Visit to Cambridge

The last few nights have brought some severe weather, and this evening we are watching Kansas and Eastern Nebraska. Things have been relatively slow, but today was spent with the students at Cambridge Public Schools in Cambridge, Nebraska! We had a great day and discussed severe weather awareness, tornado season (specifically this year) and had the time to show off Dorothy! We hope to see our new friends in Cambridge again soon!

Stand strong Mayor!

Galveston's Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas made a decision on Monday and ordered all city employees not to talk to news reporters. She did not say when that order would be lifted. Reporters staying at San Luis hotel were asked to leave Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc will be the only officials allowed to talk to reporters. City spokeswoman Mary Jo Naschke vehemently denied the city was trying to clamp down on news coverage. She said emergency personnel and city employees were too busy to talk to reporters. Naschke also said the city had been accommodating news reporters by allowing them access to the island when others weren't allowed, giving them escorted rides to damaged areas and allowing them to move about outside during a curfew. But at a noon press conference on Monday, Thomas and LeBlanc talked for less than 30 minutes and refused to answer any more than five questions. Galveston Daily News reporters who tried to speak to city employees at rescue sites were denied information and told no one was authorized to talk to them except for the mayor and city manager.

As you can imagine, the press is angry over the decision, but let's look at the facts. Mayor Thomas is taking a lot of grief from the press as she is a part-time, unpaid Mayor and yet has pretty much all the power in the city right now as it is a disaster area. The Mayor instituted a "look and leave" earlier, allowing people to travel through the area and then retreat back over the causeway but the plan was poorly concieved and so the allowance was cancelled.

There are many in the press that are jumping all over Thomas because of her part-time, unpaid position claiming that she should not be the one in charge.

Seriously, there is a lot of work to do on the island of Galveston and none of it will be accomplished by homeowners, reporters and on-lookers right now, so I am going to go on record as standing behind the Mayor's decision despite my affiliation with KHAS TV and the media as a whole.

As for evacuees suffering because of the blackout as the Daily News has stated, perhaps America needs to focus on the possibility of this happening elsewhere. Maybe the media, now that they have 3 minutes of extra time during the 10 o'clock, should use this time to promote disaster resilience education throughout the country pointing out that ANYONE, ANYWHERE in this country could suddenly be uprooted from their home for months without any idea what condition their home is in.

Maybe that is a reality that America needs to focus on right now while being locked out of Galveston, for surely, once the "gates" to the city are reopened, there will be work to do and the aftermath of Ike will soon be pushed into the back of people's minds along with any thought that they should maybe prepare for this to happen to them.

For three days before Ike, the media ran informational ads and short pieces encouraging folks to put Home Disaster Kits together. perhaps now would be a better time to run those pieces. Perhaps now we should grab hold of the recent tragedy and turn it into something good for a change and start using airtime to educate the public about options for surviving the future. Death tolls and damage pictures can all come later.

As for Mayor Thomas, she has received many honors, including the Beacon of Hope Award from Catholic Charities, the Downtown Renaissance Hall of Fame Award, the Spirit of Elissa Award from the Galveston Historical Foundation, the Community Enrichment Award from the Grand 1894 Opera House, the Pacesetter and Quality of Life Awards from Clean Galveston, the People of Vision Award (with her family) from Prevent Blindness, the Brotherhood Award from Reedy Chapel AME Church, the Helping Hands Award from Public, Inc.

As Mayor, Thomas has been acknowledged nationwide for her leadership and stewardship of the citizens during the Hurricane Rita evacuation in 2005 and for her efforts since Rita to plan, prepare and be ready to respond and recover from any future disaster. In 2006 she was chosen to make a presentation on preparedness at the Kennedy School in Boston. She received the 2007 National Blueprint Best Practices Award from the National Council on Readiness & Preparedness.

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, Thomas created the Mayor’s Citizen Response Team to coordinate the evacuation of special needs individuals, which was put to the test a few weeks later when Rita forced Galveston to evacuate. Because of her public and civic endeavors, she was given the BRAVO Award by the League of Women Voters in 2005, was selected as Public Elected Official of the Year 2005, named the Galvestonian of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. The Mayor was named Citizen of the Year in 2006 by the Galveston County Daily News, the newspaper that now claims she is hurting the evacuees.

