Gustav & Hanna & Ike - Page 3

kimmyfrmtx · 09-14-2008, 03:23 PM

From the fly over I saw yesterday the Bacliff area didn't look to bad, of course from WAY up in the sky I couldn't see much. Some roof damage, uprooted trees, debris on the roads.

Of course they didn't show any San Leon, which is where I live.

I left my answering machine on, but all I get is a busy signal when I try to call my house. I tried to call my neighbors but just get ringing. Wonder what that means?

I am trying to stay optimistic but let me tell you it is hard! There is 1 person in this house that had a black cloud over his head. "I have lost severything, I am ruined, blah blah blah ....." Like he is the ONLY person here that has anything to lose?!?!?!

I want to go home!

Greg · 09-14-2008, 04:33 PM

There's the problem, Kimmy: Your place is outside The Drama Zone!

A busy signal probably means that circuits into the area are saturated. The ringing you hear is generated by the telephone company's computers so there's no way to know whether there is a telephone responding at the destination.

Yup, me too. I'm hoping that everything is fine at both those houses down there in the swamp. The long odds are that there was no damage at all; maybe a few limbs down in the yard. There is still zero news about western Seabrook, El Lago, or Taylor Lake Village. That's a pretty strong indication that there's nothing to report.

My employer has its emergency response center set up and they're offering assistance to anyone who needs it, but at the moment there's nothing anyone could (reasonably) do to increase my state of happiness other than driving by the houses to see if all the windows are intact. Quite a few of our neighbors stayed home. I wish we had had the wisdom to ask them for their cell phone numbers.

Greg · 09-14-2008, 07:52 PM

We heard from our next-door neighbors. There was no flooding in our neighborhood.* They're going to ask the folks across the street (who stayed home) to check for damage to the houses.

Kimmy, do you know anybody in San Leon who you might call?

__________
*Afterthought: Everybody has a little share of El Lago because of its historical anecdotes. The house where the Armstrongs were living when Neil Armstrong made his first small step on the moon is 3 doors down from where we live now. It will never be a national shrine but I find it comforting to think that the neighborhood that housed the Apollo astronauts (and still is home to many astronauts and other folks in the program) hasn't been wiped off the map.

Greg · 09-14-2008, 08:47 PM

Yippee! Melva got in touch with our landlord's son. They've been the house we're renting and there was no damage: No trees down, no windows broken, no flooding. There's a power line down so they had to get out of their car to walk the property but so far that's the only known drama. As soon as the power is back on, we can head on back. The city of Houston is asking people not to even think about returning before tomorrow morning so that they can clean up the mess.

Kimmy, I still haven't heard beans about San Leon or even Texas City. The optimist in me wants to think that if the water topped the dikes, we would have heard about it. The pessimist wants to think that San Leon would be like Kemah and coastal Seabrook, which had some flooding from the storm surge. They were talking about maybe 8 feet in Kemah so it depends on how high your place is.

The bad news for everybody: If you look out the windows from the 6th floor of Boeing Tower II, you can see about one-third of our nation's gasoline manufacturing facilities. All those places are without power and shut down, and it might be a week or so before they are all back up and running. Gasoline supplies might be a bit tight all over until they get caught up.

kimmyfrmtx · 09-14-2008, 10:47 PM

I got ahold of my next door neighbor, my house is probably ok. Her house and mine are about the same elevation. My other neighbor next door had 2 ft of water in it but he is about 4 ft closer to the ground.

She said the debris is horrible, her front and back steps were washed away and she has tractor tires and stuff all over her yard. I wonder if I should take a ladder, my house is over 5 ft off the ground. She has some water damage from shingles blowing off the roof.

I didn't want to keep her on the phone long but she said my house appears ok from the outside, so that is good news

Glad to hear things seem ok for you as well Greg, give Melva and the family a hug for me.

On a more somber note: everything from 1 - 26th street in San Leon has some damage. The single number streets are in really bad shape.

Greg · 09-15-2008, 02:27 AM

That's great news about your house, Kimmy!

But really bad news about San Leon. It sounds like the mess up the coast in Seabrook.

If you're in a position where you could easily pick up a ladder and carry it down to San Leon, that might be smart. With lots of debris and repairs going on, hardware stores are likely to be picked over and ladders would be something everybody needs.

Odessa · 09-15-2008, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kimmyfrmtx

I got ahold of my next door neighbor, my house is probably ok. Her house and mine are about the same elevation. My other neighbor next door had 2 ft of water in it but he is about 4 ft closer to the ground.

