Posts Tagged hurricane ike
Floods from nautral disasters
This is the intersection of HWY 87 and chemical road, which is between Orange and Bridge City, Texas. 2 major intersections which were blocked by debris and water from Hurricane Ike. Keep in mind, this intersection is about 20 inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
As far as anyone could remember, this part of Orange County, Texas had never flooded – at least not this bad anyway. When Hurricane Ike pushed the storm surge into the communities of Southeast Texas, a lot of people were caught unprepared. An unknown number of people did not have flood insurance, mainly because the area where they live had never flooded.
Some of the lessons learned:
You can not protect your house against something like a hurricane. What you do, is make sure you have plenty of insurance, both flood and home owners.
My mom and dad will be ok. They have home owners and flood insurance. For the most part they will recover.
My brother had flood insurance, but nothing on the contents. Meaning he lost everything in his house with 4 – 5 feet of water.
My buddy did not have any flood insurance. He got about 2 feet of water in his house and has lost almost everything.
To protect your family and your property, have a fall back position. My family used my house as such a location. They had a safe place to stay, instead of sleeping in hotels and spending a small fortune on rooms and food.
When the local authorities call for an evacuation, heed those warnings, pack up your stuff and leave. Property can be replaced, lives can not.
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 in full steam.
A lot of the FEMA trailers have been moved out, but there are still a lot in place. What is really sad is to see all of the “For Sale” signs in the front yards. Some people have given up and moving to higher ground. But those are the real Bridge Citians.
Flooded roads after a natural disaster
After natural disasters – such as a hurricane – roads may become flooded and impassable. This video was filmed after Hurricane Ike passed through the Southeast Texas area in September 2008. Its important to know where the back roads are and how to use them.
Complacency and disaster preparedness
After a few false alarms, people become complacent with their disaster preparedness plans. Meaning, that they do not think that anything serious is going to happen. When you let your guard down, that is when the real disasters strike.
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.
On a typical day, its pretty much bumper to bumper on all of those roads. But an evacuation is not a “typical” day. Traffic ground to a dead stop as millions of people tried to flee Hurricane Rita. Untold numbers of people gave up on the evacuation, turned around, went back home and were ready to accept whatever fate awaited them.
As Hurricane Rita neared the coast, the point of projected landfall was moved to the east – from Galveston to the Sabine Pass area. The evacuations for Galveston and Houston were canceled and people returned to their homes. A few months after Rita made landfall, there were questions as to why an evacuation was even called for the residents of Houston. There seemed to be a backlash of anger towards the City Government. People were frustrated that they were stuck in traffic for hours- and for nothing.
In August of 2008, Hurricane Ike formed in the Atlantic ocean. Even though the projected path changed several times, Ike finally made landfall in Galveston, Texas. This time, there was no evacuation like what had happened with Hurricane Rita.
Good quality ice chest
After a disaster – such as a hurricane – part of the relief efforts usually include bottled water, MREs or canned goods and ice. The ice is supposed to help people preserve their cold or frozen foods. But, this ice is of little good if the person getting the supplies to does have a good quality ice chest.
It has been in my experience that Rubbermaid brand is almost the bottom of the bucket. I have taken a 34 quart Rubbermaid ice chest, put a couple of bags of ice in it. And the next day just about all of the ice is melted.
On the other hand, Coleman and Igloo both offer quality solutions. One of my ice chest includes a 128 quart Igloo 5 day. Your supposed to be able to be able to put ice in it, and when kept in the shade the ice is supposed to last 5 days.
Back in June of 2008 a buddy of mine got married at the beach. My wife and I loaded up the truck, hooked up the bar-b-q pit and headed to the beach to take part in the wedding. In the back of my truck was an Igloo 128 quart ice chest full of ice, drinks and a couple of frozen gallons of water. We got to the beach friday evening. The Igloo 5 day extreme ice chest was in the back of my truck all weekend, in direct sunlight and day time temps were in the mid 90′s. Sunday, when my wife and I loaded up to go home, there was still ice in the chest.
