Apologies for not posting after the storm. Ike, One Year Later

First let me apologize for the cliff hanger type ending of my Ike blogging. The power went out at about 3:00 am and I hadn't set up a dial up account with which to post updates on just generator power (I added this to our hurricane planning, so it shouldn’t happen next time). In the days after the storm, we were preoccupied with keeping the generator running and cleaning up the debris around our house. We were also pretty shell-shocked. Some coastal area communities were simply gone. Takes kind of a toll on your energy.

I guess I just haven't felt like updating the storm blog since there was no inherent danger. Its been a full year since the worst Hurricane to hit Southeastern Texas in twenty five years came ashore. Guess its time to finish the story.

I'll try to summarize where I left off.

I spent most of the evening outside, under the overhang between the house and the garage. In retrospect I probably should have stayed inside because I find that I don’t like it much when the wind picks up and blows the trees any more.

Let me talk just a second about the experience. We spend so much time down here preparing for this kind of thing that the whole thing seems almost commonplace. In the early fall, I look forward to the first UH game, the kids start school, we pine for cooler weather and we get ready for any threats from the Gulf. I didn’t really give much thought to riding out the storm because that is what we do. Evacuation is much more dangerous as we don’t live in a storm surge (severe flooding) zone. Run from the water, hide from the wind.

Check below for the preparations that we performed before the storm. Pretty much the recommended routine but I have learned something. The best you can do is just barely good enough. Even with all the prep, we weren’t ready to be a week without power. Nor was I ready for the ferocity of the storm.

The most striking thing was the sound. The swooshing of the trees was kind of like white noise blasted at full power from theater speakers. And it went on for 12 hours straight. Amazingly, the other sounds of the storm were loud enough to break through as well. For most of the night, you could hear transformers popping, trees breaking and fences giving way.

The lightning was blinding. In the last post I mention green lightning. That was actually the transformers around the neighborhood blowing up. The purple lightning was from the storm.

I will admit to a certain morbid curiosity about experiencing the storm. This was probably one of the main reasons I stayed outside. The other was boredom and fear of the unknown. I took the graveyard shift. I wanted to be awake if something happened to the house or if tornados seemed likely. In that case I would have gotten everyone in the stairwell closet. I figured the more time the better. In any case, I’m not eager to repeat the event. At one point our 50 foot Pecan tree bent almost to the ground and then bent the other way towards the neighbor’s yard. I’m not sure I wanted to see that.

Jules and Aidan woke up at about 5:00 am when the worst of the storm was over. I crashed. By the time I got up at around 10:00 am, the storm was mostly gone. Since the power was out, we moved into our Travel Trailer that I had parked in the driveway. It had suffered no damage.

I ran extension cords and began plugging things into the generator. We came into the house occasionally but mostly, we hung out in the trailer (air conditioning). Thankfully, the first cool front of the year pushed through the area and life was less sticky than it could have been.

The things we longed for most were Gasoline and Fast food. Neither was available anywhere for at least 3 days. I keep a 15 gallon external tank and our little boat holds about fifteen gallons. I had filled both before the storm. Our generator runs through about 4 gallons every 12 hours or so. We had enough to get by. A couple of our friends came by to check on us (and bring extra gas) in the days after and we all faired pretty well.

The neighborhood was pretty wrecked and the rebuilding has really just recently wrapped up. Other towns didn’t do so well.

Most of the houses in Galveston were severely damaged. The beachhouse that we stayed at on the Bolivar Peninsula was reduced to a slab. We had been there the week before to celebrate Julie’s birthday. In fact most of the Bolivar peninsula structures were swept into Galveston Bay. I never heard a death toll from Bolivar but I had heard eyewitnesses of bodies on the ground after the storm. I haven’t been back since. Their healing process will take years and their businesses will never be the same. Jules and I have spent many important moments on that stretch of coastline. To have it simply disappear is like losing an old friend.

I’ve only been back to Galveston a couple of times. The first was last November. There were abandoned sailboats stretched across parking lots and most things were still closed. I took Aidan surfing recently and things looked much better. I’m hoping to get back a couple of times in the fall.

As I try to wrap this up, I’m not really sure what to say. Its true that we were really fortunate. I won’t say blessed because #1 I don’t believe God has anything to do with these sorts of things and #2 Why weren’t others equally blessed. You can’t have it both ways, either God is responsible for these things and cruelly fickle or he doesn’t get wrapped up in the particulars and we need to look out for ourselves as much as possible. I choose to hope for the latter.

