Westside Houston Reporting In

[waltappel 1]

It's 11:15pm local time here on the west side of Houston. Winds are pretty gusty and there are a few sprinkles, but nothing significant going on.

Power, cable, and water are ok here.

Walt

[sinker 0]

glad you're ok, hope things continue as is... keep us all posted. good luck man.

-the artist formerly known as sinker

[skydivermom 0]

HUGE sigh of relief! I'm so glad it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The armadillos and raccoons okay as well?

Mrs. WaltAppel

All things work together for good to them that love God...Romans 8:28

[waltappel 1]

We lost power about 12:15am and it just came back on about 3:00pm.

Overall, I'd say Rita was almost a non-event here. Lots of wind, but very little rain.

I'm sure the critters are ok. I'll be checking on them tonight.

Everyone else ok?

Walt

[masterrig 1]

Quote

We lost power about 12:15am and it just came back on about 3:00pm.

Overall, I'd say Rita was almost a non-event here. Lots of wind, but very little rain.

I'm sure the critters are ok. I'll be checking on them tonight.

Everyone else ok?

Walt

___________________________________

Good news, Walt! Glad to hear you are in good shape over there. My sister-in-law and her husband are here from your part of Houston. Took 'em 19-hrs. to get from their house to Austin, the other day. Keep us posted!


Chuck

[JohnRich 4]

Saturday, 9:00 AM, northwest Houston:

I dodged the bullet! Or I should say, the bullet dodged me. The
hurricane hit land an hour and a half drive to the east, smacking Beaumont, TX, instead of Houston. We have wind gusts to 50 mph, and that's it. It hardly even rained much. The only visible effect is leaf debris all over the ground. It looks like all the fragile tips of tree limbs were knocked off, and there are thousands of little sprigs of leaves all over the ground. My morning squirrels hopped onto the roof as usual and skittered across, so they're okay. My crystal ball shows some leaf-raking in my near future. The power went off at 3:30 AM according to my flashing clocks, but I never noticed it in my sleep, and I awoke to a comfortable air-conditioned house. The lights are still flickering frequently, but that doesn't seem to affect this computer. Woohoo! And Rita is now past us horizontally, so things will only get better from here on out.

Skydiving tomorrow, maybe?

* * *

Copy of a message from a friend in Galveston:

I stayed on GALVESTON Island with a skeleton crew of other EMS volunteers and Firemen/Police Officers. We actually had a pretty good time. Stayed on the Seawall in a hotel - I was on 6 th floor, so had a birds-eye view of the big EVENT.

Winds reached about 90 mph (Max) with 15' waves hitting the Seawall. Unfortunately I was on duty and could not do any surfing (besides PD was arresting anyone caught tryin to sneek into the water - not a resume enhancer). Sigh!!! - another missed op for some bitchin surfin. KAWABUNAGA

Only ran about 13 ambulance calls in the 36 hr build up to the storm - mostly cause everyone evacuated. Had a probable Tornado strike on a 3 story building down on the Strand (downtown) - it collapsed about 1/2 the building into rubble --- COOL. Also had a fire - probably set by a crack whore (who ended up getting burned - payback is a bitch) which destroyed an abandoned building. Otherwise all the calls were BS as usual.

This is my 5th hurricane (I have been in 3 other "Canes" and 1 Typhoon). It was about medium in intensity and power.

Attached: photo of partially collapsed building

* * *

Come on home everyone. Things are good here in Houston!

[freakyrat 1]

Walt

Conroe Here. We just got Power back. My rig is going to be out of date but I'm working several weekends and I think I find some time to get it repacked.
Glad you are safe and sound.

Chris

[Beerlight 0]

Any word on the Clear Lake area? Specifically, JSC and down toward Webster? I'm in Austin and have been told to return on Tuesday, but if they don't have power yet, screw em....

over,

Buck

[wmw999 2,589]

I came home this morning to Clear Lake, before the mayor suggested Tuesday. We seem to have lost power for a VERY short time (i.e. the clock was flashing, but the ice was still not just frozen, but the cubes were all separate). Worst damage I saw was about 20' of fence down at the end of the street.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Beerlight 0]

Thanks Wendy. My manager called today, said to return (if able) to work on Tuesday or Wednesday. So, Wednesday it is.........

[bluheelrtx 0]

Quote

Thanks Wendy. My manager called today, said to return (if able) to work on Tuesday or Wednesday. So, Wednesday it is.........

Grr!!

I'm just pissed because I scheduled vacation for all of next week and you guys are going to get half of it for FREE!!!

Oh well. At least I got Thursday and Friday to skip work and prepare my house. I've been meaning to clean up the place anyway...I just wish I had gotten some rain. My tadpoles are gettin' thirsty!
--
Jason
--

--
Jason
--
Some people never go crazy. What truly boring lives they must lead.

[jdhill 0]

The picture you atached is of Yegas, a somewhat popular resturant/bar in Galveston... had lunch there a few months ago... service sucked, but it wasn't *that* bad...

J

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

[ACMESkydiver 0]

Quote

We lost power about 12:15am and it just came back on about 3:00pm.

