Those of you who have been paying attention to the news in the past couple of days must already know about Hurricane Ike which is poised to crash somewhere on the Texas coastline within the next twenty four hours or so. Ike is a huge storm that is expected to cut a wide swath and cause widespread damage. As of now, most computer models predict a landfall very close to Houston – near the Freeport – Galveston area. Depending on the punch it packs, Cat 2 or 3, the coastal areas will see huge storm surges, high winds, power outage and structural damage. Houston, the biggest city and the largest population center in the path of the storm will feel the effects of the storm and experience disruption of services. Tornadoes are likely to develop in places much further inland – as far as Austin and San Antonio.
Unlike the time of Rita in 2005 when we evacuated, my husband and I decided to stay put this time although Ike’s impact is projected to be much more severe than that of Rita which eventually left Houston alone. As far as we can tell, it will be rough. However, after much thought, staying on seemed to be the easier decision than evacuating. Most of our neighbors and friends too are staying back except the elderly couple next door who had some concerns with their health and mobility. They have moved in with their son in town for the duration of the storm. Our county does not have an evacuation advisory. In fact, we have been asked to stay so that we don’t clog the roads for others who must get out from the low lying coastal areas.
“We are still saying: Please shelter in place, or to use the Texas expression, hunker down,” said Judge Ed Emmett, the chief administrator for Harris County, which includes Houston. “For the vast majority of people who live in our area, stay where you are. The winds will blow and they’ll howl and we’ll get a lot of rain, but if you lose power and need to leave, you can do that later.”
We are surely going to see very hight winds and the break down of electric power and possibly water supply – for how long, we don’t know. This morning, we took stock of our pantry and cupboards. We have plenty of drinking water, bread, crackers, cookies, fruit, canned goods, candles, matches, batteries and flash lights. We also have a small charcoal grill and a short wave radio that can run on batteries. Also, our cars will be in the garage and their radios will be working. We plan to ride out the storm and keep in touch with our neighbors. If the power stays out for more than a couple of days after Ike, that is when we might leave town.
There was a devastating hurricane more than a hundred years ago that caused total havoc in the city of Galveston. That was before the time when the National Weather Service assigned names to storms. Although the hurricane of 1900 did not have an official name, it too earned a name beginning with the letter "i." Isaac’s Storm was named after the unfortunate meteorologist entrusted with the job of keeping an eye on the weather in Galveston that fateful September day.
Accidental Blogger 