Bottom line, Bolivar was on the coast and is now gone. We’re further inland and thus more protected from the Gulf storms. No magic here. Still, many of us consider all of southeast Texas home and I mourn for any great loss of life or property in this region.

I’m glad the tropics are quiet. We need a couple of years to rebuild but more importantly the whole region needs time to get over the gunshyness that happens after surviving any disaster. It’ll take some time before we trust the Gulf again.

Thanks to all who read this and once again I apologize for neglecting it so long. Look for the next post when we need to communicate with everyone during a possible emergency.

Extremely heavy winds, I've never seen green lightning before

I would definitely say the first part of the storm is here. I have all of the windows boarded up and I can still hear the 'train' outside. I was out a few minutes ago and the trees are really bending to the winds. I would estimate somewhere in the 40+ mph range. There was also some light rain. The air smells like the gulf of Mexico.

The kids and my mom are sleeping soundly. Jules and I are getting power naps throughout the night. The rough stuff is supposed to happen around 2:00ish. I'll do my best with pics.

I'm planning on watching the sunrise.

More updates soon!

Dark now, Winds are getting heavy

Here are some pics from the first storm bands:






Avery and Aidan playing in the wind:






Things are starting to heat up. The winds are gusting to 40 MPH and it sounds like a freight train! We still have power but I spoke to Jeff (a good friend of mine down the street) and his power was flickering earlier. They eye is not even supposed to be here until 2:00 am!

No real rain yet but the conditions to the south of us are bad. All of the coastal towns have some significant flooding.

No damage yet but the roof to our storage shed tried to fly away. Aidan and I drove in some deck screws and all is well :)

I'll keep the blog updated throughout the night. Call us if you need us :)

Winds Picking Up

Weather report: Its really windy. I would say sustained winds of 15 with gusts of 20-25 MPH. We got a little light rain earlier. Its been so dry here that Jules thought she heard the yard give a sigh of relief. Oh and its freakin hot!!! Other than that, nothing remarkable to report.

I finished putting up our plywood shutters about an hour ago. All I can say is, this better be one hell of a storm or I wasted a lot of effort! I'm definitely investing in some better hardware for the plywood shutters. It should only take about an hour to put up shutters. Took me four!

Aidan and I just did a quick bike ride around the neighborhood. I would estimate that 1/4 of the people in Jersey Village have evacuated.

My mom decided to ride out the storm with us and she arrived a little while ago. She is a reservationist at Continental and she said the phones were insane this morning. Consequently, she is asleep upstairs :)

First Signs of Ike

I was working just now to secure everything in the backyard. I think I have everything tucked away in the garage.



Its starting to cloud up a little bit. The sustained winds are still pretty low but the gusts are pretty impressive.

We went for a bike ride this morning to see what people were doing around the neighborhood:



The kids look terrified.

A lot of people have put up plywood.

This is a house on the small lake in our neighborhood.

The Coast Guard has already had to perform some high water rescues for people that stayed. The storm surge is over the seawall in Galveston. I would imagine that the whole city will be underwater. Makes me really sad. I love that town.


Julie said that the wind forecast for our neighborhood is 85 MPH. That will be the highest the winds have been here in 70 years.

I'll keep posting as long as the cable (our internet connection) holds out. I can run the modem and router off of a car battery if the power goes out. I predict that our power will be out by 8:00 this evening.

Its actually gotten a bit darker since I started writing this post. I guess the cloud cover is thickening.

I'm going out now to put up our plywood shutters. Our cell phones are on and charged if you need to get a hold of us. Also feel free to leave comments or questions (click on comments below).

Should be an interesting evening.

Quick Update

Good morning all,





Looks like they're forecasting 76 MPH winds for us this evening. We'll clear out the backyard and Julie will probably make me put up some plywood (Aidan and I built some storm shutters last year). I can hear our neighbors putting up wood now.





Its actually kind of nice out right now. We're going for a bike ride. I'll grab some pics of the preparations that people are making around the neighborhood.

For all those that might be worried, this neighborhood did really well against a direct hit by Hurricane Alicia back in '83. Ike looks a lot like Alicia. With wood over the windows, I'm not worried about safety at all. Its the power outages that I'm dreading. More throughout the day and night :)

Hide from the wind

From Jules: Go to http://www.houstonhidefromthewind.org/This web site shows the projected wind speed by zip codes; it is updated with every NHC update. It gives a little perspective on the expected damage they keep talking about on the news, especially since Houston is so large. We are in Zip Code 77040.

