Rolling?

People are coming back now.  The exodus is ending.  Businesses are opening and gas is available again.  Streets are being cleared.  Downed trees are being cut up and hauled away.  That's all great.

However, our energy company, Entergy (formerly based in New Orleans) is having a bad year.  First, we had massive power outages during a summer storm.  Then, they lost their headquarters.  Then, they took damage in Rita.  I was impressed that we had power throughout.  Until today.  They started rolling blackouts.  I can understand.  We're in the middle of record temperatures for this time of year.  On top of this they have line and substation damage.  However, they told us they'll roll the outage every 30 minutes to an hour.  We were out from around 1 p.m. to around 6 p.m.  No AC in record heat really stinks.

Tonight the local news took them to task on it.  They showed a convenience store with their food going bad in the heat.  Then they showed a family huddled outside around a small car fan trying to keep cool.  The father went on to explain that he had to keep the youngest cool since he has asthma.  If he gets too hot, it will act up.  Of course, if it does, there's nothing they can do since his medicine machine must have power to work.  Ouch.  Then they followed up on how Entergy was allowing Houston to run out of water and Centerpoint energy had to come in and save the day.  Needless to say, I wouldn't be buying Entergy stock right now.

We'll see how the outages go from now on.

10:09 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Reflections
Current mood: contemplative

Wouldn't you know. We get through the hurricane with all our utilities intact. Then tonight as Pittsburgh launches a prayer toward the goal line on fourth and 11, the cable goes out. No internet, no TV, I catch the game's end in text on my cell phone. Silly. Of course, everything came back on right after Sunday Night Football ended.

Anyway, I wrote this earlier:


I think I understand Hurricane Katrina a little better now. It's certainly not because I suffered. I understand how the attitudes that caused such pain and suffering to occur could come about. It's hard work preparing for a hurricane, but beyond that it's mentally exhausting.

You're dealing with events beyond your control and your plans are just to mitigate the crisis you expect. In the end, your thoughts spiral down to confront your mortality. It faces you at every turn. It faces you when you realized the roads that might have been your last escape are clogged beyond hope. It faces you when you're hoarding water because water is life. It certainly faces you when you're waiting in the darkness.

Hurricanes are slow. It was what 36 hours before we understood what Katrina had done? Friday evening watching the clouds race by, I expected the big storm to start any minute. Minutes ticked by but only a slow increase in wind gusts and rain followed. It really made you question if this big storm was really coming.

Then darkness fell. The clouds were thick enough that you couldn't see anything above you. You could hear and feel the rain and wind. The trees swayed, but they weren't bowing like you'd expect. Time marched on but slowly. You go through your nightly routines. You inspect your 'secured' house. You wait.

Finally exhausted you collapse trying to sleep. It's a restless sleep. The first angry snap of a branch you're awake. Then silence. You doze, but the timbers creak. You start. You check the conditions. The trees seem to be protecting you. You can hear the howling wind up above, but down at the surface, it's just steady rain. The treetops shake violently for a second, but then stop. This doesn't feel like the storm you've been preparing for.

Eventually, you rest. At dawn, you get the first look at the skies again. Dark clouds everywhere, but now you can see them racing above the trees. There are strong winds up there, but still the trees seem to protect you. Here and there are gusts, but mostly the silent rain keeps falling. It's not the most impressive rain either. Spring storms in Texas are much more violent than this. The backyard sections that usually flood just have small streams in them. The only thing remarkable about it is that it doesn't stop. For hours. It doesn't stop.

Now, after forever, you've reached the outer bands again. The sun starts to creep out. There's small debris everywhere. For the first time in memory, there are no pine needles in the trees. They're all on the ground. Leaves and twigs and branches are everywhere. Still, there are few signs of violence. You've made it. You have power and water and gas and an intact house. It's like a weight has been lifted. Then you're exhausted all over again.

In your fatigue, you can't help wonder if it was all worth it. All that work and worry for nothing. There are others who are suffering, but they are far away. You feel for them, but you also know their preparations had meaning while yours did not. The relief and guilt and anger swirl inside you. Just let everyone know you and yours are all right. Then you can rest.

Rest brings some perspective. There's still much work to do. You have to clean up the mess. Check your neighborhood to see if anyone needs help. Then you can start undoing all that you did to prepare. That's it isn't it. All that work preparing spun you up to a fever pitch, but knowing it would have helped if not the worst, but the merely bad had happened, doesn't bring back your calm.

You know the reality that could happen. You just saw it in New Orleans. But what about a year from now when it's not so fresh. What about after a few more wasted preparations. When you see all that you do is merely creating more work for yourself to undo after another miss. First it's the little things that slide. Soon it's hard not to laugh at the busy work some people go through in preparation. Then when it finally comes to you, you wonder why this time you weren't ready when you knew better. You dodge a couple of bullets and suddenly you think you're immortal. Life has a way of correcting those misperceptions swiftly and painfully.

I hope I can hang on to that knowledge. I hope I can keep that which will help protect me and my family. I need to keep that fear that drives me to prepare or flee. I can't let the mental weight slow me down. Each bullet you dodge makes it harder, but we must keep our edge.

