2008-09-12
Ike and newsreporters
As you know I am from Texas. I currently live in the burbs of Dallas, but I was born in Beaumont, have family all in Houston and East Texas. I say this because every area including Dallas will be affected by this incoming hurricane. So you do the usual phone calls to figure out, who got out and who decided to stay. Some didn't get a choice those in the golden triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, etc., and I must say since I mentioned PA, R.I.P. Pimp C) as they were faced with mandatory evacuations. Those people who decided to hunker down are under mandatory curfews, so no one is roaming the streets. Most businesses were closed today, and the grocery stores shut down early, and those stores that did stay open were out of EVERYTHING. My husband's grandmother explained to me today that she couldn't get any bread. She even went to the convenience store thinking no one else thought to go there. There will be no pizza delivery or chinese food delivery at their house this weekend, and with the way things are looking, not until early or mid week. Hopefully the media has hyped this up. I did find it funny that she called us concerned about our well being. We will just be getting a measly tropical storm, if that. More than likely just a tropical depression. They are the old folks about to get hit with the eye of an at minimal category 2 hurricane, and she is concerned about us. The good thing I can say about hurricanes is that I have only been in one, and those I know that have been in them, have always been able to survive them with minimal damage. You always hear the stories about people dying in basements trying to escape the rising waters, but never does this ever happen to anyone I ever know.
I know that the news coverage is working my nerves. I am trying to figure out why reporters flock to the danger and then try to find the most horrible place to report. I saw a reporter almost get swept away by the Gulf of Mexico thinking it would be wise to show great footage of the ocean and the huge waves. The pier was rocking underneath his feet and part of the railing broke away. We know it is a hurricane, we know it is bad, we will just take your word for it how hard it is.
The beauty of living in Texas is that the weather is very volatile. I have been in hurricanes, floods, tornados, hail storms, dust storms, sleet, and snow. We get 15 degree weather up to 113 degree weather. I remember once having snow on the same day in which it got up to 70 degrees. Where else in the world can you experience it all!!!!! Except an earthquake, I don't know if I can deal with an earthquake.
::update power is out, but the cell phones are working in South Houston. No power, no phone, no cell phone reception in Galveston::
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18 comments:
I hope your folks that are going to catch most of the ugliness of the storm are and will be ok.
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"Where else in the world can you experience it all!!!!!"
Nevada...'cept we got earthquakes instead of hurricanes. I thought I'd left earthquakes behind in my home state of CA, but nooooo: a couple months ago we were having them in town (centered in the snooty neighborhood) at a rate of about 300 a day. It made me a lot of money, but eff that.
The temperature ranges from sub-zero to 120+. It's been known to snow here when it's been 85 degrees out the same morning and as late as the 4th of July and into August (f you start counting from the fall from the year before when the snow season actually started. It snows in Vegas every couple of years, more often in the rest of the state. Sleet and hail comes with that.
Dust storms are fairly common. They're trying to use some of the high desert areas in the state for windpower. In the major cities, the wind comes through the pass that links northern CA with norther NV along I-80 and through the Mojave from CA. Even without dust, the wind can be awful. A storm kicked up during my second year here and was so bad we thought it was going to tear off the roof of my friend's house. Some of her neighbors weren't as fortunate. When it was calmer (slightly), we found a Tuff Shed that'd been picked up out of someone's back yard and dropped in to an intersection.
Floods happen irrespective of the season: in the south, it's from monsoon rains; in the north, it happens when the snowpack melts too fast and the river swells. The arrow is pointing to the very top of the bridge where you drive over it: here. If my college wasn't on a hill, a lot of that would've been underwater too. There was so much water it filled an old quarry and made a marina almost 6 miles away.
I don't think tornadoes are too common here. I've seen funnel clouds form and touchdown in Vegas --the bastards wouldn't let us off the school bus and back in to the building--and there are a lot of warnings during the summer for the middle and norther part of the state. From what I found, the recorded tornadoes in the state have only been F0-F1. They're not nearly as bad as the one I was in as a little kid visiting family in Arkansas.
