Cuppacafe

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.

As Walt has been stating, Ike is on the way, well, in the wake of the zombie attack that occurred in Katy, the other day, I went back and checked the Walt-cam and found the attached image.

Ike is here!

I, mean, seriously, who knew.

The Perfessor

I'm doing my prep for Ike. I was going to talk about how Galveston was going to flood with the surge, but the pictures from the TV stations are doing a bang up job.

The local station for ABC showed helicopter rescues already. Bolivar peninsula is already flooded out, and leaving just isn't possible.

At the moment, we're baking and filling the jalopy car in the driveway with gas. Yes, the Nissan started and ran! Since the gasoline fairy came overnight and replenished the tanks, so getting gasoline is easy and simple.

I'm off to prepare the backyard, and hope the storm passes to the east (which I still think will happen)

Part of my chores today was to help this woman move her dogs. I won't say how many and I won't say where they ended up, but my adventure was indeed one of legend... a very boring legend, mind you, but nonetheless, a remarkable experience. So, here I am, sitting in the calm before tomorrow's storm, my wife at my side, wondering what I can do next.

Remembering I had taken a few pictures today at the place where I was helping the crazy lady evacuate her farm, I opened up the camera files...

and found this guy staring at me. Well, not so much staring, but certainly looking lonely.
Oops. That's a female.

Emo Emu

Anyway, she looks scary close up. Apparently, she's not, but it's definitely strange to have an animal stride up to you with a facial expression that never really changes. Kind of like the wife of one of our candidates for president...

Yes. This is going to be bad. But how bad? CenterPoint Energy is warning the Houston area now that this will easily be as bad as Rita that wiped out so much of the power grid it was close to two weeks before all the power was restored. It's going to be highly variable, certainly. I'm guessing three days for Casa Cuppacafe. The more trees in your area, the more likely the power is to remain out if it does go out. We're relatively close to a power substation, and much of our neighborhood has underground power lines. Naturally, that's not the case on the power lines coming IN to the neighborhood.