Isn’t Life Strange?

I left the Houston area at about 3 PM and am currently in an undisclosed secret location.

For the last two days, I have been listening to KTRH AM, one of Houston’s most powerful AM radio stations. They have done an outstanding job covering all aspects of the storm and its aftermath, and should be commended for their work. Not only have they helped keep those in Southeast Texas informed about where people can find help, they have actually done something for the relief effort.

I realize I might not know as much as others who have had the ability to watch news coverage and actually see pictures of the destruction. But here is what I know from what I have heard.

Much of Houston (Harris County) is without power, and several neighborhoods are without water. Those who do have water are under a boil order. Other counties are without power as well, and Montgomery County (where I live) has more problems with the power grid than downed lines and blown transformers. The spokesperson for that particular power company spoke about flooded power plants and more serious problems. Depending on the source of information, an estimated four to five million people are without power. Utility workers are mainly still in the survey phase of their work, but about three hundred thousand customers have had power restored in Houston.

Many people are hunkering down and making the best of a difficult situation. Any time a storm the size of Ike tears through an area with as many people as Houston, the least it will do is cause a lot of people a great amount of inconvenience. Those who are without power but with everything else intact are extremely fortunate. I can’t express how grateful I am to be included in that group. However, there are others who have homes that have sustained damage from falling trees, or those with special needs who need power for their health care needs. Communities are doing whatever they can to help those people by taking them to shelters where they can get proper care. Neighbors are helping other neighbors.

On the radio, I heard many positive stories about neighbors helping each other, of news about stores opening to help people with their needs for food, water, and home repair goods.

Relief mechanisms are in action, although not to the satisfaction of many people. Understandably, people are irritated. I’m not quite sure what people expect to happen only 24 hours after a hurricane when much is still in chaos. This is why we were told many times to have enough food and water to last for 72 hours. Even so, FEMA seems to be the whipping boy for not having everything in place as soon as the storm ended.

I’ve not heard anything about the condition of the oil refineries. I did hear that a few platforms suffered severe damage and there was some pipeline damage as well, but that news came from an out of town television reporter, and they’re not exactly always specific or even accurate when it comes to these things.

One thing is certain. It will take more than a few days before life in the Houston area returns to normal.