A little more rest and then maybe, maybe I can move on. I try to hold on to the thankfulness for all I still have and let go of the anger over 'wasted' effort. It's hard. We all have to do it.

We all clean up our yards now. We sweep our paths and break up the fallen tree limbs. Except for here and there, you'd hardly know anything happened. Soon we'll have gas and groceries and noise again. Life will go back to normal. Then we can start caring for our brothers and sisters who didn't dodge this bullet. Maybe then we can have perspective . . . at least until the next storm.

10:09 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Cleaning up

As an interesting aside that no one talks about, when a 400 mile wide hurricane spins, it not only drops rain and brings wind, but that wind also picks up dust and pollen.  That dust and pollen can be dropped anywhere further along the curve of the storm.  So when you're on the 'clean' side of a hurricane, you can experience that from all the areas the hurricane touches.  Needless to say, my allergies exploded shortly after going outside today.  It's been about as bad as the height of spring.

I have to say my area of the greater Houston metroplex got off very easy.  I tried to take some pictures of some damage, but there was almost none.  We didn't get flooding rains either.  If it wasn't for the pine needles everywhere, you'd hardly know anything happened.

This is the one tree that I saw down.  It didn't do any damage.


Dirt and debris, but so tiny as to be of no matter:


Is that sign slighly crooked?

7:17 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

No Damage
Current mood: tired

Again, I'll have more later once I sorted out all the experiences.  I wanted to report that our house and our street seem to have sustained no damage.  There's plenty of debris around.  Most of it is from trees (pine needles, small branches and leaves).   Otherwise our neighborhood looks much the same as it did yesterday morning.  We're going to take a more expansive tour shortly.  The sun has peeked out once today and the winds and rain have diminished to negligible levels.

I should have some pictures up later as well.
Cheers,
Jason

12:28 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Do not panic
Current mood: happy
Category: Life

We're still here.  We're all present and accounted for and in good shape.  The power never really stayed out.  We have power, water and gas.  We can't find any major damage to our property and there's no sign of flooding in the immediate area.  I'd say we made it through pretty good.  I'll post more details shortly, but I want to get this message up for those who may be concerned.

7:59 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Light Rain

We have a light steady rain right now.  The power keep flickering.  Thus far the UPS is handling it, but soon we'll have to shut down for the storm and unplug everything.  We still haven't had the wind gusts, but that should pick up soon.  Our big concern here is heavy rain and sustained wind combining to bring down the big trees in the neighborhood.  It's not called The Woodlands for nothing.  The upstairs hall is our secure area if it gets really bad.  They're saying we could have tropical storm force winds for upwards of 12 hours.  We'll see.

Cheers,
Jason 

7:51 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Darkness Falls
Current mood: hopeful

Still bands of rain and clear here.  We haven't seen heavy rains yet, but the winds have been growing steadily.  The power here is fluctuating as presumably the wind blows the big transmission lines.  The residential lines here are underground so that's good.  I don't know how long I'll have power to keep posting updates, but don't worry if I can't post, it's probably just due to a power outage and nothing serious.

David has chosen this week to start creeping.  He does a low crawl around the house.  So we have to keep an extra eye on him to make sure he doesn't get into trouble.  He's also started babbling more.  We're pretty sure we've heard a few dada's in there, but they don't seem to be connected to anything.  He seems to know when we're trying to listen to the weather and starts yelling at the top of his lungs.  He doesn't seem phased by any of this.

We have lots of water stored around the house.  The bathtub is full as are most of our containers.  Mostly we hope we don't need it, but we'll still feel a bit silly if we don't.  All of our preparations are basically done.  We're hunkering down.  Other than the increasing wind and power fluctuations, there haven't been any major changes.  If anything dramatic happens and we still have power, I'll post it.

Jason

6:28 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Waiting

Still quiet here.  In fact, it's about as quiet as I ever remember the Woodlands being.  There's still no rain here.  We've just gotten some sprinkles.  You certainly wouldn't know a major storm was coming.  The sky is a pretty uniform sheet of dark steel now.   The sun is starting to go down.  The last projection I saw gives us about 12 hours before the eye hits land.

Outside, the street lights are all flashing red.  There's no traffic except emergency vehicles and people going to and from the shelters.  It's strange there were a lot of sirens earlier in the day, but now it's just quiet.  Even the dogs are behaving themselves.  Weird.

4:22 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Gather Clouds
Current mood: determined
Category: Life

The clouds start to gather across the street from our House.

2:52 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Hurricane Rita Blog
Current mood: busy

As we sit here in The Woodlands (about 80 miles inland from the coast) wating for Rita, I admit it's been exhausting.  We've been preparing for most of the week.

This morning dawned a clear, beautiful day.  There were white, whispy clouds in the sky.  The only negative was the humidity, but that's normal in the Houston area.  Only now, around 4 p.m., are the skies starting to darken.  The project eye path is still going to the east of us, but with a 400 mile wide storm, it's not far enough.  We're still projected to get some hurricane force winds.  I'll update as time and conditions allow.

We just dropped some bedding off at the local high school which has been turned into a shelter for people who were trapped on the highway as the storm approaches.  It's not great, but better than being stuck in your car.  Your kind thoughts and prayers for all of us are appreciated.

2:15 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment