South Austin reporting. We had… ah, who am I fooling? We had a little wind this morning.
So anybody know what happened to all those thousands of people who stayed behind in Galveston?
So far no reports of deaths or missing, but search & rescue have just today begun to get into the west end of the island. Galveston didn’t get the surge that was predicted; the storm shifted before making landfall.
Bolivar Peninsula seems to have taken the storm much worse; it looks like post-Katrina Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian. First- and second-row houses are gone. KHOU has some photos up on their website of that. Again these areas are cut off by debris and water; the authorities are trying to get to what they estimate are “thousands” who were warned too late and cut off by rising water Friday morning, trapping them.
LaFourche and Terrebone Parish in South Louisiana have major flooding, worse than they got from Rita. This area is home to a huge portion of the oil & gas industry. They will need a lot of help down there.
No sign of Clothahump yet (Houston).
Checking in from Clear Lake City, I’m between NASA and Ellington.
There is a tree on the roof of the house but the roof ain’t leaking and there is no water in the house, we have power, water and DSL.
It could have been worse (for us).
Unclviny (who lives with CA3799)
We had Dolly roll right over our house, and the roof is still in pieces and our backyard still looks like this music video .
This time? Didn’t even get windy. Whew.
Hang in there, folks.
I was just asked the question: is there any RV park with electricity and hookup working near Houston?
You’re lucky - several of my friends in that area don’t have power. But from what they’ve said, it sounds like about half Clear Lake has power, the other doesn’t. I guess the have-nots are going to get really friendly with the haves. 
I’ve returned home last night after staying at the hospital (Med center) since Friday. People who were assigned to come Friday were to plan to spend the weekend. We lost both power and water Friday night.
The whole city is dark and I couldn’t see much past my headlights on the drive home. I saw a lot of ‘official looking’ vehicles and convoys on the road. Sign posts, street lights, fences and trees were down all the way home. When I left, I thought the traffic jam on Fannin was for the high water, but it was for the gas station. I saw only 3-4 open gas stations all the way home and one pizza place with a line down the sidewalk.
We were on ‘lock down’ since Friday morning and all visitors had to register and be arm-banded, employees needed badges to enter, stuff like that.
In the main part of the hospital, we were running on about half power from the generators starting Friday night which kept the place somewhat cool. The office buildings were without power. As near as I can tell the Med Center is the only place with regular power and water at this time. It’s like a shining beacon is a sea of dark. We had portable a/c units in the nurses stations and other gathering areas that helped a whole lot to keep the place warm and humid, instead of hot and humid- LOL.
There was plenty of bottled drinking water at work, but only a little flushing water and no washing water for a while. On Saturday, I sent a pt for a stat C/S and I’m curious how they did it without water. All I heard was that the OR’s were sweltering.
We received a bunch of patients Friday afternoon from a hospital that was evacuated. Many came by helicopter. We only have one heliport, so the employees all went to the parking lot and moved their cars to clear the lot for a second helipad. That was neat.
We were assigned three patient rooms for sleeping and slept 5 nurses to a room on our unit. The wind howled all night an no one slept due to power outages that caused all the in-room equipment to alarm all night. There was a code red called for the roof (?!) at about 4 am Saturday, but turned out to be nothing important. I
took a tour of the building at this time and found water coming in at several places mainly on the west side. On the property, trees were down, signs and awnings blown away, there is some equipment-looking stuff still hanging from the roof of the hospital across the street, and the the main med center street was still flooded, at least from my vantage point.
I visited with the volunteer dog keepers at that time, too. They had 20-25 dogs in crates over in the office building and took them out regularly to an atrium, even in the wind and rain. I also visited the lab and they were working in the hot dark but still managed to get things done, just slowly.
There was an employee run day care center at work that did a great job- they kept about 20-40 at various times kids so the nurses could work.
We were rationing supplies like linens and juice, etc., in case we couldn’t get more. The cafeteria cooked only one meal (instead of the usual variety of stuff) and provided it for free. Sunday morning, for example, we had two pieces of french toast, one sausage patty and 6 ounces of OJ.
The blood bank called me Saturday to ask for 10 cc of blood for an infant from a 10 unit supply being held for my pt. They said the could not get blood from the main blood bank.
I brought all my own stuff to work- camp cot, pillow, blanket, change of clothes and water and food . I was surprised at the number of people (nurses!) who only brought themselves and got upset they they wouldn’t have a private bed/room. One stormed off Friday night and went home. We were glad as she’s cranky anyway. The hospital had sent out a list of things to bring with you last month (No liquor or guns?!- they should be Required!). Maybe some people didn’t read the letter. I felt lucky to be in the shared room in the hospital- at least we were somewhat cool, unlike the office buildings where many slept.
As I left and saw a line of about 10-12 ambulances lined up at our front door- another hospital (Texas City or Clear Lake) had to evacuate when they lost their generator.
We were trying to send patients home Sunday and some were trying to refuse to leave. We couldn’t let them stay because we are getting a high number of admissions from surrounding areas. We gave up our 3 sleeping rooms and were sent home as fresh nurses arrived.
