Written 9-13-08; (First in a six- part series) Typed: 9-19-08
Have you everheard of a "Crazy Ivan?" That's where a Russian sub makes a quick 180 degree turn to check it's baffles? Well, This is "Crazy Ike,"a strong Category 2 hurricane, that nearly was a Cat 3 by 1 mph of wind!. Actually, it filled up 3/4 of the Gulf of Mexico and had a track only a contortionist could follow. The storm just missed Houston (due to a last milisecond turn to the East.) Our neighbors to the SW of us (our house is at facing a crazy angle) lost a significant amount of roof tiles. Our rotting fence that borders the same neighbors and my family, partially blew down, and an unidentified chimney cap wound up in our yard as well.
Galveston's a mess, and a total wreck. I've explored those islands end to end more times in pursuit of ocean fishing spots. Our favs were the San Luis Pier, and Jamaica Beach. Good luck just trying to find the remnants of the former, and Jamaica Beach resembles a war zone. 10 hours before the storm, Galveston's 16 ft seawall was all underwater, and lapping up onto Seawall Rd. The city resembles an over- watered flower garden, especially at about 1 a.m. Sat, when the storm came on- shore. Most of Galveston is under an average of six feet of water, and the city resembled a flambe when 12 structures caught fire. T'was the height of infamy to be surrounded by water, only it was too deep for the high water EMS/ Fire to get to the situations. The said vehicles had to pull back from "home base" once the storm came on shore for flooding reasons. I hear that they are "trapped?" somewhere in a basement or the likes of one. You, the reader, know that I've been down here for just over 1 1/2 years, and this is my first hurricane, and thank God, it wasn't worse. I can't speak for the cities along the coast. In some cases, most people have lost it all, such as the guy in Galveston who lost his house to floodwaters, so he took off in his Corvette. Bad Idea. Not only did he lose the car, he lost his shoes. (Ouch! on the Corvette!!!)
Right now, over 3 million are without power, hoping to regain it again in the span of three to four days. As of two hours ago, we were helping our neighbors; collecting their roof tiles, and dad lent the biggest tarp he could find to them.
According to the governor, this is the biggest search and rescue operation in Texas history.
I took a walk with my brothers and dad, scoping out the neighborhood, and it was a sight better than most cities, although it was just cosmetic damage (leaves, shingles, the occasianional roof blown off or missing a whole lot of shingles.) If that was just light damage, I was afraid to see the NE side of the former storm and the utter desolation of the coast cities.
We just got power back at 8:50p. The family is very grateful to the Centerpoint people. Our first hurricane expierience was short, but telling, and we were prepared. The tv came back on withevening shots of Galveston. I was right unfortunately... Galveston and the entire Texas SE coast were 95% destroyed. Someone even brought their kayak to paddle down the six foot deep streets, and we about had a crash on the causeway, of speedboats, three deep by three high, and the piece de la recistance, a speedboat at a traffic light. "When in Galveston..." My family had it good this time- it was just a blackout, and we'd been in longer power outages than this. Case closed. That's when things go horribly, horribly wrong.
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