Her people may not be home, but they are alive, and I believe it is because she is a woman of determination and vision and forethought.

As for the criticism that she is only part-time and unpaid and therefore not capable?

I'd be careful making statements like that around a volunteer firefighter, son.

The special few

There is a reason why our team does not just chase storms. The disaster recovery work we have done over the years has been rewarding, not because you feel like you helped the "unfortunate" victims, but because you become a part of a great remnant of people that are scattered throughout this country. These are people like firefighters, EMT's, construction workers, remodelers, emergency management officials, pet rescue technicians and linemen.

These people that we meet are amazing individuals with an incredible sense of duty and pride. Their goal is to truly RESTORE not just the damaged and ravaged regions, but to restore the mind and soul and hearts of those that have fallen victim to disaster.

I was on one of the forums in Texas today and saw this post and it made me want to blog it out to you all right away so you could see how cool these folks are. I got to spend time with Linemen in North Carolina last year and they are a group of dedicated men and women...special people that take a lot of grief from folks when the power is out. Know thi: if they can get it on, they will, and if it is out, they are not sitting around doing nothing on a union break.

Here's the post I saw:

I Want all of you to know that Pike Electric and Ga Power Transmission crews are headed your way now by police escort to repair the main Transmission lines on the island. These guys have been traveling for the past 2 days and have been sleeping in their trucks. They are all anxious to help you guys recover and I hope that in whatever capacity you can that you will help them to find a place to lay their heads. They will be working 16 hour days and are the best of the best coming to get you all up and running again. If you see Pike or Ga Power employees let them know we are all thinking about them here at home. We wish you the best and as I get more specific info I will report.
Amy Long
Proud Ga Linemans Wife

Yes, I am ranting!

Well, I have been spending a lot of time with doctors the last few days so I am sorry that the blog has not been well-updated, but you are not missing much.

The Mayor of Galveston asked everyone that is not in town to stay out, and asked everyone still in town to leave. She strikes me as a strong woman and I like her. I feel bad for her as well; this is going to be a long and hard road and she looks very tired already.

Reports and statistics on Ike seem to be plentiful and most of them crap. If you want more storm surge than CNN reported, just go to FOX. If you want the death toll, flip through the channels 'til you find a number that suits you. I have resorted to talking to folks actually there and watching the press conferences in Louisiana, Texas and surrounding states.

Can you tell I am in a mood today?

Here comes more!

The error-plagued disaster food stamp program announced today in Louisiana that 22,000 applicants got double payments, while nearly 33,000 eligible applicants still await benefits.

Once again, we see the flaws in systems that should become a priority during what I call “peacetime”; the days or months when we have no disasters.

I will give you an example of a peacetime project that I think should get some attention:

For three years now, as I have toured, FEMA has done an excellent job of supplying me with disaster recovery booklets, brochures and handouts for my events. We have distributed tens of thousands of pieces of this literature, yet, everytime I ask if there is ANYTHING hurricane related, I am told that it is being discussed, but there is no educational materials available yet. 3 years!

Now, of course, I know we could give a grant to some University and have hurricane preparedness materials right away, except for one thing…

Four years ago I requested earthquake preparedness materials. A grant had been awarded an organization to create these materials, and yet I was told that they were not available. I was told I could get a single copy and duplicate the 4000 pieces I needed with my own money. ARE YOU KIDDING? I got the single brochure, a tri-fold on colored pastel 20lb paper. It had 6 to 8 typos in it, and a poor piece of clipart on the cover.

Lets discuss the business continuity program offered through a University on behalf of The Department of Homeland Security, paid for by government funding that was SO incomplete I had to create over 24 pages on my own just to use it!

I am not surprised that the Emergency Food Stamp Program is not working.

