Hurricane Ike- a thread to post status on recovery

[EE-BO]

Good evening all,

I have spent most of the afternoon and evening on the phone with countless friends and family in the Houston area.

The city is still in total lockdown and even most of the hospitals are still running on generator power. Rain does not appear to have been as strong as Alicia or Allison, but the storm surge and the long duration of hurricane winds have created some problems more severe than with those storms.

If you have friends and family down there who have no power and cannot get the latest news- have them tune to FM 104.1 where musical programming has been suspended to run the latest news non-stop. And if they do not have radios- you can convey the following updates I have heard plus any news others may post about Houston or other areas,

Mayor White advised citizens to boil any tap water before use- and many Houston residents may find water pressure to be very low (not applicable in Memorial villages which have their own water system which is working fine.) What happened is that when the power went out, water pressure went down at all the water stations and this allowed seepage of potentially contaminated water.

Just a while ago, the pump stations were back online and the water pressure is rising. Now the water must be tested in the next few hours, and it will take about 30 hours to get results. So, plan for water to not be consumable from the tap for at least 48 hours.

There was significant damage to power grids in the entire area, and the coastal and outlying areas might not have power for 2-4+ weeks. In the Houston area it should be back sooner, but noone is making committments.

The Galleria and Katy Mills malls have announced they will be open for business tomorrow. And HISD has only cancelled classed for Monday so far. These developments seem to indicate the City is being very conservative about the power coming back on and hopefully that things will be coming back online pretty quick.

Anyone planning to come down here to help family right away- think twice. By all accounts the number of trees and traffic lights that have fallen is in excess of what happened in Alicia. Getting to the city might not be all that bad, but for the next 48 hours many streets will be difficult to navigate.

If anyone else has news to post that could be passed on to local residents who do not have working radios- please post it here. Based on the calls I made today, there are a lot of people who are relying on news from out of town via phone or cel phone to know what is going on.

My prayers and thoughts tonight are with everyone down there and all who have someone to care about down there. I hope and pray the best for everyone who weathered the storm.