Hurricane Ike Motor Madness

Even after mayor Bill White asked Houstonians not to do so many went out in droves after the storm to drive around and assess the damage personally. These people just clogged up the works and got in the way of first responders and others who had a legitimate reason to be on the roads.

You know, I could not figure out why there were all those gas lines on Sunday. Now I know. Everybody was out joy riding and were afraid they were going to run out of gas. The motorists in this city behaved liked typical Russians who get into any line they see just in case something they might need is running out.

Ike hit on a Friday night. Nobody was going to work on Monday and many not until much later in the week. Teachers got the whole week off. Yet people were out driving around, burning up precious gas and then wasting even more waiting in line with their engines running, their AC on full blast (even though temps were in the 70's) and getting into fist fights over people cutting in line.

The Gulf Coast had nearly a week's warning about the impending landfall of Ike. People were admonished to stock up on water, other essentials and non-perishable food (although on the Thursday prior I saw shopping baskets filled with dozens of eggs and gallons of milk at the supermarket). People were also advised to fill up their car and be prepared to spend a few days without electricity.

But what happens on the day after Ike makes landfall? Droves of people are out in their cars driving around trying to get supplies of water, food, ice and yes, gasoline... the very things they were supposed to have in good supply already. So much for self reliance. Although the local television coverage of Ike and its aftermath was riveting and very well done, I had to turn it all off because I just could not stand hearing another person whine about where the "gummint" was to help them out.

What a bunch of morons. Hope they forget to vote in November. On the other hand, if you are a Republican I guess you do want all these people to vote :-).

Riding Out Hurricane Ike

It has been a couple of days since Hurricane Ike blew through Houston. I fared pretty well with only brief loss of power and minimal damage. Here is an account of what happened to me.

Before the Blow

On Monday, August 8 (one week ago) I got an email from a friend of mine who works at local TV station KTRK. She wanted to know if I had a generator because their consumer reporter was working on a story about using them during power outages. I told her I did and about an hour later their reporter came by to interview me. You can see an abbreviated version of that report here (I cut out most of the stuff that did not include moi). I took this media moment to be an omen and decided to begin my preparations for Hurricane Ike.

First I stocked up on gas for my generator, buying additional 5 gallon containers to bring my total reserve up to 20 gallons. I also filled up my car's tank. Next I hit the food store for a stock of non-perishables (all the usual crap that you never would eat otherwise). I never buy water. It is a waste of money. Instead I fill a 5 gallon container from the tap and use that for drinking, the dog's water and cooking. For everything else I have 15,000 gallons of the stuff in my pool.

I cruised along until Thursday watching Ike's track through the Gulf. By that morning I decided this was the real deal and it was time to board up. The last big one to hit Houston was Hurricane Alicia in 1983, just four months after I moved into my current townhouse. I did not board up then primarily because of my busy shooting schedule and my preoccupation with what might happen to my studio building. But 25 years later things were different. With time on my hands and memories of how the wind blew for Alicia I took the cautious route.

So it was off to the lumber yard for some plywood. Fortunately I have a good one only a few blocks away. It is not the cheapest place in town but I knew that the big-box stores would be a cluster f**k. It was a bit of a scene even at the lumber yard... a bit like the trading floor of a commodities exchange. With supplies running low and the counter guys ticking off what they had, buyers were calling out "I'll take 8 sheets of the OSB" or in my case "I'll take 6 sheets of the BC pine". Even thin plywood is not cheap (I chose 3/8 inch to keep the weight manageable) and I paid $18 a sheet!

It took me about 8 hours spread across Thursday afternoon and Friday morning to get my windows covered. When done each day I was exhausted. Later on I realized that I did the equivalent of a good carpenter's day's work and it had worn me out. Makes me appreciate how hard they work and that I stayed in school and got my degree. I am not saying that there are not lots of hard working people with college educations, but I have always seen my sheepskin as a ticket to avoid back breaking labor for the rest of my life. Anyhow, I got it all done and headed to the Ice House for the inevitable Hurricane Party.

