Cuppacafe

‘Nuff Said!

The Perfessor

NOAA has taken some overhead shots of the Texas coastline after Hurricane Ike, and they're located here
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IKE0000.HTM
taken Sept 14, 2008

Here's the reason nobody will be driving onto Bolivar from the mainland any time soon.

Bridge at Rollover Pass, Sept 14, 2008

--

I'll expect any vehicle traffic will have to come from the ferry from now on.

More images soon.

Here's an overhead from the Freeport Jetty

And the supersized version

-- For a series of pics I may refer to later, here's a collection from ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/US/popup?id=5794800

Hundreds of stories are coming out of Hurricane Ike, and there's no way I could ever even begin to report on them all, but here's one I came across this morning. Bolivar Peninsula runs from the tip of the Ferry Landing on the west to where it connects to the mainland near Rollover Pass (a cut is made for sea water to come into the bay there, called a fish pass). Two communities, Crystal Beach and Gilchrest are there. Everything there makes the island of Galveston look like the Taj Majal. But whatever is there is gone now.

Here's a story of one guy that stayed.
From Chron.com
Bolivar resident stayed in his home during Hurricane Ike
By MEG LOUCKS and DALE LEZON

CenterPoint Energy spokesman Floyd LeBlanc said that while its crews are working throughout its service area, the company is getting customers back online fastest on the western side in places like Sealy, Katy and Fort Bend County.

"The center of our area was hit pretty hard, the southern and eastern side was hit extremely hard, which includes structures being knocked down," LeBlanc said today.

In some cases utility tree trimmers are having to cut their way through downed trees on streets just to get to the poles, he said.

LeBlanc said about 7,000 linemen and utility tree trimmers are coming from elsewhere in Texas and from at least nine other states as far away as California, Maryland and Virginia.
-- Tropical Weather Blog from The Houston Chronicle

It was only 18 hours for us. I feel blessed. I've always maintained that Western Harris county is far safer in terms of weather than any other location in this county of some 4.5 million people. The power came back on for us yesterday evening, in the middle of wondering how far west the power really did come back on. Casa Cuppacafe Grande isn't that far from a power substation, and not too far away from a new hospital, so we guessed that hospital would have a connection to the grid soon enough, and perhaps some areas around it, #1Casey and I went out yesterday out to Brookshire, west of Katy, to check on the oil lease one of my clients control. Sure enough, Brookshire had power, and the truck stop out there was doing a very brisk business.

Since then, we ate some grilled sausages and had all of our kids come and go, some going to another relative with power (that later last night lost that power again!) and some staying.

We have four dogs here, and a backyard in need of cleanup from boards with nails in them. I've got fencing and will be putting that up now.

But we have power.

It gives me a chance to see what happened in Galveston. It looks like they're going to have a second evacuation of Galveston, getting people out now that wouldn't get out before.

Ya'll keep thinking good thoughts for those who are not faring so well this week. And psychically tell people to stay off the roads so the supplies can get to where they need to go.

Well, I’m sure that (if) whenever Walt gets his power back he’ll post (excessively) about how traumatic the (zombie attacks, General Ike arriving, and Q razing their neighborhood) hurricane was, but in the mean time I thought that I
6post a little bit that I know (for more specific and curent updates, I refer you all to Walt’s (sophomoric rantings) Twittering to our collective right.

According to a news story I just read on AOL News, Texas is mounting a massive rescue effort after Ike has passed through.

HOUSTON (Sept. 13) - Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks set out across the flood-stricken Texas coast Saturday in a monumental effort to reach tens of thousands of people who stubbornly ignored warnings of "certain death" and tried to ride out Hurricane Ike.

(via AOL)

I haven’t spoken to Walt directly, but we have texted each other a couple of times earlier today (Saturday). He is also posting responses on his last blog entry “The calm before the storm”. He is doing this — at least for the short term — as (according to Walt) it is simply easier for him to post in this fashion than to create a new blog entry (he is too busy drinking — Oh wait! That’s me!).

If you want more on what is current, I suggest you go to that AOL story link I used above. You will also see several hundred dramatic photos (like the one that appears at the top of this post) included in that story.

More as it happens

The Perfessor

Here at Casa Cuppacafe Grande in the middle of the Katy Prarie, it's just 8:30PM Central, and a world away from the Gulf Coast being ravaged by Hurricane Ike at the moment. It's blustery here, and promises to get far worse as the night progresses. Stepson #1 and family are hunkering down in place about six miles north, stepdaughter (#2) is in her 2nd floor apt about four miles north of there. Stepdaughter #1 is here with her mangy cat; boyfriend of stepdaughter #1 fled for Baton Rouge to care for some invalid grandmother... if that was some excuse.

We're all watching the news feeds, just like some of you may be. Listening to the tales of people already stranded by the high water a full half day before the storm got truly awful. Many were rescued. Some were not; they remain in perilous circumstances, and I feel sorry for them. They were slow or stupid. Life can be cruel sometimes.

But meanwhile, we're here, and I'll post ever hour or so, or perhaps tweet (Look At The Sidebar!) to let you know I still have power. Stepson#1 already had his power flash, but it's back on again.

AT&T have advised folks to use texting instead of voice calls. Already my phone internet is down.

But before my cable internet goes out, I'll show you a picture I took tonight. I saw on the TV that we were having a good sunset (interesting how your TV can tell you to look outside to see something, but there ya go!) so stepdaughter#1 went out to take a peek... And called me out. I ran back inside, grabbed the camera, and...

Ike Sunset

Nice, yes?

Well, I'm going to try to lay down and sleep so I can be awake for the bumps and bruising I'll expect we'll all go through during the overnight.