Here in Dallas, which is five hours by car from the Texas coast, the wind is starting to pick up. The freeways are jammed, presumably with Ike evacuees. I'm hearing that many, many people who should have evacuated have not. A childhood friend who lives between Houston and Galveston put her family into the car and drove to Louisiana yesterday -- and hers was the only family in her neighborhood that did!
This just came in from a friend who works near the top of the Texas state government:
Just got out of a briefing with the big cheeses in the office -- this thing is looking really bad -- massive property damage and serious loss of life. Pray for the folks along the coast, they need it.
Amen.
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Some people in 2-story concrete structures died in Hurricane Camille, because the whole structure was wiped off its foundations. Maybe the Galveston seawall will lessen the impact enough to keep that from happening. Some of the Camille casualties were having hurricane parties. There's another story on Fox now about some people at a bar in Galveston doing the same thing. I hope it's on the higher end of the area.
On the way home from work, Kai Ryssdal on Marketplace was quoting some expert, saying that Ike will probably cause around $50 billion in damage; in comparison, Katrina was roughly $40 billion. This is gonna be a bad one, folks. At least Galveston has some warning this time, though.
actually, part of the reason is because of Rota fatigue. As I mention in more detail at my blog, I was in the evacuation from Hurricane Rita 4 years ago and that was a massive screwup. Then, Rita was deflected by the hand of God at the last minute and there was only minimal damage. Many people in th eHouston area vowed never to go through that again, and having gone through it myself, I really understand the sentiment - my home in Galveston county lost only two shingles from Rita, we spent a brutal afternoon boarding the house and then a 9 hour drive just to reach Katy (northwest Houston, 60 miles away). Then we had gas, milk, eggs shortages galore for a week to boot.
Rita looms large in everyone's memory. Thats why people arent taking this storm seriously. But I've been telling anyone who'd listen that its more analogous to TS Allison than H Rita - and Allison hit Houston with billions of dollars in flooding damage.
My family and I will pray for those people.
Lord, preserve them and keep Your Elements from hurting them too much.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
But I've been telling anyone who'd listen that its more analogous to TS Allison than H Rita -
My sister was in school at Baylor Med then and lived in an apartment near the Med Center which had a raised carport so that she was parking about four feet above the street. She had water up on her hubcaps. If this storm is that bad, God help them.
Is there a patron saint of storms, or will St. Jude hafta do?
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