Terrapin Station

Don't let's forget

Yesterday I had several student advising meetings.

As I talk with students, I often note their telephone area code (they usually keep their cell phones from home) on the information sheet they fill out before advising with me, and ask, "So, where's home?"  (Usually it's in Texas.)

Yesterday, a young lady responded to that question: "Galveston County." 

I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry - how is your family doing?"  "Well," she said, "my parents are living in a FEMA trailer." 

Tears came to my eyes.  I had to apologize to her.  She said, "No, really, it's okay - they are repairing our house, and my mom works for a construction company, so there's lots of work and her job is really secure." 

As I thought about it later, I realized that my tears were not so much for her family in the FEMA trailer, where she will celebrate Thanksgiving with them soon - but for the fact that we do not hear about Galveston, Bolivar, Crystal Beach, Kemah, etc.  Almost immediately following that terrible disaster, the economy tanked out...the election geared up...and we stopped getting news about the storm, the people, the devastation.   

I learned today from the Galveston News that the UT Medical Branch is laying off 3,800 full-time staff members - an enormous impact in a city that depends greatly on those workers.  That wasn't in my paper, 300 miles to the north in the same state, this morning. 

In general, as the president of the News says in a recent editorial, "The world must hear how Galveston's hurting."   He refers to "the war zone previously known as downtown Galveston." 

This is certainly not the first time this forgetting/misunderstanding has happened.  I remember hearing how St. Casserole's daughter mentioned to someone on the outside that her family had been through Hurricane Katrina - devastating in their area of Mississippi - and was told, dismissively, "Oh, that was just in New Orleans." 

Don't let's forget.  One way to remember:  buying this book, due out in late November.  There's a discussion forum on the same site where you can read stories from people still struggling. 

Hurricane Ike some more

My stepdaughter and her partner are on the way up here from their home in Conroe, where there is no water or power and not likely to be any soon. 

Isn't that great?  Ask (for how you can help) and you shall receive? 

Off to make some beds.

Hurricane Ike

Well, the storm veered quite a bit east of here, so we had only rain yesterday.  Not even high winds.  It's cool this morning,  73 but feels cooler. 

My Houston sister and brother and their spouses are without power or water.  It seems that Houston niece does have both...?  my Lake Jackson relatives are safe but have not heard specifics. 

It's horrifying to see the video from Galveston and the Houston area.  It's bewildering how many newscasters can't SAY "Galveston."  I've heard "Gav-le-ston," "Gav-el-ston," and an array of others.  Just like it looks, folks! 

I hate this feeling: wanting to go help, knowing there's nothing to do.  Except pray.  And send money.

Grace Cake

 

Here are Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel and my Grace Cake.  WITH the pecans, because if we are going to have a lily, we want it gilded.

Yes, we cut it before it was cool.  So, sue us. 

We are praying for all of you in the storm's path.  Back to my TV-glued state...

Hurricane Ike

 When I was growing up in Houston, every grocery bag was paper (plastic, what's that?) and between the months of June and November, they were printed with a graphic of this image.  

When there was a hurricane, you would listen to the radio and get the coordinates of the storm, and track it on your paper bag chart.  That's as fancy and technological as it got, no big satellite pictures on the news like this one of Ike:

 

So, were we less worried about what was coming because we only had our own little sketches to look at?  Since I was a kid, and not really cognizant of life and property loss issues, I can't make a fair comparison.  But hurricanes have always paralyzed me, and now that you can watch "all hurricane coverage, all the time," I have a strong tendency to obsess over them.  Whether they are coming near me or not. 

They are usually not coming near me...since I live 250 miles north of the coastal area now.  But we are expecting tropical storm force winds up this way tomorrow, and my goodness, do we have a lot of things in the yard that we need to put away!

And I have never heard anything like this statement from the National Weather Service: 

This is from the Galveston Island portion of the statement:

LIFE THREATENING INUNDATION LIKELY!
ALL NEIGHBORHOODS...AND POSSIBLY ENTIRE COASTAL COMMUNITIES...
WILL BE INUNDATED DURING THE PERIOD OF PEAK STORM TIDE. PERSONS
NOT HEEDING EVACUATION ORDERS IN SINGLE FAMILY ONE OR TWO STORY
HOMES MAY FACE CERTAIN DEATH. MANY RESIDENCES OF AVERAGE
CONSTRUCTION DIRECTLY ON THE COAST WILL BE DESTROYED. WIDESPREAD
AND DEVASTATING PERSONAL PROPERTY DAMAGE IS LIKELY ELSEWHERE.
VEHICLES LEFT BEHIND WILL LIKELY BE SWEPT AWAY. NUMEROUS ROADS
WILL BE SWAMPED...SOME MAY BE WASHED AWAY BY THE WATER. ENTIRE
FLOOD PRONE COASTAL COMMUNITIES WILL BE CUTOFF. WATER LEVELS MAY
EXCEED 9 FEET FOR MORE THAN A MILE INLAND. COASTAL RESIDENTS IN
MULTI-STORY FACILITIES RISK BEING CUTOFF. CONDITIONS WILL BE
WORSENED BY BATTERING WAVES CLOSER TO THE COAST. SUCH WAVES WILL
EXACERBATE PROPERTY DAMAGE...WITH MASSIVE DESTRUCTION OF
HOMES...INCLUDING THOSE OF BLOCK CONSTRUCTION. DAMAGE FROM BEACH
EROSION COULD TAKE YEARS TO REPAIR.

Praying.