The cows in the bay take a hike

Well, the right people were contacted and the contracts signed and the cows amscrayed. A special thanks to Jason S for being my lookout for this. A few other beautiful pictures of our area from a good vantage point were supplied by this information specialist.

Things are getting better. Water and sewer service are provided to a good chunk of the east end. Please remember to conserve the water as our ties to the mainland are still not solid. No open fires. Beware of the temptation to switch on power as soon as it gets to your neighborhood. That saltwater, mixed with the oily muck can easily short out everything and destroy even more. Today I had the pleasure of scouting around off of the island. Houston is still semi-crippled with the blackout causing most of the stoplights to be out. Please be careful all over in the dark as it is hard to see where the stoplights are. Remember that all stoplights that are out or are flashing red are treated as stop signs.

This is where the trickyness begins. When going home, I know it is hot and we are all used to shorts and sandals but I would implore all to wear long pants or jeans as well as socks and shoes. You'll also get fewer skeeter bites. Please, now that we are going to be in the recovery phase I can't tell you enough to be careful.

Please note that despite those that stayed in harm's way (many of which I have heard would never do it again, and many of those business owners) we were VERY lucky with the last death toll in Texas from Ike totalling 26. Please remember that you should not feel alone. We will be whole again in this area of the world.

Git them doggies

Roped in

Towing the car-cass away

Looking northeast with Pelican Island on the left and the ferry port on the upper right

Looking southeast of campus

Down Ferry Road

Hi all. Went down ferry road and saw a few things. The gas station is not doing well. The USS Stewart has run aground. The ferries will be out for a bit while the docks and ferries get repaired. Having said that, they wont be running necessarily because alot of the roadways on Bolivar are affected one way or another leaving them impassable.

The Shell station exterior did not do well, inside unknown.

UTMB from the Ferry loading docks

The Ray Stoker Jr. waits for the next time it will see service.

The USS Stewart has run aground.

A closer shot of the grounded destroyer escort.

Galveston, we will return, we will make you stronger, we will make you whole again.

Technophile Geekout

Today I had the pleasure to visit "Big Blue", run by the Texas National Guard. It is a communications vehicle. Actually, that is like saying that the super mega cable TV package has a few channels. They can set up support for a command post / base of operations (boo) with broadband speed internet and voip support from satellite, satellite phones, RF support of local units, reception of news and radio, as well as workspace with workstations.

Big Blue, herself

The radio and telephone communication corner and two workstations.

I was permitted to go beyond the line and inspect their setup / casings and deployment of the satcom dish

Intents of purpose

Let me apologize first...

I am sorry to spoil this with a negative blog but I really have to take a minute to blast Dolph Tillotson and his material ways. Today he wrote about how "Officials' actions are undermining the public's trust." He went on to speak about the Look and Leave program and that the idea was good (I can agree that people want to get back to normalcy ASAP) and the last minute execution of it was bad (I can agree also having seen the chaos, looting and injuries it caused). He even listed a few ways of doing it orderly in a piecemeal fashion (I appreciate the positive) by "geographic region of the city, or by alphabetical order." He further goes on to say he prefers by license plate because that would "allow police to inspect the cars and trucks without examining each individual's credentials." I am going to skip over the obvious of freeloaders coming on the island to loot because only "the car" lives on Galveston. Stop being obsessed with stuff. I am sorry if everybody feels like they will be better "if they will just see their stuff." That only leads to wanting to fix everything and staying. And eating, using power (there is none), using toilets (no water, no sewer), and getting gas (from less gas stations). I hate to say it, but the true misery if you follow this path has not begun. The government (federal) is still inspecting and pulling down houses from Katrina. They have not even started here. We are safe, stay that way. Bad sanitation will kill people.
If the weather predictions had not gone out, not only more would be dead but then you would be screaming why you (the general public) didn’t get warned. The predictions were on target. The island for a period was almost totally submerged. Staying was ridiculous (don't even get me started of what should happen to the parents who kept any children on the island during the storm), and returning en masse, even if over a week is dangerous.
This brings me to another article in today's paper. There is another opinion piece on "Islanders who stayed are an inspiration." Are we all nuts? Are we going to televise the naked guys running on the football field now? Stuff or no stuff, get off. You were (for the most part) properly warned. There were several reports of calls for help during the storm. No one except for superman can do anything during the storm. Just because some people are hard headed does not mean that they should put others in harm's way. In this country our ethic is to rescue. People choose to be military pilots who will fly in 70 mph winds (Coast Guard and Army were present here). You were warned, why do you get to risk a life because now you see how dangerous things are? In this game there are "no backsies."
Thank you for reading. Remember that where ever you are, don't be sad, you are not alone. Despite the arguments, we will be made whole again.