Getting Ready for Ike

Looks like this one may be the first storm to hit us since Ailicia in 1983. I knew we were in trouble when I saw Jim Cantore (from the Weather Channel) standing on the seawall in Galveston. Jimmy doesn't show up unless they are pretty sure your town is going to get it :)

First of all, here are our plans. We're definitely staying here at the house. If it looks like more than a cat 2, I'll put our plywood shutters up over the windows. We put the travel trailer in the driveway (blocked from the wind by the house). If we lose power after the storm, we'll just run the generator and move into the trailer for a couple of days. We've got plenty of food, water and supplies to get us through a week or so.

We spoke to Michael and Becky (They live in Orange -East Texas). Orange County issued a mandatory evacuation. Becky has to work at the hospital until tomorrow afternoon, so they are planning to stay until then. If the storm turns north and threatens the TX/LA border, they may come east to our place. The west side of these storms is always the safest.

Jules and I have both of our cell phones charged if you need to get a hold of us.

For those that don't live on the gulf coast, Its kind of hard to explain the way we look at these things. Its unique because, unlike other types of natural disasters, you can see these things coming from a long way away. The problem is, you really can't. We get these kind of threats about 3 times per year. Yet, we haven't had a significant storm since 1983. It creates a sense of exhausted complacency. Who wants to put in two days of prep work for a storm that hits to the east? There is also the threat of lost wages and money wasted on unneccesary supplies.

Thus, the freeways are starting to back up now, only 36 hours before landfall. If we tried to evacuate every time there was a storm in the gulf, we would be broke!

The best thing to do is to set up certain activities based on the level of threat. Jules and I have a list of things to do at each point in storm's development. We also try to do a bunch of prep work at the beginning of the season. That way, we don't even have to pay attention unitl the storm is almost here. Problem is that there is always something you forget. Jules and I both had to make last minute trips to the store this morning :). The stores were packed, but you can bet that they will be much worse tonight and tomorrow morning.

As the storm comes in, I'll be taking pictures and posting them here. I'll also be updating as long as our internet connection holds out.

The real question is, who wants to go surfing with me and Aidan when the storm passes :)

Ike still forecasted to hit well to our south...

As of this morning, most forecasters have Ike coming in somewhere between Corpus Christi and Houston.














The reality is that we are 3 days out and no one really knows anything. Whenever there is a storm in the Gulf, I just kind of assume that it might head our way. Usually just means keeping the gas tanks full, checking the generator and stocking up on groceries (before every one else does).



It seems that at 24 hours out, they can usually pick a spot within 50 miles of where the storm will hit. Of course this really doesn't give you much time to evacuate. I would imagine that the coastal cities around here will post evacuations orders (if necessary) this evening or early tomorrow. I would hope the City of Houston would only issue orders 24 hours after the coastal evacuations had been issued. The safest direction for the coastal folks is north....right through Houston. This is another reason to stock up before the storm as a lot of those people wouldn't get much warning and may not have had time to pack accordingly. During Rita, gas and bottled water were really scarce around here!





I just heard from a friend of mine at work that Brazoria county (to our southwest) has issued evac orders for people with special needs. Since my friend has a newborn (1 week), they are headed to see family in Northern Louisiana. Probably a good move.



In the graphic above, forecasters refer to the yellow shading as the "cone of uncertainty". Some of the guys I trust the most are saying that the storm could come farther north as a category 3. This probably means that we would get winds somewhere between 70-100 MPH. The worst winds recorded in Houston were during the Great Storm of 1900. The main killer from that storm was the tides though.

70 MPH winds are bad but I think our house would hold up pretty well. Anything above the 120 MPH mark and I might be a bit concerned. Still I would have a hard time believeing that we would get anything above 100 this far inland.

I'll post more as the storm gets closer.

Hurricane Ike may threaten upper Gulf Coast

Good Monday morning,

I thought I'd start up the severe weather blog again considering Hurricane Ike's possible path towards the Gulf Coast. Here is one of the 5-day outlooks (Weather Underground).




Many of the folks that live on the coast are talking about evacuating sometime Thursday if the storm continues as expected. Our part of town sits pretty high, so we aren't worried about storm surge.