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 agency that tries to help people in areas affected by a disaster. Most of the time, the relief efforts are composed of – food, water, and temporary shelter. After Hurricane Rita hit the Southeast Texas area I got to see “some” of what FEMA does. There was an immediate response of MRES, donated canned foods, ice and bottled water brought into the affected areas.
After Hurricane Ike, it became very clear as to what FEMA is designed to do. Bridge City Texas was flooded by the storm surge of Hurricane Ike.
The families there lucky (or blessed) – only got about 4, 5 or even 9 feed of saltwater, mixed with marsh mud in their houses.
The families that were not so lucky – their houses were destroyed by a combination of storm surge and wind damage.
Thousands of families in Bridge City had nowhere to go. People were living in tents, or in RVs and some families left Bridge City to go live with relatives. Out of several thousand homes, only about 12 had not been flooded. FEMA has been working for months to fix that problem.
Hurricane Ike destroyed home
After Hurricane Ike made landfall in September of 2008, FEMA has brought in hundreds of temporary homes. A lot of These mobile homes were setup in front of peoples houses. Open fields were turned into so called “FEMA camps”.
Here are some pictures of FEMA trailers in Bridge City, Texas.
FEMA trailer park in Bridge City, Texas
Where would you go?
If you and your family had to evacuate, where would yall go? Part of the answer also depends on the situation, needs of the family members and type of disaster.
Shelter in place or leave? There are many factors should help determine where there is a real need to evacuate, or whether the family unit can shelter in place.
Lets take the example of a hurricane. In September of 2008 Hurricane Ike made landfall in the Galveston, Texas area. The storm surge 100 miles to the east drove 10 feet of water 20 miles inland. The only cities there were protected from the surge were the ones that had a barrier built around them. One of the things that saved Groves, Texas from flooding was the barrier around Port Arthur. Bridge City on the other hand received several feet of water. Out of the hundreds of houses in Bridge city, only around a dozen did not receive some kind of damage from flood waters.
Even though Hurricane Ike made landfall 100 miles to the west of the Beaumont, Bridge City, Port Arthur and Orange area, if a family lived just above sea level there was a real need to evacuate.
Sometimes an evacuation means just moving to higher ground, sometimes it means leaving to area and traveling over 100 miles. But anytime a family unit leaves their house, there is the question of where are they going to go?
Plans for 2009
As I look back 0n 2008, I also look forward to 2009.
Over the past few months I have not been my usual self. Korey (my son) got a deer this hunting season, and so far that is all we have gotten is that one deer. Tomorrow is the last day of regular deer season, in 2 weeks there is a youth weekend. Hopefully between tomorrow and the youth weekend Korey or I will be able to get another deer. This will fill our freezer for the coming year.
January – my wife and I planted a bed of onions. I bought the onion sprouts 2 weeks ago but have not felt like planting them. The onions were a mix of 10-15Y and some smaller green onions for salads and baked potatoes.
10-15Y are a large onion developed by Texas A&M. When the bulb is ready to be harvested, it will be about the size of a baseball. These onions have a sweet taste and are good for putting on hamburgers.
February – Potatoes go in the ground around February 14th. My wife and I already have to seed potatoes in the shed.
This is also one of the months that I like to go camping.
Plant a couple of apple and peach trees.
80 years old and starting over
80 years old and starting over, that was the sad reality of the facts. There was no denying that around 5 feet of flood water had gotten into the house and there was no denying that the couple did not have flood insurance. The hard wood flooring that everyone had liked so much, after the water went down the flooring swelled and split the walls. There was so much pressure generated from the swelling wood floors, that not only did the walls split, but some of them were pushed off the concert slab.
Having lived in Bridge City for most of their lives, neither the husband nor the wife had ever heard of the type of flooding that was on the way. Hurricane Ike was like a dark cloud in the distance, almost like a bad dream, but this dream was real. For decades Southeast Texas had avoided the critical strike of a major Hurricane.
In 1969, Hurricane Camille made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River.
In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew was working its way towards Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. But the wind currents turned Andrew to the North, and Andrew Made landfall around Morgan City, Louisiana.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the New Orleans area.