A storm so bad it washed out the end of the seawall

After the same storm, kittens survived it.

UTMB bemoans bovines

They're still here. 'Nuff said.

Brown lump bottom right

Black lump bottom left

Just a little humor

After throwing on some clothes and running outside for the portajon it just hits you. How absurd is this? Portajons in / near traffic, near generators, near others rescuing folks from this. Thank you all. Here is a little sillyness. Obviously, this was not taped here.

Who's open so far?

Well it seems some stores have been able to open or are working feverishly to do so. Dennis Byrd was "SPOTted" sitting out at his place. Kroger's was open and doing a brisk business (giving a big bag of ice and pack of water with each customer). Walmart was working on opening with their global disaster recovery truck. Walgreen’s at 61st and Stewart Road. CVS is sending an 18-wheeler Friday that is a rolling full-service pharmacy. Please note that currently due to security and supply lines, I do not think that they are filling *any* narcotic prescriptions for a while.

The Spot front deck shows little damage. Maybe once the island gets communication service back we can see thru the Spot Cam again!

I was happy to see Dennis running his place.

The sign took the worst of the beating.

Thank You, Gaido's

Today, Gaido's showed their respect for those helping to save, protect and rebuild. They sponsored a Shrimp Boil on their grounds with wonderfully set tables and real flowers. Thank you.

What is all of this traffic???

Signs at Gaido's

They served many from 12 to 3 pm. They had real flowers on the tables.

The lunch was a delicious, very welcomed treat for a bunch of people living off of warm bottled water, sandwiches and MREs.

Animals

Several animals were left in houses as people were evacuating as they expected to return quickly. As you may have heard elsewhere there were dogs roaming and cats too. The ASPCA in conjunction with police have been rescuing animals stuck in houses.

You can see the oil slick on this standing puddle of Ike water (maybe it should be pronounced icky). Don't let your animals drink any standing water or even the tap water yet.

I have heard conflicting news on the tiger. It may still be out there, not sure yet. I can however, tell you definitively that the cows are still there. This is a sign outside of the NDMS DMAT (National Disaster Medical Service's Disaster Medical Assistance Team) living quarters (all you scouts out there know that as a tent). Their tent is in the parking lot next to the boyant bovines.

Signs of life returning

Hello again. Thank you for keeping up. Over the past few days I noticed a few signs of life returning. I saw a Tuttle's Natal Plum blooming, grass regrowing and what I think was either a crab or crawfish hole. There also were formations of pelicans flying (added after this blog published). See below. Wow, I am tired. Many people are and everyone (the vast majority of which are not from the Island are thankful for your (the readers who are islanders) patience. The rapidity of not having many folks really helps. Please remember that this is a dynamic time and any news heard about one service or another should not be treated as "fresh" and shouldn't be spread. Actually, just think of it as bad cream cheese. You wouldn't spread bad cream cheese on a good bagel and pass it to a friend, would you? Rumors do disasters no good, so try to get the story from the source. Enjoy the pix below.

Blooming Tuttle's Natal Plum. They smell terriffic, don't they?

The grass was greening up and growing nicely.

Anybody home?

The lopsided Vee formation of 13 seagulls.

Straight as a Texas telephone pole

Hello all. Just two pictures for this blog, more to come later, just want to talk straight (frankly) for a bit. I finally saw part of the west end. Lots of damage there as well as the east end. Make no mistake, this was a very devastating storm. I would not be suprised and I don't think that it is far off to say that a huge amount needs to be rebuilt. Buildings east to west. Infrastructure of water supply and sewers in some places.

The reason to not let people on gets clearer and clearer. The dead cows (still there) sitting in the bay. The bay smelling like hydrocarbons (gas and oil) poured on top of rotting fish (and soon to be exploding cows - there are several betting pools going on among the different resource pools). The puddles and ground has Vibrio (but it may be going away - but watch out for backflooding from sewers and don't drink the water until cleared to do so). Plenty of kindling material and little water to dump on the hot stuff when it happens (fire). No traffic lites in many places.

I understand you want to come back. I want you all back. The time will come. Please understand also that attitude is everything. If you are lucky enough either to have minimal damage or are able to fix up your abode, help your neighbor. Remember, you are not alone and someday you will need the help.