How about you trade me your hurricane for my quakes? I can sleep through something like that, but not the ground shaking and my building sounding like it's going to come down like a jenga pile. I'd decided in kindergarten that I had enough of that when Loma Prieta interrupted my A's and the World Series.
I was frantically calling my best friend down in Houston to make sure she was ok because I'd heard they were telling people to leave there. She said that she was ok, so that was a relief.
I'm praying for all you Texans.
Were on the outskirts of a typhoon here. We usually get hit with five or six every year. The people here have been living with typhoons for thousands of years so its no big thing here. every building is made out of two feet reinforced concrete. exposed windows are usually barred. Its just a part of life here. I look forward to them actually. kinda like a snow day here.
No earthquakes, and you can't sleep through a hurricane or tornado at all. 110 mile per hour winds are not quiet and you can usually hear debris hit your house.
I used to live in tornado alley here in Texas. We usually got three or four small ones, but ypu might get an F3 on occasion. When a tornado direct hits your house, you ain't sleeping through that either, it sounds like a train is right in your ear. It is weird it is like complete silence and then a huge wall of sound. Plus you usually get sirens and run to your closet or other windowless room and sit on the floor.
I lived in Florida 3yrs ago and I ran from one hurricane. It took me 14hrs to drive back to Indiana when it normally took 8hrs. The millions evacuating was crazy.
A month later? Another hurricane, and I decided to stay. Yup, I decided to stay and ride it out. Unfortunately, it was Katrina, the worst in history. I lived in Pensacola, and for days we didn't know where it was gonna hit, and it was scary.
We made it thru with minimal flooding, and a couple tornados. I was able to volunteer at a shelter helping evacuees, and it really touched my heart. It was after that katrina episode that I decided that Florida wasn't for me, so I moved. I had moved there only 8 months prior, but after seeing people fighting for gas, and having the police regulate gas stations, and the heat from not having any electricity...I bounced real quick.
I hope your family will be okay.
I have cousins in Dallas and Houston. I should call them.
xxx
thanks Diane I appreciate it, as of 4:30 this morning we now the grandparents got flooding, but are ok. Most of my family appears to be heard from and accounted for, but it hasn't reached everyone yet. The electricity is out in Houston, but they hope to have most of it back in the next few days
Hang tight, siditty. I know mere weather can't defeat YOU!
Sid sd:
"I know that the news coverage is working my nerves. I am trying to figure out why reporters flock to the danger and then try to find the most horrible place to report. I saw a reporter almost get swept away by the Gulf of Mexico thinking it would be wise to show great footage of the ocean and the huge waves. The pier was rocking underneath his feet and part of the railing broke away. We know it is a hurricane, we know it is bad, we will just take your word for it how hard it is."
This is so true. I always wonder why they have to put themselves in danger just to get a good picture of how bad the weather is.
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I hope you and your loved ones are doing alright.
I am in Dallas(North)n as well. My mom has called me a million times and so has the rest of my family.
They just here Texas and hurricane and think I am floating down a river.
I am glad it's not raining and I hope we miss the brunt on it.
I live in Collin County, north of Plano east of 75 and we have gotten rain all day, but nothing too bad.
I hope everything is good with your family & friends re Ike.
SuperJV,
Thanks, so far everyone is fine, of course the people we are most concerned with currently have no power and their phone reception is minimal. But we have had intermittent contact and they seem just fine.
glad to hear everything is OK. Sounds like Houston is not doing so well.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGf3chRuNbuU&refer=worldwide
Cell phone reception still blows and there is much frantic texting going on especially if you don't have power. Mine thankfully came back on at 11am Sunday.
I don't want to see another one of those ever.
my family got hit by the hurricane. the house is flooded (as per my sis who finally got my dad on the phone). i haven't gotten ahold of anyone in 2 days.
-sitting on pins and needles, CA.
I thought the news coverage was crazy too. I wonder if news reporters get paid extra for reporting from dangerous areas.
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