Life after Ike

Imagine 2 hours to get gasoline, then another hour or 2 for some food and ice?

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s life in many parts of Houston after Ike!

 

This relief station is in Nassau Bay near Clear Lake. It was an evacuated zip code area.

Many homes without power now suffered only minor damage and people are back in them trying to get by.

 

Homes closest to the water are heavily damaged and unlivable.

People at this condo complex have been given 48 hours to salvage what they can and leave indefinately.

The place has shattered walls and boats littering the parking lot. Ike will not be quickly forgotten here.

 

Ike Goes Downtown

The tallest building in Texas was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike. The 75 story Chase Tower is one of many downtown buildings to be hit.

Glass, window shades, office furniture and computers flew to the street. Important documents blew out of offices. Much of downtown Houston is closed as glass continues to fall.

Downtown Houston has underground power lines. It is one of the few parts of the city with electricity now. Power companies say it will take weeks to restore power everywhere. Houston was not devastated but was seriously wounded by Ike.

 

Ike Kicks Houston

Hurricane Ike ripped up the Hilton Hotel on Clear Lake. Here are some damage pictures.

 

Huge panels were stripped off the front. The lobby ceiling colapsed and it was like a wind tunnel, with debris racing out the front door.

Beside the hotel, storm surge pushed Clear Lake high over its normal banks. A parking Garage flooded and a boat washed in what was a parking lot.

 

Storm surge and heavy winds leave Houston with MANY problems today.

 

Ike Is Rolling In

The outer bands of Ike have arrived at the area around the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

We’re hunkered down at the Hilton Hotel here beside Clear Lake.

It’s a strong building.

 

 

 

But part of a wall has already ripped off one side.

 

The wind and rain off the lake are blinding. It’s impossible to stand out there in the open.

 

Before it got this bad we drove around a bit.

 

Power is out in many places.

 

The roads are absolutely empty as they should be. It appears most people in this area took the advice to evacuate.

But officials are saying up to 90,000 people in evacuation areas did not. God help them.

More later from Houston.

 

 

Ike’s Water Arrives

2:30pm. The first rain showers reach Clear Lake in the Houston area.

They fall on a lake already rising high from the effects of Hurricane Ike.

Clear Lake is a branch of Galveston Bay.

A storm surge of perhaps 20 feet is expected up the bay.

 

Low lying areas around it are among the mandatory evacuation zones.

Very few people are around. But several jet skiers are still there riding the waves.

Evidently some people have not left.

Officials say those who stay do so at their own risk.

 

 

Ike Evacuation Traffic

Traffic in Houston is terrible today, in certain directions.

People are flowing away from the 8 Harris County zip codes where officials ordered mandatory evacuation.

They are also leaving Galveston.

This picture shows the heavy westbound traffic on South Beltway 8 Sam Houston Tollway between I-45 and 288.

 

These pictures are I-45 leaving Galveston.

All of Galveston Island is ordered to evacuate.

But Contraflow lanes are not open on the Houston freeways.

 

 

 

 

Houston officials are asking people who have not been ordered to evacuate to STAY in their homes, prepare for a hurricane and stay off the highway.

 

Ike Price Gouging?

On US 59, a key evacuation route out of Houston we watched employees raising the gas prices on this sign!

The gas station is near Hungerford, Texas and it was quite busy.

The clerk at the counter told me the price for regular was $3.70 a gallon this morning. It’s $3.99 now.

The clerk told me the employees just did what the boss told them to do.

I asked to speak to the boss but she said he was not there.

Several customers outside were really steamed about the price increase which they watched, too.

One family leaving the coast with 3 pets, 2 vehicles and an RV trailer said they would go somewhere else to buy more gas. They said the price in their home town of Sargent, Texas in Matagorda County was just $3.65 yesterday.

The Texas Attorney General takes complaints about price gouging and there are big penalties. The family from Sargent said they plan to file one.

 

Chasing Ike

Hurricane chasing is a story of contrasts.  One day it looks like one city will take the brunt.  The next it could be another town on the collision course.  So it is with Ike.  Early Wednesday Corpus Christi seemed to be ground zero.  Big C-130 Medivac planes were at the Corpus Christi International Airport preparing to receive ambulances and patients from hospitals for airlift out of the danger zone.  The planes moved to Sholes Field in Galveston on Wednesday night.  Now it looks like Ike could be the Houston-Galveston area’s worst nightmare.  Freeport could receive the eye of the storm.  It would track north right through the heart of Houston.  And the strongest winds on the east side of the eye would push a surge of up to 15 feet right up Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel.  Photographer Mike Heimbuch and I were in Corpus Christi Wednesday night.  We’re on the way to Houston now.   Corpus Christi is not all clear yet.  But Thursday looks much brighter in Corpus.  Meanwhile, the Houston area has ordered mandatory evacuation of low lying counties.

 

MOTORCYCLE MAYHEM?

How many times have you been on the freeway and seen motorcycles racing around.  You say to yourself; ‘those riders are going to get killed!’  It seems that’s just what happened to two young men from Tarrant County Thursday night.

Derek Smith of Bedford and Robert Bradley Wright of North Richland Hills were both 18 years old.  Both graduated in May from L.D. Bell High School in Hurst.  Their former principal says both were fine young men, well known and well liked in school. 

Irving Police say they were riding their motorcycles on the southbound Highway 161overpass to westbound Highway 183 around 10:30pm Thursday.  One of the riders hit the concrete wall on the curve.  He was ejected and fell off the bridge.  The second one hit the first motorcycle, was also ejected and thrown over the bridge.  Police say they were going too fast.

  

Another rider who was out Thursday night took video of a pack of riders.  His pictures show other riders doing tricks.  He says the pack was part of an even larger group of riders that left a Grapevine restaurant where a radio station had staged a promotional event.

The rider who took the video tells me the two accident victims wove through his pack and sped ahead of the others.  He says the pack eventually caught up to their motorcycles on the 161 bridge.  He says the other riders did not see the victims and did not know what happened to them.

Friends gathered at the bridge Friday afternoon to post a memorial to the two young men.  Very sad.

 

Streets or Cops?

Dallas promises 200 more police officers in the new city budget to fight crime.  To pay for it without a property tax rate hike, the city manager is making cuts elsewhere.  Street repair is one reduction.

Small concrete reconstruction work that does not require outside contractors would be greatly reduced along with deep asphalt repair.  This is the kind of stuff city employees do themselves that’s more than just pothole patching.  A total of $4.2 million would be eliminated.  The city has tried to increase street repair money the past few years to improve the lousy condition of many Dallas streets.

They say the city will keep patching potholes as it has been doing.   But it seems there could soon be more potholes to patch.   City officials claim even with the reduction they will still be improving the condition of Dallas streets, just not as quickly.

While considering this reduction Wednesday, Dallas CIty Councilmembers complained the city should at least do a better job of looking after the private contractors who cut into perfectly good streets for utility work.  Utility cuts often lead to bigger problems later if they are not properly patched. 

In central Dallas where there is so much new redevelopment, it sure seems like the streets are always being torn up for one reason or another!  What do you think about Dallas streets???