Telephone poles being held up by their wires, not telephone poles holding up their wires.

The two cows are still there. The black one is by the bow of the ship. The brown bull is midship. The entire debris field smells of gas and rot.

Field Promotion

In times like this you have to take the good in whatever small pieces you can. I had the pleasure to be a fly on the wall for the promotion of one of the Army National Guardsmen that had not one but two promotions "waiting." A note to the DOD - they know that for this "Field Promotion" there were improvised uniforms.

Oklahoma Army National Guard and its new PFC. They are serving to provide communications to the patient operations - network, voice, and radio.

The NCO's

I was personally able to shake hands with the new Private First Class.

Local Area Spots

Hello All! Below are some pictures of a few local spots. I want everyone to play a game - of all of the pictures of different things that you see, remember the top few things that need to stay as is, whether it is an "unintentionally dry-docked boat" or a particular arrangement of cars or what, but what should remain as a monument. I personally so far vote for the fishing troller "parked" perfectly in front of Willie G's, the small boat on Broadway, and the fishing boat on harborside. Pics to follow.

Fishing boat "parked" in front of Willie G's

I think that they will have to add a second movie of our 100-year storm.

Mod took on water

Mod's new study room did not fare well

You Gotta Have Art got stacked

Despite the high sidewalks buildings still had several feet of water on the Strand.

Some other damage around the area

Please remember that this storm hit our whole area. Many of the popular sites have been devastated. Please don't go to these links if you are feeling down. Remember, that when all is said and done, you are not alone. We are all here together, we will all make it whole again.
Kemah Boardwalk and area
Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula
Houston Area

Harketh, do I see the light? -or- Was that a shot I heard ring out?

Tonight, I snuck around to show one of the medical staffers currently present some of Galveston and we noticed something. I'll show you in a bit.
First, at about 2pm today there was a shot that rang out on Harborside. Did someone drop something big? Nope. Turns out that somehow in trying to get the electricity to UTMB, some lines were energized but fortunately the breakers on the lines activated, stopping the lines that are low and touching things or on the ground or that a linesman is holding from energizing. Unfortunately, storm recovery occasionally is marred by the injury or death of power linesman. I wish them all well (my travels took me by some from Georgia) and thank you for working hard to re-energize the island.

Several power company trucks from Georgia working late on the power lines. Note the streetlights.

Chili's and other buildings are illuminated.

A closer image.

What are all of the lit dots? The left 3 red ones are red lights in front of Walgreens and the right one is the moonrise.

The stoplights and streetlights are energized on 6th.

WARNING - Dirty Shower Scene!!!

Hello, world! Well, today was a red letter day. As you may be able to tell, I found the showers after 164 hours of ripening. Was a good shower. Just showered until the water was clean coming off of me. Felt pretty good. Was pretty amazing all of the activity that was going on in the area of Ball High School with all of the state and federal agencies parking there. First is finally finding the showers, second is a view of the shower facilities, and third is a dirty shower scene ;^).

Structural fires

Came upon the scenes below that were still smoldering. I know that fires can smolder for a while and given that they are near Ball High (I am sorry if you recognize this and you did not know before) they probably may not have necessarily happened recently. None the less they are devastating to their owners / dwellers and I am sorry. You are not alone (aren't those lyrics in a Michael Buble song?), we are all here together, all around the area. Albeit the area may be the USA, but we are all here.
This video shows the area of the houses This shows the smoke from the burned buildings.
Note the water from the broken pipes - We may be getting water pressure back.

We're being invaded?

Today the Navy landed a support team on the beach by 4th street. Using landing craft they came in from their ship, a floating hospital, the USS Nassau. They are helping to support the medical mission. Please make no mistake, though. They are not a "hospital" ready to take on the complete needs of a the complex community tertiary care that we are as UTMB. Make no mistake. When they open the island to those who have property here, make no mistake about it, the hospital will not be fully open. Noone will be able to be an inpatient here for a while. Even though there is electricity to UTMB, each electrical system of every building has to be inspected for damage. There is no water yet, but there is a shower trailer here, yay!

Naval personnel set up lights at sunset.

A lark and a bulldozer await their roles. (Personally, the lark looks like a modern version of the vessels used for the Duck Tours, a duk)

A non-insignificant bulldozer

Sigh, such a nice sunset.

Temporary Navy base of operations

A monsterous 6 wheeler.