Time to Leave Houston

September 11, 2008

As many of you know, Chase was handled to his championship by Sherri Hurst.  Sherri and her husband David live south of Houston, a mere 25 miles from the coast.  She and David received the mandatory evacuation phone call last night.  They stayed up all night, and packed up their most important things.  This morning they boarded up their windows then left to stay with friends in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Sherri is driving the motor home, David’s in the van.  They have 39 dogs (including seven or eight senior dogs), plus two rabbits, a pot-bellied pig, and a cat.  By leaving this morning they avoided the traffic jams of Rita (27 hours sitting on the freeways).  I hope, as they do, that when they return their home is intact.

The latest weather reports indicate that Ike is HUGE.  At this point it has winds of only (only?) 100 mph, but it covers a gigantic area — as much as Katrina did.  In downtown Houston, plywood is being installed over the windows of even the tallest buildings.  The public has been informed that there will be no emergency services of any kind and no shelters.  The evacuation of a large section of southern Houston was made mandatory at 1:30 this afternoon.

For those of us who live in protected areas, the scope of these disasters is unfathomable.  For those who fight through hurricanes and tornados, tsunami and earthquakes there’s a numbness that envelopes both the mind and the body.

We can expect the cost of repairing the damage from Ike to at least equal the cost of repairing the Gustav damage (more than $10 billion).  Isn’t it a shame that’s what we spend in Iraq in less than a month?


  1. Emily says:

    It’d be so scary to live in hurricane territory. I think the only “plus” to them, is that we have warning systems put in place days ahead of time, to cut back on casualties.

    I grew in SE Michigan with tornadoes, and here in Oregon we have the occasional earthquake (with huge earth moving devastation being a possibility)

    I think though, that the more beautiful a location, the more risk comes in living in the territory.

    I’m sending “get out safe and quick” vibes, and hoping that Ike doesn’t blow too hard on everyones property!

  2. C-Myste says:

    I’ll take the earthquakes and volcanoes: lots less of them. Although so far they haven’t been able to give us much warning for evacuation.

    But then there are the fires. We haven’t had to evacuate since 14 years ago: Julie was in 9-12 so I can gauge the time. At that time we had a dozen dogs, 6 sheep, and 2 horses. Now we’re minus the horses and half the number of each sheep and dogs. The sheep could be barbecue.