Ike! - Two weeks later
Almost two weeks after Ike and things are mostly back to normal. The tree is off the house, the insurance company is cutting us checks, and we are restocking the fridge and freezer. My wife and I are back to work, which helps her state of mind lots. I'm still decompressing from the stress and would like some time off to do that faster, but that's life.
We were very fortunate and thankful for that. One couple I know had three trees come down on their house and are still cleaning up. I have not heard of any water damage yet, and I chose to take that as a good sign. One guy lived in a three-story condo unit, on the third floor, on Clear Lake. Water was in the first TWO stories and the building was damaged by boats being knocked into it. Did I mention there was two other buildings between him and where the boats were? His building was condemned and now he's staying with another friend until the insurance company cuts him a check and he can buy a new place to live.
Most of my coworkers at the Dayjob have power again, some just the middle of this week (Tuesday and Wednesday). There are still portions of Houston without power and most of the city is still under a Boil Water alert. To give a sense of scale, imagine the state of Rhode Island. Multiply its population by 4. That's Houston. Now turn off power to the entire area. Now add Massachusetts and Connecticut to the blackout. This gives a fair idea of the immediate area effected. Now imagine all those people without drinkable water and a third without any water at all. Now imaging 88 to 93 degree heat with humidity in the 60-80%. And no cloud cover.
That's what being in Houston is like without power.
At this point, about 2/3 to 3/4 of Houston has power back. Much of the city still has water issues. This means you can bathe and use the restroom, but must use bottled water to brush your teeth and clean any wounds that broke the skin to avoid infection. Any recipe that uses water requires bottled water unless you boil the water first (so pasta is cool, just boil the water for 2 minutes before adding the pasta).
Now I bring this up mostly to vent a bit. The Dayjob corporate offices are in Michigan and HR there is bewildered that people can't show up for work when there is no power to buildings or fuel for vehicles (that's back under control again, so no worries there). I don't think they understand that a hurricane is not like a tornado, with localized damage that you can drive around. I don't think they grasp that the effected area is larger than they can drive in an hour in any direction.
Well, enough of that. I'm safe and our house is in reasonable condition. Total repairs will be under $4,000.00 and insurance is covering most of it.
/rant
Later!
We were very fortunate and thankful for that. One couple I know had three trees come down on their house and are still cleaning up. I have not heard of any water damage yet, and I chose to take that as a good sign. One guy lived in a three-story condo unit, on the third floor, on Clear Lake. Water was in the first TWO stories and the building was damaged by boats being knocked into it. Did I mention there was two other buildings between him and where the boats were? His building was condemned and now he's staying with another friend until the insurance company cuts him a check and he can buy a new place to live.
Most of my coworkers at the Dayjob have power again, some just the middle of this week (Tuesday and Wednesday). There are still portions of Houston without power and most of the city is still under a Boil Water alert. To give a sense of scale, imagine the state of Rhode Island. Multiply its population by 4. That's Houston. Now turn off power to the entire area. Now add Massachusetts and Connecticut to the blackout. This gives a fair idea of the immediate area effected. Now imagine all those people without drinkable water and a third without any water at all. Now imaging 88 to 93 degree heat with humidity in the 60-80%. And no cloud cover.
That's what being in Houston is like without power.
At this point, about 2/3 to 3/4 of Houston has power back. Much of the city still has water issues. This means you can bathe and use the restroom, but must use bottled water to brush your teeth and clean any wounds that broke the skin to avoid infection. Any recipe that uses water requires bottled water unless you boil the water first (so pasta is cool, just boil the water for 2 minutes before adding the pasta).
Now I bring this up mostly to vent a bit. The Dayjob corporate offices are in Michigan and HR there is bewildered that people can't show up for work when there is no power to buildings or fuel for vehicles (that's back under control again, so no worries there). I don't think they understand that a hurricane is not like a tornado, with localized damage that you can drive around. I don't think they grasp that the effected area is larger than they can drive in an hour in any direction.
Well, enough of that. I'm safe and our house is in reasonable condition. Total repairs will be under $4,000.00 and insurance is covering most of it.
/rant
Later!