She said the debris is horrible, her front and back steps were washed away and she has tractor tires and stuff all over her yard. I wonder if I should take a ladder, my house is over 5 ft off the ground. She has some water damage from shingles blowing off the roof.

I didn't want to keep her on the phone long but she said my house appears ok from the outside, so that is good news

Glad to hear things seem ok for you as well Greg, give Melva and the family a hug for me.

On a more somber note: everything from 1 - 26th street in San Leon has some damage. The single number streets are in really bad shape.

*hugs* I hope everything is fine with your house. It's good to see everyone is safe. I would definitely bring a ladder... or a video camera of you hopping up to get in. *grins*

Miros1 · 09-15-2008, 02:50 AM

Now-tropical-storm Ike is here now! Power flickered and it's raining like heck, and the wind keeps trying to flip the screen door open, but nothing really bad yet.

Worse news... My Spore data for my original universe seems to be corrupted. I can't evolve, either on the original planet or the new one, so I guess I'm just screwed. Fortunately, I figured out how to swap the data around, so I don't have to burn another of my precious 3 installs to "fix" it.

Crystal · 09-15-2008, 04:42 PM

We got rain Saturday but Sunday was really nice so it must of gone north of us to get to you. I didn't hear if Coco got thunder up in Erie last night. I can't believe I wanted to go anywhere else because Sunday was just perfect bikini weather so we had a great time right here at home.

I don't think the Saturday rain was Ike rain it was just rainy rain.

Miros1 · 09-15-2008, 04:54 PM

Yeah, Ike swung way to the west -- a friend of mine in Michigan says they had it all day Sunday. We had it Sunday evening and Sunday night!

One tree down a block away took out the power lines, so they had to turn off our power after midnight to get that repaired.

Greg · 09-15-2008, 08:19 PM

One power line down doesn't sound too bad.

The City of El Lago sent this:

Water is available but it is necessary to boil water for consumption. Only a couple of homes in the lowest areas had some flooding. Streets are drivable but much debris remains. There is no power in the city and this will be for an extended period of time up to several weeks.

For those returning be advised that Red Bluff is closed, Kirby is closed and there is no access into Seabrook.

(Red Bluff and Kirby are main thoroughfares near our house.)

In a voice message, they are looking for help clearing debris, especially from homes where elderly folks need help. They are also advising folks who evacuated to stay away until they can get the mess cleaned up. We're just too far away to be able to do much. (It took us a bit over 7 hours to get to San Antonio. Mostly that was due to traveling with dogs, not traffic.)

Coco · 09-15-2008, 10:39 PM

Greg and Kimmy and everybody, I sure hope they get your power back on soon! It's great to know that you are all right! That's what's important!

Miros1 · 09-15-2008, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg

<snip>(It took us a bit over 7 hours to get to San Antonio. Mostly that was due to traveling with dogs, not traffic.)

I knew the dogs were navigating!

Bet you had to drive by every pet store between Houston and San Antonio plus stop at every rest stop to see if there were any trees that other dogs had peed on!

My sister-in-law claims her dog goes at the same spots every year -- I said, yep, but about 1500 other dogs have been there in between!

Greg · 09-16-2008, 12:35 AM

Thanks, Coco!

Rose, yup, the dogs might as well have been navigating. We were about 10 minutes away from home when we had to make the first potty stop.

Greg · 09-16-2008, 05:41 PM

FYI: I'm still in San Antonio and they're still telling us to stay away.

I've been keeping up with the local mess on the live feed from KHOU TV in Houston. The local folks are trying to get information out to residents while the national network reporters keep wanting numbers about deaths.

Greg · 09-16-2008, 05:43 PM

Amusement: As if they didn't have enough problems already, there's a tiger loose in Crystal Beach.

kimmyfrmtx · 09-17-2008, 01:40 AM

I am heading home tomorrow.

Don't know if I have power yet, but the little town down the road does so I am hopeful if I don't have it yet it won't be long (hope - finger crossed - hope)

Whoever had been talking on my phone all this time finally hung up, now it just rings & rings. I am choosing to believe that is a positive sign, but not sure of what *shrug* Called the M.U.D. (water department) and got a recording, sounds like I will have water to wash up. Taking 10 gallons with me to drink. I got excited when I heard the recording thinking wohoo power! but then I realized it could be generator running the place or might be a voice mail thingy.

