Subscriber's Eye-Witness Account of Hurricane Ike and Its Aftermath

From: Cutting Edge Subscriber
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 12:42 AM
To: macdominick
Subject: Houston - Hurricane Ike

Hi,

I live in Houston and when I spoke with David yesterday about an order, he asked me to give him a brief update on the “Get Out Now or Face Certain Death” Hurricane Ike and it’s aftermath. Would have sent this sooner, but my power has been up and down. I live in Northwest Houston, and my power went out about 1am Saturday morning, just before Ike made landfall. I am a travel agent and was also due to work my company’s 24 Emergency Service this weekend so I was on duty at the time.

In the Sat morning light, it appeared (in my part of Houston) that the majority of the damage was uprooted trees and blown over fences. What is rather strange about Ike is the very randomness of the damage in that HUGE trees with 3-5 feet root systems were uprooted – right next to smaller trees that had lost nary a leaf. And nowhere near the amount of blinding, whipping rain I have associated with hurricanes in the past, and I was born here and have been through many of them. What I saw looked more like the results of tornadoes than the sweeping action of hurricane winds – but I’m not a meteorologist so what do I know? Most of the damage to the houses/buildings was caused by fallen trees, snapped utility poles etc and NOT by water damage. And that is why so many are without power. What did not help was the thunderstorm that followed Ike’s passage last night. My power had come back on Saturday about 230pm….then I lost it again with the storm at about midnight last night. So, it wasn’t just the passage of IKE that caused the problems with power here – it was the fierce thunder and lightning we received as an ‘after-shock’,

What is amazing to me is the media coverage – “All of Houston without Potable Water!”…Baloney. I know of no one in metro Houston that does not have water. My sister lives in Conroe –north of Houston (apparently IKE followed I-45 pretty religiously?) and they have quite extensive damage due to downed trees….and they may not have water, and possibly the coastal areas as well……..but in the metropolitan Houston area and suburbs? NO. Another quite interesting thing –the local stations say that downtown Houston DOES have power (because of the UNDERGROUND power grid) but outside of Houston proper in the Woodlands, they do not – except THEY also have underground power and have never lost power in a Hurricane before. So, what to believe? This morning I went to the store (actually to find COFFEE, LOL) and both Randalls and HEB had plenty of water along with plenty of food, etc. Randalls even had to announce over the speakers that they could not sell BEER until 12 noon. LOL.

Personally, I think they are backtracking NOW since IKE did NOT accomplish what they said it would. Masses of casualties, people did NOT panic, did not turn on each other grasping for DORITOS in the stores, the damage (while severe) is NOT catastrophic…………etc. Tragedy, ‘worst-case scenario’ etc, ALWAYS gets more attention. And where did they get the number (40,000+) who ‘sheltered’ during the storm? The only thing I can think of is the elderly and hospitalized who were evacuated. I don’t know of anyone who went to a ‘shelter’ – if they left it was because they did not have power and stayed with people who did, or in the case of my family – drove 1 ½ hours outside of Houston and stayed in a motel.

Anyway, that was my experience, and that of the people I know. I cannot speak for other parts of town or other’s experiences though. I will say one thing however - the street where I live was one of the few that got power back immediately…….and also one that did not suffer very much damage. No huge downed trees ( I lost part of a fence, that’s it) And the night that IKE blew through – I prayed the entire time. (Basically I couldn’t sleep anyway) I have not prayed continuously for that amount of time in a very long while………….GOD LISTENS to His children and I praise HIM still for all that HE did that night. And continues to do. Oh – that my fellow countrymen/women would do the same!

Thanks for all that you do to reveal truth to those blinded by the world.

In Christ,

Cutting Edge Subscriber
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