Our standing plan doesn't have us evacuating unless the storm is predicted to directly hit us as a significant Cat 4. Even then, I doubt that we would leave. The golden rule of the Gulf Coast storms is run from the water, hide from the wind. We're too high to worry about water and our house is pretty sturdy. Makes a good hiding place :) Plus we have a generator and supplies to deal with loss of utilities after the storm. I'd be more afraid of the trying to evacuate into gridlocked traffic with our two kids than spending a loud, windy night in the house.

If things look bad, we'll throw some plywood on the windows and pull everything into the garage.

I'll post updates here if it continues to head our way.

--aaron

Nothing much to report around here

Well TS Edouard has come and gone without really leaving any marks. We did get a good bit of much needed rain but there really wasn't much damage around here. The folks to the east of us may have a different story though as the storms effects were most felt just west of the state border.

My only complaint about the coverage and response is that there were very credible sources who said 36 hours ago, that the storm would fall where it did with tropical storm intensity. Yet the weather channel had the storm hitting Galveston right up until it came ashore somewhere else. I have questions about motives of course but I guess its better to be prepared than not.

Jules and I pretty much have a routine as far as preparations go. Its based on a handfull of factors that don't have much to do with any one news agency. I think we've found that its best to get varied reports in attempt to put together our own "forecast". So far. so good.

This will be my last post here until we see another chance for severe weather here on the gulf coast. One of us will resend the link to the blog when that happens. Good night all!

TS Edouard making landfall East of Houston

We haven't seen much in the way of wind associated with this storm yet. Its just been kind of a slow and steady rain. Looks like we might get more of the storm within the next couple of hours but it really doesn't look very threatening right now.

Of course the local news is reporting this as the storm of the century. Its kind of funny to see them standing by the bay in their full rain suits with a light rain falling. We get storms associated with fall/winter cold fronts that are much worse than this. I guess the danger is in the duration as storms like this can park over an area and dump several inches of rain. Best case scenario for us would see the storm moving slowly to the north throughout the next couple of days. We're in desperate need of rain around here.

Only threat now seems to be some localized flooding. The news is reporting that "brunt" of the storm will hit Houston at 11:00am this morning.

TS Edouard to Strengthen, possible turning to the north

The SciGuy blog at the Houston Chronicle and Dr. Jeff Masters at Weather Underground outline the possibility of TS Edouard turning to the north of Houston and hitting the Texas-Louisiana border.

What this means for us in Houston is a little bit of rain and wind. Nothing like what would happen if the TS hit Galveston directly and came ashore to Houston (as earlier predictions stated). All of the computer models and the weather channel still have the storm on a direct path for Galveston.

I tend to think that the storm will turn North and hit the border. This means a pretty messy storm for Michael, Becky, Abby and Evan.

Either way, Jules, myself and the kids will be at home tomorrow just in case the storm holds its course. We're not really worried about any wind but Houston can flood pretty quickly.

The official predictions have the eye of the storm hitting Galveston around noon tomorrow. This means that we would probably start to see some of the early rain bands right around dawn.

All in all I think we're pretty "underwhelmed" by this one. We've done all the stuff you're supposed to do when there is a storm in the gulf but I really don't think this thing will amount to much around here.

If the storm turns north, Jules and I will call Michael and post any updates here. I'll post another update around dawn tomorrow.

Looks like TS Edouard might be headed our way

Latest info on Weather Underground has strongest winds from Hurricane Edouard (60-70) hitting around the Texas/Louisiana border. Computer models show the storms path as coming ashore somewhere between Port O'Conner and Galveston. Looks like sometime late morning Tues.








Looks like both Orange and Northwest Houston are under a Hurricane watch. KUHT Radio this morning reported the likelihood of cat 1 conditions at landfall. Winds may get kind of rough but I think they are primarily worried about flooding around here. Our house fared pretty well during the last few flood events and the neighborhood has completed a whole bunch of flood projects since the last one. Shouldn't be a problem if we stay put.


Our plans
Jules and I put gas in the cars and did some other small preparation steps yesterday afternoon. I'll be stopping by the store today to stock up on water and other things. Probably won't worry with fortifying the house until we hear more late tonight. We have plywood shutters and a small gas generator in case the power goes out so we should be okay.


After seeing first hand how bad the evacuations went during Rita (thousands of cars parked on 290 for 36 hours) I think the safest course for us would be stay. The house is pretty sturdy and we have pretty much everything we would need for a few days.


We'll keep our cell phones charged and if the power goes out, I can probably still use the computer to update this blog. So check here for updates throughout the next 48 hours.

Testing, first post

Just testing to make sure we're ready for severe weather.