Taking 15 gallons of gas in with us. I would take more but finding a gas can up here is next to impossible. Bought the final 3 at a little hole in the wall independent car parts place in the itty bitty town. The little guy said that was the last of 108 he got in yesterday and his supplier is out now also.

So if you don't hear from me for awhile don't worry, I just don't have power and/or internet. I plan to keep busy helping to clean up my lil town and checking out peoples places in San Leon since we are getting so little news out of there. Since I have been working on Galveston Island and it is CLOSED until further notice I guess I don't have a job until further notice as well. Glad we have a truck, maybe we can make a few bucks hauling building materials and trash for people without a truck.

Thanks to KHOU for the forums we are getting SOME information. Have to pick through it, seems trolls are everywhere, spreading misinformation & lies.

Anyway I have rambled enough....take care everyone.

PS Greg I have a PM in my box, but can't read it since there is no title or something to click on. When you get a chance can you check it out? No hurry but I just remembered to tell you about it.

**hugs** for those that want them.

Greg · 09-17-2008, 02:38 AM

Kimmy, I'm stumped about that PM. There are no tools in vBulletin that let even an admin read private messages so I had to get creative. I tried querying the database directly for PM's addressed to you and that came up blank. I tried it again with PM's addressed to me and got a stack of them, so I'm pretty sure I did the query correctly.

I'm guessing that there's a glitch in the counter that's showing that you have a message that's not there. I think there's a gizmo in vBulletin to fix the integrity of the database so I'll run that if I can find it. Maybe that will fix it.

Meanwhile back at the aftermath of the hurricane: My employer is telling us that the office won't officially be open until Monday; and to stay the heck away until our local community tells us it's safe to return. El Lago is saying the same thing: If you evacuated, stay there. On the other hand, but my employer and my city are asking those who are still in town to volunteer to help clean up the mess if they can.

They have a couple of office buildings with power but they said it's likely to be erratic; and neither of them is the place I work. So even I were in town, there's nothing I could do. I couldn't even get to my office.

JSC is closed.

Crystal · 09-17-2008, 04:04 PM

You work for a good company Greg!! I hope you are enjoying your unexpected vacation!!

Greg · 09-18-2008, 01:05 AM

I wish I could say that I'm enjoying my unexpected vacation, but I'm really out of my element. My brain just wasn't set to be on vacation this week, y'know?

The latest news from home is that there are 100 lineman working on fixing the mess, so there's a chance that we might get power restored and be able to get home before Monday and get things settled.

Our real estate agent also said there was almost no damage to the house we're trying to buy. The fence gate and a section of fence are missing, but it looks like the current owner has cleaned out the debris, trimmed the trees, and is already working on the fence. Our original closing date was this Friday, but obviously that's not going to happen. We might be pretty close, though!

There's one interesting consequence of the festivities here in San Antonio: My sister joined Sun Sims!

09-14-2008, 04:33 PM	#42
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	There's the problem, Kimmy: Your place is outside The Drama Zone! A busy signal probably means that circuits into the area are saturated. The ringing you hear is generated by the telephone company's computers so there's no way to know whether there is a telephone responding at the destination. Yup, me too. I'm hoping that everything is fine at both those houses down there in the swamp. The long odds are that there was no damage at all; maybe a few limbs down in the yard. There is still zero news about western Seabrook, El Lago, or Taylor Lake Village. That's a pretty strong indication that there's nothing to report. My employer has its emergency response center set up and they're offering assistance to anyone who needs it, but at the moment there's nothing anyone could (reasonably) do to increase my state of happiness other than driving by the houses to see if all the windows are intact. Quite a few of our neighbors stayed home. I wish we had had the wisdom to ask them for their cell phone numbers. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-14-2008, 07:52 PM	#43
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	We heard from our next-door neighbors. There was no flooding in our neighborhood.* They're going to ask the folks across the street (who stayed home) to check for damage to the houses. Kimmy, do you know anybody in San Leon who you might call? __________ *Afterthought: Everybody has a little share of El Lago because of its historical anecdotes. The house where the Armstrongs were living when Neil Armstrong made his first small step on the moon is 3 doors down from where we live now. It will never be a national shrine but I find it comforting to think that the neighborhood that housed the Apollo astronauts (and still is home to many astronauts and other folks in the program) hasn't been wiped off the map. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-14-2008, 08:47 PM	#44
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Yippee! Melva got in touch with our landlord's son. They've been the house we're renting and there was no damage: No trees down, no windows broken, no flooding. There's a power line down so they had to get out of their car to walk the property but so far that's the only known drama. As soon as the power is back on, we can head on back. The city of Houston is asking people not to even think about returning before tomorrow morning so that they can clean up the mess. Kimmy, I still haven't heard beans about San Leon or even Texas City. The optimist in me wants to think that if the water topped the dikes, we would have heard about it. The pessimist wants to think that San Leon would be like Kemah and coastal Seabrook, which had some flooding from the storm surge. They were talking about maybe 8 feet in Kemah so it depends on how high your place is. The bad news for everybody: If you look out the windows from the 6th floor of Boeing Tower II, you can see about one-third of our nation's gasoline manufacturing facilities. All those places are without power and shut down, and it might be a week or so before they are all back up and running. Gasoline supplies might be a bit tight all over until they get caught up. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know? Last edited by Greg : 09-14-2008 at 08:53 PM.

