last night i got home and had no power, so around 12:30am i decided to see if i could find some place to get something to eat, or maybe get a cold drink. i ended up driving from shepherd down westheimer all the way to fondren, took fondren to richmond, then richmond all the way back to shepherd. there were very few places that had power along the way, so most of the traffic lights and street lights were out too. one of the only places that had a bunch of people was a cajun place at the railroad tracks on richmond, and it was full of cop cars. if i liked cajun food i might have stopped, but i also wondered if it was being used as a rally point for the police. (or maybe the cops just all knew it was one of the only places open.) i got back home around 1:30am.
i spent the night on the porch. it was a little warm and there was no wind, but then sometime in the middle of the night i was awakened by a downpour. that cooled things down. except it kept raining. today there’s been flooding around town because of all of the rain last night. i got up at some point this morning and slept on the bed some. it should be cooler tonight though, and probably no rain. that will help all of the people without power.
i got up around 10:30am and decided to walk around. i walked probably around 20 blocks or so. i only saw about 3 places that were open (a couple of convenience stores, and a mexican food restaurant i don’t like). when i got back home, i grabbed a cigar and a book and sat outside and smoked and read for awhile. while i was out there, i talked with a couple of guys cleaning the yard across the street. it turns out one of them owns an old car, works at nasa, and grew up in san angelo. that was kind of cool.
i drove into work around 12:30pm today. (which is how i am able to post this.) i needed to take care of some work-related stuff, which i couldn’t do from home since i don’t have power. i also needed to charge some electronics. and i wanted to have the chance to eat something warm. there were a lot of lines at gas stations that had power and were open. fortunately, i had filled the tanks on all three of my vehicles, so i should be good for awhile.
houston has instituted a curfew at 9pm, so i’ll probably head home and hang out at home again tonight. i may see if i can find some place to get a warm meal before i lock myself away for the evening.
I’m going to play journalist for a minute. What’s your feel for the level of damage in Houston? The inflammatory headlines seem to largely talk about Galveston and places well east of Houston. The biggest thing they can find to write about, other than the power outage, is the JP Morgan Chase tower that had its windows blown out — on only one side near as I can tell. So there is power out, some flooding, and a fair amount of trees down. Does it seem really bad? Or is it something that some electricity, chainsaws and shop-vacs can cure fairly quickly?
Some of the assinine statements I found that were made by locals interviewed by the press include comparing the above JP Morgan Chase tower to ground zero and making Ike out as worse than Katrina because they can’t get gas.
I imagine that it’s going to get real unpleasant once it starts to get hot again — if it hasn’t already. Good luck with it all and I’m happy that the branch down in front of your house was not on top of your truck.