Thank you for helping, Ca3799. Your efforts, and thousands of other volunteers and first responders are greatly appreciated.
I’m one of the lucky ones with power. And AC! At least a cool front came in and the temp is down to a pleasant 69° right now. It’s supposed to be relatively cool all week.
I threw an impromptu block party last night. I grilled some chicken, and made baked beans and potato salad. Several neighbors came over and enjoyed air-conditioned comfort while eating. It was fun! Everybody brought some food or alcohol, and we watched football. Our grid is weird - the people across the street don’t have power, yet we do.
Our AC unit broke on Saturday, and our neighbor, the AC guy, came over and fixed it! Thank God for him. There would have been no way to get a repairman out. We loaned them our generator since we don’t need it - he said we changed their lives! They have lights and a cold refrigerator.
My husband helped another neighbor get his own generator working yesterday. It has been amazing to watch the transformation of this neighborhood. We were barely on speaking terms with our neighbors, much less knowing their names and their lives. We have all come together and helped each other, and we will be getting together more often now.
I hope others are as blessed as we are.
It knocked out electricity to most parts of northeast Texas. I was out for almost 12 hours. I didn’t work today because they’re short on power. Some people I talked to aren’t supposed to get power for a whole week. Southeast Texas got the worst of it, but they definitely left a little for us.
Anyone heard from Clothahump yet?
Here’s some photo links from Bolivar Peninsula, the Crystal Beach area, etc.
Crystal Beach:
Lone house standing:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html#photo11
NOAA photgraphy. Link goes to index; click down on the black squares to see smaller index; click again on squares to see photos:
http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IKE0000.HTM
Gilchrist, TX. You can look on Google maps or Earth to see “before”:
http://abcotv.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/15/ike_satellite_gilchrist.jpg
The people I’ve been able to get in touch with again are OK, which is good. S Houston is pretty bad off I hear, but NE did okay. They could have had it a lot worse. Some parts are fine, like a strong storm came through, and a couple miles away it’s like a war zone. That’s the words that were said to me to describe it. Wind was pretty bad. But for the most part Humble-Kingwood-Atascocita area is functioning. Not a whole lot of power yet, but water seems to work and some businesses are running. For those stranded there may be help there.
Well, the fun is over and the fun is just beginning.
SWMBO and I are all right, but we still don’t have power at the house. We’re at a mall hotspot today getting caught up on stuff. The house is undamaged.
I wish I could say the same for the Taekwondo school. A light pole with transformer blew over onto our school and punched through the roof. We flooded like Noah’s revenge. The school is pretty much destroyed and I cringe thinking of the hoops we will need to jump through to rebuild it.
Other than that, everything is just peachy. 
Oy vey.
I-45 snarl blocking relief workers from Galveston
Push all the “non-essential traffic” onto the side of the road, I say.
Glad to hear y’all are O.K., so sorry to hear about the Taekwando School.
It may be a long haul back to ‘normal’. Hang in there TX Dopers, my thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Word.
We still don’t have power either. I live in the Copperfield area. Lights are on in a lot of the surrounding neighborhoods and along Highway 6, so hopefully we’ll have some power soon. I need my TiVo! And some AC would be nice, but at least it’s been cool at night.
My office is fine, though the AC units on the roof took some damage. My husband’s store is fine too, as is their location in Webster. Their store on Westheimer at Hillcroft was totally destroyed though; the roof of the strip center was ripped off by a probable tornado and the ceiline collapsed and a lot of merchandise got soaked. We salvaged what we would on Sunday, but it was not a good scene.
I’m at work today for the first time since Thursday. Gas shortages are causing problems now, and they’re expected to get worse before they get better.
Hey, cbawlmer, we’re neighbors; except I’m near Waco right now. Part of my family departed under the ”those who have health problems and such gig” while my dad, sweet pea an puppy stayed at home. Fortunately, I’m a water junkie so I know that the guys have plenty of that. We lost part of our fence but my understanding is the house is ok. We’re not sure yet when we’re coming home. Dad would like it to be as soon as the electricity is back on, Mom wants to wait for things in general to be better (grocery stores and gas to be more stable). Currently Dad is one of the super people working to keep one of the hospitals running (I’m not sure which one) and the baby (the 80 lbs puppy) is going to work with my sweet pea who has a/c at the office.
I’m super sorry about your Taekwando School, Clothahump.
Take care everyone!
Well that sucks. At least it didn’t burn the place down too.
My mom got a call from my aunt in Conroe this morning. My aunt said that things are terrible there. No electricity, no water, and no phone service (she’s been using her generator to charge her cell phone). Store shelves are empty, and gas stations are out of fuel. She and my other relatives had to wait in line for ice and food.
I mentioned upthread that my aunt and uncle insisted on riding out the storm in their mobile home. At about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, when the eyewall was over their neighborhood, they realized it was a really bad idea. My cousin lives down the block in another mobile home, and was awakened by her son asking “Mommy? Why is the house moving?” Apparently the Cat 1 winds were enough to lift the house from its foundation. If nothing else, I think this experience has given them more respect for hurricanes.