09-15-2008, 02:27 AM	#46
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	That's great news about your house, Kimmy! But really bad news about San Leon. It sounds like the mess up the coast in Seabrook. If you're in a position where you could easily pick up a ladder and carry it down to San Leon, that might be smart. With lots of debris and repairs going on, hardware stores are likely to be picked over and ladders would be something everybody needs. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-15-2008, 02:50 AM	#48
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Now-tropical-storm Ike is here now! Power flickered and it's raining like heck, and the wind keeps trying to flip the screen door open, but nothing really bad yet. Worse news... My Spore data for my original universe seems to be corrupted. I can't evolve, either on the original planet or the new one, so I guess I'm just screwed. Fortunately, I figured out how to swap the data around, so I don't have to burn another of my precious 3 installs to "fix" it. __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

09-14-2008, 03:23 PM	#41
kimmyfrmtx Rising Sun Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 16	From the fly over I saw yesterday the Bacliff area didn't look to bad, of course from WAY up in the sky I couldn't see much. Some roof damage, uprooted trees, debris on the roads. Of course they didn't show any San Leon, which is where I live. I left my answering machine on, but all I get is a busy signal when I try to call my house. I tried to call my neighbors but just get ringing. Wonder what that means? I am trying to stay optimistic but let me tell you it is hard! There is 1 person in this house that had a black cloud over his head. "I have lost severything, I am ruined, blah blah blah ....." Like he is the ONLY person here that has anything to lose?!?!?! I want to go home!

09-14-2008, 10:47 PM	#45
kimmyfrmtx Rising Sun Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 16	I got ahold of my next door neighbor, my house is probably ok. Her house and mine are about the same elevation. My other neighbor next door had 2 ft of water in it but he is about 4 ft closer to the ground. She said the debris is horrible, her front and back steps were washed away and she has tractor tires and stuff all over her yard. I wonder if I should take a ladder, my house is over 5 ft off the ground. She has some water damage from shingles blowing off the roof. I didn't want to keep her on the phone long but she said my house appears ok from the outside, so that is good news Glad to hear things seem ok for you as well Greg, give Melva and the family a hug for me. On a more somber note: everything from 1 - 26th street in San Leon has some damage. The single number streets are in really bad shape.

09-15-2008, 04:42 PM	#49
Crystal Addicted Anjafan Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 160	We got rain Saturday but Sunday was really nice so it must of gone north of us to get to you. I didn't hear if Coco got thunder up in Erie last night. I can't believe I wanted to go anywhere else because Sunday was just perfect bikini weather so we had a great time right here at home. I don't think the Saturday rain was Ike rain it was just rainy rain.

09-15-2008, 04:54 PM	#50
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	Yeah, Ike swung way to the west -- a friend of mine in Michigan says they had it all day Sunday. We had it Sunday evening and Sunday night! One tree down a block away took out the power lines, so they had to turn off our power after midnight to get that repaired. __________________ A game that horrible Odessa-person introduced me to: http://www.puzzlepirates.com/?affili...163251&lang=en I'm spreading the addiction by corrupting all my friends (and attempting to make in-game money when they try the game).

