Galveston/Houston update

[Scott_F]

I'm not sure how much of this stuff you guys are getting across the county. Just north of Galveston Island is the Bolivar peninsula which has been virtually wiped off the face of the earth. www.khou.com has some good videos up currently.

On a personal note, the area on the west end of Galveston Island is where we have a house. It's on a thin strip of land but we're on the bay side, not the beach side.

Google maps 22115 Frio, Sea Isle, TX and you'll get a feel for how far down we are. I've seen some limited fly-overs. Very limited. Mostly just some of the beach side. But a contact friend of mine within Galveston County Emergency Mgmt tells me the firehouse there got water up to its third step. If that's the case, I'm counting on the house being intact.

All these houses are built on stilts. If you look at the videos of Bolivar, you'll just see a bunch of sticks sticking up. Those stick s are the pilings the houses were built upon. We are not allowed to build permanent walls on the lower level. They are supposed to be break-away. Basically if the storm surge hits, those lower walls (from 0' to 10') are supposed to fall apart easily. Most folks just turn that area into a garage or an extra space for sleeping with a window unit or two.

Based on what I've seen and what the email told me, I'm guessing we lost our lower walls, but hopefully the house is still standing. I just got through spending nearly 20 grand on a new boat dock/lift and surrounding decks and stairways on the house. I had been worried that the house would be gone, but the new project would still be standing. Hopefully it'll all still be there.

There is this weird media blackout for this western area. It's like the TV guys are not allowed to spend any time flying over. Whenever the two flyovers have gotten to a certain spot, the video has cut out both times. Conspiracy time I guess. I'm wondering if there are bodies floating or something.

[Scott_F]

Side note question... how does the Google Maps street view work? Who takes those photos? That is crazy. I google mapped that address I gave above (it was slightly off, but the street view was freaking good)

[Scott_F]

Houston update... 388,000 of the 1.7 million electric customers (not population but basically households) have their power back. (My mom got hers back last night at 10pm and she's like 17 mi from Galveston)

Lots of flooding on the highways of Houston, lots of glass damage down from the tall buildings downtown. Going to be lots of folks sitting around waiting on FEMA water and food supplies. I'm shocked at how many people were in line at gas stations waiting on them to open, or just waiting in 100 car lines. People are told for a week that there's a storm in the gulf, get gas. Fill your tanks. It's just what you do.

Guys selling 700 dollar generators for 1500 from the back of an 18 wheeler that has come in from Florida. Nice margins.

bad mojo for most of those in houston.

[wickedmartini]

There's a little truck that drives around and takes continuous pictures.

[Scott_F]

There's a little truck that drives around and takes continuous pictures.

Like who hires that guy? Amazing. I guess that's the only way it could happen, but it amazes me nonetheless.

[Gearjoneser]

I can sense your worry about that property, based on the number of consecutive posts!

[Sludgenutz]

Scott, I saw the overhead view of houses on stilts, in the area you are talking about today. Some homes "look ok", others have simply disappeared.

I hate this.

[sosomething]

Seems fitting.

Try to stay dry, Tejas bros.

[Scott_F]

I can sense your worry about that property, based on the number of consecutive posts!

shut up peewee!

[Curly]

I watched a lot of the coverage.

I don't know about conspiracy ... a lot of the concern was for the east end, where everything was still under water.

Despite days of dire warnings, the authorities were getting "rescue me" requests as soon as the storm hit.

[Gr8Scott]

Best of luck to you Scott_F. Hope everything is honky dory.