This is a running blog entry on Hurricane Ike:
1) At 7:52pm September 12th, KHOU-TV channel 11 news reporter Jeremy Desel and another reporter staying at the San Luis Hotel reported that the power at the hotel just went down. The other reporter was more dramatic. From his fourth floor vantage, he said that all of Galveston lost power at once. All he could see was a single police car. The Galveston emergency management center is in Dickenson, ergo they are still operational.
2) Channel 11 news reports 150,000 people have lost power.
3) The Houston Chronicle reporter Eric Berger, "the Sci Guy", reports that Ike is to make landfall at midnight. The winds are starting to gust up in my courtyard.
4) Update 11:00pm. I am watching CNN. A reporter in La Porte says that there are no lights there, but I saw a refinery that is still lit up like the sky. I went outside and found that there were some people in the complex next door having drinks outside. It was a scene of festivities. I left after about 20 minutes. Debris is starting to fall off of trees along our street. I piled them up on the medians. I doubt that some of the palm trees that are planted are going to survive the night.
The rain is starting to come down.
5) 11:35pm. I am surfing the television channels right now, ergo of course I still have power. Texas Governor Rick Perry tells CNBC news that Ike could be a storm that causes $100 billion in damages. Pardon my French, but that is horseshit.
6) 12:35am. The winds have substantially increased. I am watching the Weather Channel. They are showing steady winds in Houston of 45+ miles per hour, with gusts of up to 70 miles per hour. The Weather Channel reporters stated that in Port Arthur, the Port Arthur Fire Department evacuated the town! So much for government to help you when you need it.
7) The Houston Chronicle interactive tracker says that as of 12:00am, Ike is 28.9 north, 94.5 west. Ike is 80 miles away from Houston. Movement is northwest at 12 mph. The storm is to past east of downtown.
8) We just lost power at 12:42am for about one minute, but just got it back.
9) I finally laid down and got some rest around 1:30am. I awoke at 4:45am and found the lights were out. Amazingly, the lights came back on at 6:00am. It is now 6:10am. The lights have gone out twice now since they first came back on. I have air conditioning and all other mod cons, including a working refrigerator.
If this holds for another 3 hours or so, the Wizard just might make it out of Ike with just a flesh wound.
Sunday, September 14: 6:00pm
I am now writing from the Big Evil Company's offices in downtown Houston. Downtown has underground power lines, ergo the lights do not go out here. No, the Wizard did not escape Ike's wrath. We have been without power since yesterday morning.
I received a call from a Big Evil Oil Company manager asking me to render an opinion on a power and cooling related issue. Since the manager could not relay all the facts to me, I decided to make the drive into downtown Houston. Westheimer was okay except for some blocked lanes from trees, but when I got to San Felipe road inside 610 Loop, I found the street was impassable at San Felipe and Larchmont due to fallen trees and power lines that completely blocked the road. I got out of the car to investigate how bad it was and when I got back to my car, I found a Channel 26 Fox News camera crew waiting by my car. They asked me for an interview, which I granted them. I told them this was my normal commute into work everyday and that I would have to find another way to get to work. I told them to let the authorities know that San Felipe was completely blocked and that some crews would be needed to clear the thoroughfare. Too bad probably 100 other streets had the exact same problem. The residents told me that a tornado may have touched down in River Oaks, causing the problem.
I then got onto 610 Loop and tried to get into downtown via Memorial Drive. I was able to snake my way through Memorial Park, through a bunch of debris, but when I got to Shepherd and Memorial, the entire area was under water and I could go no further. Buffalo Bayou was at the edge of reaching people's homes. I then circled up Westcott and then down Washington Avenue, going back down Durham to West Dallas to get into downtown. Along the way, I stopped to take more photos of Allen Parkway and Memorial. Buffalo Bayou was flooded all the way to the street level of Allen Parkway.
I took care of the work assessement, then wandered around downtown taking photographs of the skyscrapers. The Wedge tower had lots of windows broken out, as did the El Paso and Wells Fargo building. The Big Evil Oil Company office buildings were not too badly harmed, but the windows on the skywalks between the parking garages and the buildings were blown out. Water soaked the carpets. Inside the buildings themselves, there was some damage to floors and to common areas. Debris, paper, and insulation was strewn everywhere. Water puddles were on the floors and in the underground tunnel food courts. A window was busted out on several floors including one in the company cafeteria. The data center itself was fine.
As of this writing, some stores are open. The UPS situation has been generally taken care of. The Big Evil Oil Company offices will be closed Monday and Tuesday. I doubt power will be restored for another few days to my abode. Until then, we in Houston merely have to keep our heads up. Mercifully, Ike has brought cooler weather. Until last week it was still in the 90's during the day time. The forecast now it that it will be in the low 80's during the day with a breeze with lows in the 70's. If it weren't for that, my hometown would be unbearable.
Ciao for now.
Wizard