09-15-2008, 08:19 PM	#51
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	One power line down doesn't sound too bad. The City of El Lago sent this: Water is available but it is necessary to boil water for consumption. Only a couple of homes in the lowest areas had some flooding. Streets are drivable but much debris remains. There is no power in the city and this will be for an extended period of time up to several weeks. For those returning be advised that Red Bluff is closed, Kirby is closed and there is no access into Seabrook. (Red Bluff and Kirby are main thoroughfares near our house.) In a voice message, they are looking for help clearing debris, especially from homes where elderly folks need help. They are also advising folks who evacuated to stay away until they can get the mess cleaned up. We're just too far away to be able to do much. (It took us a bit over 7 hours to get to San Antonio. Mostly that was due to traveling with dogs, not traffic.) __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-15-2008, 10:39 PM	#52
Coco Loving Life! Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 47	Greg and Kimmy and everybody, I sure hope they get your power back on soon! It's great to know that you are all right! That's what's important! __________________ Proud member of the Western Pennsylvania Chili & Literary Society

09-16-2008, 12:35 AM	#54
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Thanks, Coco! Rose, yup, the dogs might as well have been navigating. We were about 10 minutes away from home when we had to make the first potty stop. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-16-2008, 05:41 PM	#55
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	FYI: I'm still in San Antonio and they're still telling us to stay away. I've been keeping up with the local mess on the live feed from KHOU TV in Houston. The local folks are trying to get information out to residents while the national network reporters keep wanting numbers about deaths. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-16-2008, 05:43 PM	#56
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Amusement: As if they didn't have enough problems already, there's a tiger loose in Crystal Beach. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-17-2008, 01:40 AM	#57
kimmyfrmtx Rising Sun Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 16	I am heading home tomorrow. Don't know if I have power yet, but the little town down the road does so I am hopeful if I don't have it yet it won't be long (hope - finger crossed - hope) Whoever had been talking on my phone all this time finally hung up, now it just rings & rings. I am choosing to believe that is a positive sign, but not sure of what shrug Called the M.U.D. (water department) and got a recording, sounds like I will have water to wash up. Taking 10 gallons with me to drink. I got excited when I heard the recording thinking wohoo power! but then I realized it could be generator running the place or might be a voice mail thingy. Taking 15 gallons of gas in with us. I would take more but finding a gas can up here is next to impossible. Bought the final 3 at a little hole in the wall independent car parts place in the itty bitty town. The little guy said that was the last of 108 he got in yesterday and his supplier is out now also. So if you don't hear from me for awhile don't worry, I just don't have power and/or internet. I plan to keep busy helping to clean up my lil town and checking out peoples places in San Leon since we are getting so little news out of there. Since I have been working on Galveston Island and it is CLOSED until further notice I guess I don't have a job until further notice as well. Glad we have a truck, maybe we can make a few bucks hauling building materials and trash for people without a truck. Thanks to KHOU for the forums we are getting SOME information. Have to pick through it, seems trolls are everywhere, spreading misinformation & lies. Anyway I have rambled enough....take care everyone. PS Greg I have a PM in my box, but can't read it since there is no title or something to click on. When you get a chance can you check it out? No hurry but I just remembered to tell you about it. hugs for those that want them.

09-17-2008, 02:38 AM	#58
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Kimmy, I'm stumped about that PM. There are no tools in vBulletin that let even an admin read private messages so I had to get creative. I tried querying the database directly for PM's addressed to you and that came up blank. I tried it again with PM's addressed to me and got a stack of them, so I'm pretty sure I did the query correctly. I'm guessing that there's a glitch in the counter that's showing that you have a message that's not there. I think there's a gizmo in vBulletin to fix the integrity of the database so I'll run that if I can find it. Maybe that will fix it. Meanwhile back at the aftermath of the hurricane: My employer is telling us that the office won't officially be open until Monday; and to stay the heck away until our local community tells us it's safe to return. El Lago is saying the same thing: If you evacuated, stay there. On the other hand, but my employer and my city are asking those who are still in town to volunteer to help clean up the mess if they can. They have a couple of office buildings with power but they said it's likely to be erratic; and neither of them is the place I work. So even I were in town, there's nothing I could do. I couldn't even get to my office. JSC is closed. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-17-2008, 04:04 PM	#59
Crystal Addicted Anjafan Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 160	You work for a good company Greg!! I hope you are enjoying your unexpected vacation!!

09-18-2008, 01:05 AM	#60
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	I wish I could say that I'm enjoying my unexpected vacation, but I'm really out of my element. My brain just wasn't set to be on vacation this week, y'know? The latest news from home is that there are 100 lineman working on fixing the mess, so there's a chance that we might get power restored and be able to get home before Monday and get things settled. Our real estate agent also said there was almost no damage to the house we're trying to buy. The fence gate and a section of fence are missing, but it looks like the current owner has cleaned out the debris, trimmed the trees, and is already working on the fence. Our original closing date was this Friday, but obviously that's not going to happen. We might be pretty close, though! There's one interesting consequence of the festivities here in San Antonio: My sister joined Sun Sims! __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?