Just like Hurricane Rita three years earlier, Ike was to make landfall sometime late on a Friday or early Saturday. This is the perfect scenario for an impromptu party at the West Alabama Ice House just a few blocks away. I remembered how much fun the Rita party was and looked forward to the Ike party. It did not disappoint! There is something about the impending doom of a hurricane that brings out the party animals, especially the foxes (if you know what I mean).

During the Blow

The Ice House party ended around 8PM and I headed home to wait out the storm. I watched TV until 10:30PM when the wind came up just enough to knock out my electricity. I headed up to bed to try to sleep through most of it. By 5:00AM Saturday morning the wind was howling and the house shaking enough to make any more sleep impossible. I got up and hooked up my generator to my refrigerator, TV and a box fan and cranked it up. It started with just one or two pulls (just like in the video). The final item to connect was the coffee pot... gotta have coffee in the AM no matter what. I sat down on my couch and clicked on the TV to see the soon-to-be endless local reporting on the hurricane. My satellite dish was out but I was able to get an over-the-air, albeit weak, signal on a small set of rabbit ears. Digital TV is much different from old analog. Instead of a snowy, rolling image when the signal is weak you get a jerky, pixelated one with broken-up audio. Fortunately most local stations were simulcasting on the radio as well. That audio was clear although completely out of sync with the picture.

As I sat there staring at the TV's pixelated images and listening to the out-of-sync audio I realized that the storm had not gone west of us as predicted. Instead it had moved slightly to the east and we were not getting the south-easterly winds from the so-called "dirty" side but northerly winds from the western side. This meant the wind was blowing directly against my sliding glass doors and windows facing north towards my pool. And I was sitting right in front of them. For some odd reason though, I felt fairly safe if not a little nervous (which might be from all that strong coffee). The wind did not really die down until near noon although my power came back on at 7:30AM. Go figure.

I continued to run my generator just to be sure the power was on for good and to gauge how long it would run on a tank of gas. It turns out that my original estimates were about right that a tank of gas (about 2-1/2 gallons) would run the fridge, TV and fan for about 8 hours. With 20 gallons of gas on hand that meant I could have run continuously for about 3 days. Of course, I could stretch that out by cycling it on and off throughout the day. Since my electricity came back so quickly I was able to do a mitzvah and loan my geny to my bookkeeper and her hubby who were still powerless in Midtown.

After the Blow

As I mentioned at the top of this rant, I came out pretty much unscathed. I had no significant damage other than some lost tree limbs and a pool full of same. Some of my neighbors did not fare as well. There were quite a few felled trees on my street and in the nearby neighborhoods. I (unlike many others) have not ventured out in my car to peruse any other parts of town. I prefer not to clog up the works and let the media bring it all to me. Anyway, I did all that sort of thing back in 1965 in New Orleans while riding out Hurricane Betsy at Tulane. As chief photographer for the student newspaper I ventured out at the peak of the storm when the winds were so strong that you could lean into them and not fall over. It was not until the next day that I realized how stupid I was when I saw a finger-long shard of glass embedded in a palm tree on campus.

So, I have weathered three major hurricanes in my lifetime: Betsy, Alicia and Ike. Here's hoping that "three's the charm"! At least for me.

Postscript

Among the many sad things that have happened as a result of Hurricane Ike I want to mention two that I think are particularly poignant, one here in Houston and the other in Galveston:

A fire that started in Brennan's Restaurant early Saturday morning burned that 40+ year old venue to the ground. Many considered the Houston Brennan's to be the best of all the Brennan Family eateries including the original in New Orleans. You can see a video I made at the restaurant during its 40th Anniversary Party here. Another tragic loss was the Balinese Room nightclub in Galveston which was completely destroyed. You may remember this place from the ZZ Top lyric "Everybody knows, it was down at the Balinese!"

And Finally...

Much of Houston is still without electricity tonight and therefore air conditioning. Fortunately for them Mother Nature has provided a gift. Today a cool front came in and brought much cooler and drier weather with the high temps in the 70's to low 80's. This will make life in Houston and the cleanup after Ike much more bearable.