Overall, I'd say Rita was almost a non-event here. Lots of wind, but very little rain.

I'm sure the critters are ok. I'll be checking on them tonight.

Everyone else ok?

Good to hear.
Walt

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[JohnRich 4]

Sunday, northwest Houston, 24 hours after Rita landfall:

I awoke to blue skies and no wind, so the first thing in my mind was "skydiving"! I called Skydive Houston to see if the plane has returned, or will be returning from, its safe haven to the north. No answer. I tried the 1-800 number. No answer. Drat!

So Plan-B was to go for a hike somewhere just to get out of the house. I'm going stir crazy after being inside for three days straight. I was so bored I even cleaned house from top to bottom, including the shower stall. Blech!

So the first event was to find gasoline and top off the tank. Traveling some major roads, only about one in ten stations was open with gas. Most of the ones that are empty have removed the price numbers from their signs as a cue, so you just see big blank spots where the prices are normally posted. Some stations are confusing though, because they've left the prices up, but don't have gas. Others only put little bags over the fuel nozzles. At the first station with gas which I stopped at, the line was only three to four deep - not bad, I thought. But something was amiss with the pumps. The numbers were turning, but verrrry slowly. It took about one minute per gallon of gas, according to my timing. Since I was third in line, I estimated I would still be there half-an-hour. So I departed to look for another station. A few miles later the next station with gas only had lines two deep, and the pumps were working normally. The only annoyance there was a pay-in-advance policy, with a long line inside the store to the counter. So that slows things down quite a bit. That means that about 50% of the time spent parked at the pump, there is no gas being pumped.

About the same ratio of restaurants were open. The ones that were open, were doing a brisk business.

So now I'm fat on gas, and fat on food, and head west for a hiking ground along the Brazos River. The I-10 freeway is wide open for traffic coming back into town from the west - no backups. The roadside rest stops are piled full of trash, with trash so deep it has almost buried the trash cans. Apparently there were quite a few people taking brief refuge there, far more than normal. The other thing I noticed was a large number of cars abandoned on the side of the highway, presumably out of gas. About three to five per mile. The highway patrol, with nothing better to do in a hurricane disaster, has dutifully place red warning stickers on their windows giving 48 hours to retrieve their cars, or be towed. That's very nice of them to enforce that law rigidly at a time like this. Oh Governor: How about a suspension of that law during disasters?

Hiked one location, hacking my way through the woods with a machete for about a mile. Saw nothing of interest. Encountered a billion giant spiders. Walked into one web that I didn't see in time to avoid, and a few seconds later felt the giant spider on the back of my neck. I screamed like a girl and flicked it off. Drove to a 2nd location, repeated everything, minus the spider scream. Saw a snake, black and fat, which got away before I could catch him.

Drove to the drop zone to see what was happening. The Otter had not returned yet, but the weather was perfectly jumpable. No one was hanging out there. The building was locked. I noticed that the outside tents had been taken down to protect them from high wind damage. All trees looked intact, and no damage was visible anywhere.

Returned home, and spent about two hours raking leaves and sticks out of the yard, knocked down by 50 mph wind, filling seven large lawn bags. You would think with all that twig debris my trees would look nude, but they look just the same as before. Turned the lawn sprinkler on. I had put the lawn watering off last week, because I figured the lawn would get plenty of rain from the hurricane. But Rita provided hardly a drizzle. So mechanical watering is in progress.

Sat down at the computer and typed this letter. I'm tired.

Big fat pork chop thawing out for dinner, with cornbread stuffing and mashed taters. Yumm.

My big whirlpool tub was filled with water for emergency use if the water plumbing went bad. Now I'm thinking that's a very inviting cooling-off tub for a bath to remove the day's grime and sweat. That would be a good use for it, since it was just going to get poured down the drain anyway.

Life is returning to normal. Hopefully the gasoline crunch will be straightened out in a few days. But this makes you realize how much we live "on the edge" with our gasoline production and distribution systems. It only took everyone topping off their tanks all in the same day to throw the system into utter chaos...

[Beerlight 0]

Hey John,

I'm planning my return to the Clear Lake area on Tuesday from Austin. About about an update on I-10 back into Houston? I'm doing the staggered return just like they asked........

Buck

[JohnRich 4]

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I'm planning my return to the Clear Lake area on Tuesday from Austin. About about an update on I-10 back into Houston? I'm doing the staggered return just like they asked...

You're such an obedient little servant. I don't think anyone else is paying attention to that plan. Just come home when you are ready.

I-10 west of Houston was light traffic yesterday. Rush hour traffic was exceedingly light this morning. My normal 45 minute commute only took about 25 minutes. I think you would be clear to come back with no problems.

But I recommend topping off your gas tank outside of Houston when you can. Once you're back in town, getting gas is still a pain in the ass.

[JohnRich 4]

Adding several details to my report from yesterday. Some sections of the wooden fencing around the subdivision are blown down. Apparently the 4"x4" posts were partially rotted out at ground level, and when a 50 mph wind load was applied, they snapped off. Several sections about 100 yards long are laying on the ground.

