Thread: Recovery in south Texas

Hello. We live 30 miles north of Houston. Have been without power since 3 am Saturday. Praise God we had minimum damage to home and family and friends are safe.
We have internet service by generator. Also have a private water well, frig and freezer running on generator, so no need for ice and food.
I know most of the world is seeing the devastation, long lines for gas, food, water and ice. The devastation is real. The long lines are the foolish people who did not prepare, as we are always told to do, before the storm hit. The folks who stored up water and NON perishable food do NOT have to wait in long lines. Many homes that are all electric, do not have cooking ability. Camp stoves, gas grills, charcoal and sterno can all be used for heating food, if you are smart enough to have these things and fuel.
The local officials have been GREAT. Working long hours trying to co ordinate relief supplies. People need to learn NOT TO RELY on FEMA to rush to the rescue with plentiful supplies. Gas has been a HUGE problem. No power for the pumps and not enough supply. People using gas generators have a hard time getting fuel. Had they stocked up, filled their tanks and bought supplies a week before the storm, enough to last at least a week, they would be in good shape. Once IKE was predicted to hit Galveston-they stores were packed, long lines for gas and empty stations and camping type supplies were wiped out. I tried to go to Walmart on Thursday before the storm and lines were almost to the rear of the store. There was nothing I needed that bad, so I went back home.
The power around us is being restored. We have much tree damage to the lines and poles in my area, so it may be 1-4 weeks without power. Those who have power restored should help provide water and food to those without. We see this happening in many cases, as generators are loaned out to those who need them.
FEMA is trying, but does not seem well organized. People can not drive miles, wait in line for food, water and ice, with empty gas tanks. They should be giving BLOCKS of ice, instead of 2 bags of crushed ice. Blocks last much longer in an ice chest. Actually, it would make since to provide more NON-PERISHABLE FOOD and water. Many canned foods can be eaten from the can or pouch and do not require cooking. It may not be pleasant, but it will fill your stomach.
So the moral to this story is to provide for yourselves and your loved ones and do not rely on RESCUE from the government. Learn how to survive without power. Take pride in being independent, so you can help those with devastating losses. Those whose homes are gone or uninhabitable. I just could not believe how many people admitted they did NOTHING to prepare. No water filled containers, no non-perishable food. Some of the real dummies are crying about being without food and water for a week--------this is day 5.
Do I think people here will learn and prepare next time? Good question.
I must admit, I did not respect this CAT 2 storm as I should have. The damage is much worse inland than I thought it would be. It was a very scary experience.
That's all for now. We run the generator a few hours on, a few hours off, just to keep fridge and freezer cold, and get a hot shower.

Texan123: Stay Safe; and I am glad to hear from the inside. Let's hope clean up and power and other utilities get totally back soon. Keep us informed. We are watching and listening; to your needs and are helping.

Take Care Texan123

I pray for you and hope the community will pull together to help each other. After Charley hit in 2004 in Florida, I was without power for about two weeks, and one hint: don't open the refrigerator, because the smell of rotting food is enough to make anyone sick. Sewer lift pump stations are not working until the officials bring in generators, so forget about flushing the toilet. Forget about buying any gas as the pumps rely on electric, and forget buying groceries even if stores are open unless you have cash. And ATMs won't work since they also need electric.
When Wilma blew through in 2005, peeling off a section of my roof, I fixed roof, sold the place and headed to NC.
A generator that would have kept power in the house was something I could not haul around with my bad back. Luckily in both instances I escaped to higher ground, but though I knew I was safe, I worried continually about what was happening to the house and could barely sleep.
Here in NC, although I am far enough from the coast to get a direct hit, I still keep a drawer full of emergency supplies, like batteries, canned food, and a barbecue grill, as I hate cold coffee in the morning.
One of my favorite hurricane dishes is a package of lemon-pepper tuna mixed with a can of peas.

Sound like fine dining in hard times.... And hot coffee, man, I had better get more prepared for the no electricity.

I can not say enough about the electric power workers from around the country who are here to help. The loss of power is very widespread. This was a HUGE storm. Several surrounding areas have restored power. If we needed to, we could get water and supplies within 10 miles.
We were able to get gas today without long lines. Some grocery stores have power and some do not. All frozen food is being thrown out. Those folks who depend on microwaves for cooking are having a tough time, without power.
The news reports all seem to focus on the most extreme damage areas. We have noticed several reports from the same debris pile in Galveston. It's like they find the worst damage and report from that site over and over again.
Have not heard much about our county, north of Houston. Montgomery County has a lot of tree/home/power line damage. Trees are on houses and power lines, everywhere.

Pulling the community together was one of the most impressive things I have seen, as the local Baptist church and the emergency officials registered people with tools and things like gas-powered chainsaws and getting enough of those famous Blue Tarps to give away. They had retiree volunteers with nursing and medical experience to administer to those stepping on nails on up. The movie theater and many of the grocery stores on the island, as well as bars and restaurants somehow gathered up grills, to cook everything before the food was spoiled for free to all comers. The Red Cross was patrolling the streets in their food trucks giving away burgers to whomeve needed them.
Churches were even sharing space for their prayers.
The best sign I saw, besides the plywood over the windows with an insurance policy number, was a plywood piece spray painted with "Send beer and ice!"
Hang in there Tex, as I know that you guys have the American spirit to face this horrendous mess.
And yes, the utility guys are fabulous, working hours longer than a normal shift, and sleeping wherever they can--in our case, the Baptist church put them all into the meeting hall.

The relief most appreciated is a cool front which arrived Sunday afternoon. Things would be much worse if we had 100 degree temps and people were slow cooking to death at home. We are truly THANKFUL.
Each day brings some improvement. There are even some things I actually enjoy doing without. The alarm clock for instance
My kids had to think about how to cook frozen pizza on the gas grill and realize that frozen foods take time to thaw without a microwave. All are back to their own homes now. Only one still lacks power. My daughter called 2 days ago, all excited about getting power back. They went grocery shopping to replace cold foods, only to have power go out again.
Cell phones were useless. Even when able to recharge, the connections were very bad. Cordless phones do not work without power. We always keep and old, non electric type for these occasions. We actually have two old phones, but the one with rotary dial does not work well when you are asked to press 2 for English.
Kinda funny to offer a rotary dial phone to a kid who has never seen one.

Thanks for checking in here. I'm glad you are okay. I haven't seen as much news coverage from this storm and didn't realize Houston was also hit pretty hard. It was smart of you to be prepared.

I'm having trouble getting gas for my car here in NC too. Many stations were out of gas yesterday and long lines at the ones that were open so I will try again some time today.

I was told by someone in the oil business that gas supplies are short everywhere. The oil rigs shut down for IKE and take a week or more to restart, even with no damage. The Port of Houston has also been closed and ships are backed up waiting to get in.
Makes you wonder why so many oil refineries are located in hurricane prone, coastal areas.

Makes you wonder why so many oil refineries are located in hurricane prone, coastal areas.

All of which makes me wonder about the drill, drill, drill mantra, especially close in to Fla. which gets smacked by a lot of violent storms, and the hurricanes may lose a little steam crossing the peninsula but once they get back into the Gulf, the always-warm waters will just build them up again to head to the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana and infrequently smacking into Mexico.