUMMMM that goes on 24/7 these days), so she tearfully convinced them to drive her to her house because her parents were home, just couldn't be reached, and she didn't want to go to jail.

MIND YOU, they were not ticketed, because they weren't doing anything but sitting there. There was no alchohol, drugs or illicit activity going on, and they were within 3 blocks of their homes... GESTAPO anyone? Show me your papers!!!:mad:

I have no problem with the cops checking on them. The streets are PITCH BLACK, with no power anywhere in our neighborhood, so understandably, neighbors are wary of strange cars, BUT, once the cops saw that they were just a couple of neighborhood teenagers, sitting in a car, I think they should have just said, "Kids, it's late, time to go home." And, sent them on their way. What would they have done if it was my husband and I parked on the street? Would they have intimitated us in that way, threatened us with JAIL?:mad:

I'm heading down today to check on my dad and his wife, he sounds absolutely AWFUL, they have boats leaning on power lined in their back yard (so I doubt they're getting power anytime soon) - these boats used to be in the yacht club harbor, but were carried by the surge all the way to his back door. Hopefully, I can either cheer him up, or convince him to come home with me. He is 83 years old and should not be dealing with what he's facing. They are eating MREs distributed by the city counsel in Shoreacres, have no power, and were flooded on the bottom floor, so as bad as things are at my house, he is much worse off, and I need to get my priorities straight...

SWTX girl, my dad is in Shoreacres too, I'm sure he knows the people you hate, the city is only a few miles wide, and they are all eating FEMA food at the City Counsel Hall, so if he didn't know them before, he probably does now.

Sorry for the vent, I'm just getting weary..:(

LOL - unless they refuged somewhere.

eta - and I am so sorry for what your father is going through down there. Fingers crossed that you get power soon!

Don't give up srmom. I have power as of Friday, and am more than willing to share with my GC neighbor :)

srmom, one of my sisters down there is on day eleven (i think) with no power... i feel for all of you. :(

Thanks for the best wishes! Still no power, but last night was cooler (mercifully), so we were able to sleep with the doors open - thank heavens for the curfew, I doubt we'd be comfortable being so open and vulnerable if the streets were open for business! I guess I should be thankful the cops harrassed my son, because if they did that to him, chances are they are REALLY cracking down on the bad guys:o

School started today for my son, and he is glad to be going back, it actually got boring for him to sit around with nothing to do. I am glad that he will have some normalcy (and air conditioning) during the day!

So, yesterday I went down to my dad's house. Boy, if I think my neighborhood is bad in terms of debris, it is nothing compared to down there. Besides the piles of tree debris like we have, they also have piles of furniture, appliances, tv's, clothing, basically anything that was on the bottom floor. The piles jut into the streets, so only one car can pass. People have set up tents outside and are sleeping there. Some houses literally were wiped clean down to the studs - like you can see through them, every wall was carried away by the water, and they are now piled up against the neighbors wall. It is utter destruction!

As I said, my dad has a number of boats leaning up agains his now broken down fence. But, seeing them is amazing. It is crazy that they stopped where they did, literally within about 20 feet of the house. He is so lucky. The yacht club yard is covered with boats, some incredibly beautiful, now either ruined or badly damaged. I took pictures of it, and if somebody will tell me how to post them, I'll try, it is incredible looking.

My dad and his wife are very tired, but were cheered when I offered to take the mildewy laundry they had to Houston. I had no idea how much they were talking about until my car was filled to the brim. Hilariously (and y'all with elderly relatives can relate), much of it is stuff that I would have thrown out, but they are of the waste not want not era, and are determined to save every scrap of fabric - never knowing when it might be needed as a wash rag:rolleyes: I'll wash it all if it makes them happy:o

Their downstairs is trashed, all the sheetrock and panelling needs to be taken out, they've lost all the appliances, but the studs and support look to be sound, so they can rebuild, and the surge probably (in my mind) helped them get rid of much of the useless crap they had laying around (like I said - waste not want not:rolleyes:). Their upstairs is pristeen, having never really been used, so that is where they are living now, it has a wetbar with small refrigerator, but they have no power, and they will be out for much longer than we will. I'm hoping to get our generator to them asap, and set them up with a microwave, coffee maker, hot plate, etc. to put them in a situation where they can stop eating MRE's. I think my dad might be a bit sad when that happens though because he is amazed at the chemical reaction used to heat the contents and doesn't think they taste half bad, he has his favorites though;) I love him so much, he's definitely trying to make lemonade out of lemons!!

PLEASE make sure they set up and use that generator properly - my heart just aches when I hear about cases like the 4 year old who died because of an improperly used generator. :(

lol--He sounds like a good sport. I did 6yrs in the guard with one of those in Iraq. I kept telling myself that the power outage was better than being in the field. I had my roof & no bugs. I had my favorite MREs too. ;)

Got back very early Monday morning from working post-Ike recovery missions for CAP this weekend at West Houston Airport. The few ground teams that went onto Galveston Island mostly to silence ELTs (emergency locator transmitters) on wrecked aircraft at Scholes Field say that the damage is extensive; CAP aerial photography over the affected area shows not much was left of many seaside homes after the storm surge and winds came ashore.

I worked airborne radio relay on Sunday, flying a 10 mile racetrack pattern between Texas City and Ellington Field along I-45 at 10,000 feet, relaying messages between the ground teams on the island and mission base at West Houston Airport. At that altitude, the damage isn't noticeable until the pilot pointed out the boats stacked like cordwood on Clear Lake.

I'm in Atlanta, not Texas, but just thought I would update on how Ike has affected this area. First of all, I am praying for all of you in Texas and I do sympathize with your situation and I hope that you don't intend this as a comparing the misery sort of post because it isn't. Our situation is nothing compared to yours.
However, since Ike, Atlanta is experiencing a tremendous fuel shortage. Atlanta is not a place where one can get by without an auto so this is creating havok. On Saturday we had to drive around for about an hour to find a station with gas, and then we had to wait in line. Not too long of a wait, so we were really lucky. As of today I can't find gas anywhere, and the more I search for gas the more I use so it's a bit of a vicious cycle. Stations that do have gas have waits that can exceed an hour and many people run out of gas waiting in line. We don't know when we will be able to reliably find fuel again so there is a bit of anxiety about gas and that is making the situation worse. People are filling up and filling gas cans as well even if they are far from empty, thus adding to the long lines and the visual image of a huge crisis.
So this isn't that big of a deal in comparison to TxBelle and SrMom, but I just thought I would update none the less.

srmom---

It seems like you & your sons have a run of really bad luck lately. I can't imagine living in all that destruction and having an elderly parent to watch, too. My prayers go out to you and all those around Houston.

Chicago had some minor flooding not too far from my area, but your circumstances really put it in the correct context. When our area news talks about FEMA being up here, now I want to tell them to go where they really should be, and let our governor "Rod" deal with the problems here.