The 24-hour Wal-mart grocery store I usually shop at was closed this morning. There were several people waiting outside the door, like they expected it to open soon. But there was no sign to that effect. So I departed.

I wish I could get pictures of these goodies to share, but my digital camera has been in the repair shop for several weeks. Bad timing!

[Beerlight 0]

heehee, yep i follow orders! Guess it's the military still in me, plus I'm enjoying my paid for vacation courtesy of Rita here in Austin!! It's been tons of fun and just hope my boss doesn't read dizzy.com!

BTW, just topped off my tank here in Austin this morning at HEB, $2.59 a gallon.....

Thanks for the update John and any future updates.....

Buck

[waltappel 1]

Here is a link to Houston TranStar data:

clicky

Walt

[4WayXena 0]

Clear Lake reporting in, too :^)

Not much happened here. Section of fence blew down in the backyard. Our asshole neighbors behind us didn't even bother to pick up their toys before they skipped town. Had the storm been actually hurricane level around here, their gas grill would have wound up in my dining room!

So now I'm battling this strange mild flu-like virus the gf brought back from her cruise in Italy. She got here just in time for us to pack up and leave ahead of the hurricane.

We apparently didn't lose power thru the storm. The clocks were all fine and the ice slivers in the bottom of the cube tray hadn't melted.

I'm going to hack up part of my lungs, take a short nap then get on my weekly con-call.

Congratulations Houston! Dodged another one!

[Sopheavy 0]

Southwest/Sugarland reporting in too…..
No damages except for a few broken branches.

Thursday early morning around 6ish my family and I packed up and drove to the Woodlands to stay with some relatives.

Spent 7 hours on the road and that was taking all the shortcuts and backroads!!!!!!!!!!! My poor brother and his girlfriend who didn’t plan on evacuvating did but spent over 24 hours on the road to College Station. He has 5 dogs (two do not get along with each other) and 2 cats…..him and his silly girlfriend thought it was fun going through all of that, driving without a/c nonstop in bottle neck traffic and running out of gas.

Well anyway, we came back home Saturday afternoon because our relatives we were staying with didn’t have electricity. I sure pigged out though because my aunt kept on cooking and cooking like crazy. It was far better than eating out at a restaurant those past couple of days.

I actually had fun except for traffic and getting sad over all of the stuff at home that I thought I was going to lose while packing....and of course getting gas last Wednesday!

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If you want to see the rainbow, you gotta put up with the storm. God bless! :)

[Rebecca 0]

Crazy though it may be, the thought of losing all my stuff was actually intriguing. I've got insurance. It'd be like cashing in my crap for replacement value and being free as a bird.

Have toothbrush, will travel.

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[JohnRich 4]

Post-hurricane report, Tuesday, four days after landfall, west Houston:

Morning commute encountered very light traffic again. Many people apparently have not returned to work yet. Even the I-610 Loop West was very sparse and traveling at the speed limit - and that never happens during rush hour. It's usually a parking lot. Wow.

Drove about 70 miles around the west side during work. Saw two trees down, but both had already been chainsawed and cleared out of the roadway. There was one traffic light that had been blown off it's perch and was lying in the road still attached to a wire. Barricades were placed around it to keep traffic from running into it, until a crew can fix it.

Gas is returning. Probably about 75% of gas stations are now pumping again, with no lines. And the price has not skyrocketed. Fuel still starts at about $2.70/gallon.

Some businesses are still closed. Most of those have signs saying they'll re-open Wednesday.

The grocery store was a different matter. At least it was open. Things that were unavailable: bottled tea in the soda section, and eggs. (Do chickens quit laying eggs in a hurricane?) Things in short supply: bread products - no burger buns, no muffins, etc; canned goods like beef stew, some fresh veggies, fresh bakery goods, snacks like peanuts. Vendors are busily restocking the shelves with their products.

Mail arrived today for the first time in five days. But only two pieces. I have a feeling there is still a ton of mail backlogged somewhere. So much for that old saying about; "Neither rain nor sleet, nor dark of night, will stop a postman from making his appointed rounds".

Still awaiting trash pickup, with none in a week. There are yard debris bags stacked up everywhere.

End report.

[Rebecca 0]

There's no gatorade to be had either.

Quote

"Neither rain nor sleet, nor dark of night, will stop a postman from making his appointed rounds".

I'm gonna have to start a new thread about this. Could someone please explain to me why mail carriers no longer seem required to read the addresses on the mail they deliver?

Out of 10 pieces of mail in my labeled mailbox, 2 are actually for us, 2 for our neighbors (whose adjacent mailboxes also have their names posted), 4 for people who haven't lived there in well over a year and a half if ever, and 2 pieces of junk.

They don't even read the names!!!

you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk?

[bluheelrtx 0]

Quote

Could someone please explain to me why mail carriers no longer seem required to read the addresses on the mail they deliver?

Easy. They are no longer required to be
able to read.

I think it is more of a Houston thing. I have never in my life had as much mis-delivered mail as I have since moving to Harris county.

Why couldn't Rita have hit Houston and moved it's losers to Arkansas?!
--
Jason
--

--
Jason
--
Some people never go crazy. What truly boring lives they must lead.