Posts Tagged bridge city texas
Remembering Hurricane Ike Three Years Later
Its simple amazing how much time has passed under the bridge in the last 3 years. On September 13, 2008 Hurricane Ike made landfall, and changed the lives of tens of thousands of people forever.
Mom and Dads house was totaled, sold to the insurance company and demolished.
One of my best friends has rebuilt and now has a nice place.
My brother has rebuilt and seems to be no worse for the wear.
It was somewhere around 10:00pm or 10:30 that I lost phone contact with my kids who were riding out Hurricane Ike in Houston. I figured they were ok, but I worried about them until I knew for sure they were safe.
The winds with Ike were not near as bad as Rita, but the storm surge with Ike was probably 10X worse the Rita. With Rita southeast Texas got a little storm surge, but nothing like what came in with Ike.
The next morning after Ike passed through, my family and I left the shelter we were staying at and went home. I hooked to pit up to my truck and pulled the pit around to the front of my house. I wanted to pit fired up and cooking something, so that the people driving down the street would be assured that life would return to normal.
Posting stuff on the internet
When you’re talking to someone in real life, words are like dust in the wind. But when you post stuff on the internet, its like etching your words in stone. The difference is, people can go back and read what you posted. Once your words are spread to the wind, they can not be retrieved,…
Buying some more survival gear
This past weekend my wife and I made a trip to Bridge City Texas to visit with my parents. While we were in Bridge City, my wife and I spent the night at La Quinta Inn & Suites, which is where the old Sparkle Paradise used to be. The hotel is in a perfect location. Not only does it back up to a pond for your fishing enjoyment, but the twin bridges are viewable from the hotel for a picturesque nighttime scene.
My wife and I arrived at La Quinta, at which time I realized that I did not think about bringing anything to fish with. So off to wal-mart we went. I have been wanting to pick up an open face reel, so I bought a Shakespeare E-Z Cast Low Profile Baitcast Reel with 6 foot rod and a couple of lures. As luck would have it, I did not catch anything but a bunch of mosquito bites.
Saturday morning my wife and I got up, went by mom and dads house for a little bit, said out hellos and then went to Academy Sports and Outdoors in Port Arthur. At Academy I bought some circle hooks, some 60 pound nylon coated wire for making homemade leaders, some #4 circle hooks, 6 boxes 223 monarch ammo, 2 boxes 7.62×39 monarch ammo and a box of Remington 150 grain 308 for deer hunting.
After making a stop to buy some survival gear, my wife and I went to Tinsel Town in Beaumont for the 12:15 showing of Captain America. I thought the movie was pretty good. Maybe not an A+ movie, but not a C rating either. We sat through the credits to get a peak at the Avengers, all I have to say is “wow”.
Are you taking care of yourself
My wife got the text message last night at around 2:30am – we have a very dear friend of the family whos mother passed away last night from lung cancer. She was around 46 years old, and she had been a heavy smoker for years. She leaves behind a couple of children, and a couple of very young grand kids. The grand kids are only about 1 – 3 years old, not old enough to remember the time they spent with their grandmother. There will never be a chance to pass down stories, never be a chance to go to birthday parties, Christmas, no Thanksgiving,,,,, nothing but a visit to her grave from time to time.
While thinking about our friends mom, I also started thinking about my other friends that have passed away.
When my brother and I were growing up in Bridge City, Texas, we had some friends in the neighborhood that where the same age as us. There was Bret and Troy, Steven and Gene , John and David, Bobby and Mike. Steven was the same age as my brother – 2 years behind me – and Gene is my age. When I was a senior, I heard that Steven had gotten into drugs pretty bad. It was so bad that his mom and dad kicked him out and he was having to look for a place to live. Steven went to live with Bret and Troy for a little while, but the parents of Bret and Troy found Stevens drugs and was told to leave the house. From there, Steven left Bridge City and went to live with his sister in Port Arthur. That was probably one of the worst things that could have happened. From what I understand, drugs were a lot easier to find in Port Arthur then in Bridge City. This meant that Steven had easy access to all kinds of illegal drugs.
Where your at right now
Why are you where your at right now? What are you doing there? What course of events drove you to be at your present location?
As I get older, I think about my life, and the course it has taken. There is some regret, there is some happiness and some sadness.
A couple of weekends ago my family and I were up at the camp having a relaxing weekend. One of the people there was a long time friend of mine – we have been knowing each other since around 1977 or 1978,,, somewhere in there. At the day turned to night, we built a camp fire, grabbed the lawn chairs and talked about past times.
Trip to Bridge City
My wife, my 2 daughters, 2 grand kids and I made a trip to Bridge City today to go see mom and dad. Moms birthday was on July 17th and they are getting moved into their new house this weekend. Its been 10 months since hurricane Ike passed through and the recovery process is still…
Becoming complacent with disaster preparedness
As Hurricane Rita was making its way through the Gulf of Mexico in 2005, the projected path was towards the Houston and Galveston, Texas area. An evacuation was called for parts of Harris and Galveston counties. Which is where the cities of Houston and Galveston are located.
The way evacuations are “supposed” to work, the areas that are nearest the Gulf of Mexico are evacuated first. Which is Galveston, and lower Harris county. That is how its supposed to work in theory. In reality, how does one of the largest cities in the USA evacuate? They dont. There were stories of people spending 18+ hours on the highway and not even going 10 miles.
There are 2 major highways going north out of Houston – HWY 59 and HWY 45. Going east and west, there is Interstate 10, 1960, old HWY 90 and 105. HWY 105 is north of the Houston area. It goes from Beaumont, through Cleveland, Conroe and finally hits HWY 6.
FEMA camp myths
It seems that ever since Hurricane Katrina there has been a of misinformation going around as to what FEMA really does. Lets just set the record straight right now – FEMA is here to help people, not throw them in some type of FEMA prison camp. The law makers in congress have setup a government…
Hurricane Ike Aftermath
These pictures were taken in Bridge City, Texas after Hurricane Ike made landfall in Galveston, Texas. Using Google Earth, and measuring from where these pictures were taken, its estimated that 20 miles inland, there was about a 14 – 15 foot storm surge. This is not a scientific measurement, its just an estimate.
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