According to the latest report, a "computer program error" caused the duplicate benefits, but it has been corrected. As of 3 p.m. Today, the department processed 334,000 applications for emergency food stamps, which were initiated after Hurricane Gustav evacuations strained budgets and widespread power outages spoiled food left behind in refrigerators and freezers.

I know, Food Stamps conjure up an image of people “sucking off the government” to many, but this program is not like that. If you have been through a hurricane or similar situation, you know how difficult it is to even live day to day when you have suddenly have no home, no job and no cash flow. This program should be a priority to those we entrust to hone and perfect programs for times of crisis!

Despite the report that the gliche was fixed, there were people that were in Louisiana today attempting to use the program after having been approved two weeks ago, to no avail. It is hard enough having to be forced to use food stamps, but it is even worse to stand in the grocery store line and have your food stamp card not work in front of 2 dozen people!

Supposedly the problems stem from a power outage at the Food Stamp office caused by hurricane Ike… hmmm…here is today’s thought…

IF we had hurricane preparedness materials, we could have sent some to the Food Stamp office and they would have known that a generator should be a part of your hurricane preparedness stuff…

All of this comes right after the resignation of DSS head Ann Silverberg Williamson, in the wake of a week of foul-ups with the federally financed, state-administered disaster food stamp program. Today, two other top leaders at DSS were forced out.

It appears that Governor Bobby Jindal is cleaning house at home…I wonder if we could loan him to the Feds?

Okay, I have a lot of opinions and due to no storm activity ANYWHERE right now, I have some time on my hands…tomorrow maybe we will talk about why we will never have an accurate death toll from Ike and why I know for a fact that we never got one from Katrina and Rita… maybe a discussion on RFID will liven this blog up a bit.

Ike is dead

Ike is dead. This morning, the last warning was issued, but like many famous entities, Ike's influence lives on.

Ike has left a Texas-sized disaster. Experts are estimating that total insured damage in Texas and Louisiana will be $10 billion. An additional $3.4 billion in damage was likely done in the Gulf of Mexico, due to wind and wave damage to oil platforms and the indirect loss of revenue attributable to reductions in oil and gas production.
According to Jeff Maters, there is a usual rule of thumb that total hurricane damages are double the insured damages, the price tag for Ike will be about $27 billion. That would make Ike the third costliest hurricane in history. Only Hurricane Katrina of 2005 and Hurricane Andrew of 1992 did more damage than Ike has.

We are all hoping that the low death toll numbers remain low, but rescue efforts are still underway, and of course when such a large portion of the population refuses to evacuate, it takes much longer to determine the whereabouts of these people afterwards as we learned in Katrina and Rita.

We awoke this morning to about what we expected...most structures and homes on the island of Galveston have been damaged by the storm, but are still standing and still intact.




Most of the island was covered by floodwaters, which are now receding.



The City is without power, water, and gas, and until all this is restored, folks are being asked to remain where they are.





The city's curfew has been extended indefinitely from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.





Galveston police and the National Guard are patrolling streets to offer aid and protect property.
City officials and staff are actively working on the island's recovery with the assistance of the State of Texas and FEMA.



At this point, re-entry is completely restricted to authorized personnel ONLY.





Officials expected that cell phone service would be restored sometime today.





Citizens presently located on the island are asked to consider evacuating.





Texas Task Force 1 is currently searching Galveston homes and structures. The teams will move across the island east to west. Search activities should be complete in the next 72 hours.





We did receive a report that there may be some damage to the Galveston Causeway and that inspections should be completed within 24 hours.





Over the last 24 hours we have been tracking severe weather in Arkansas, Illinois and most recently have been in touch with Team members in Ohio who have had a day of high winds, power outages and minor damage. Reports are that over 1.5 million people lost power between Kentucky and Ohio today.

Time to pray...again.

I guess now is when we just sit for a while and pray. The latest aerial footage of Bridge City is grim and a request was made to residents in the region with boats to respond for rescue assistance.

Coast Guard choppers seem to fill the sky now and people that chose to ignore warnings are now in desperate need of rescue. We will continue to post updates, but now will be looking toward disaster recovery efforts.

If you want to help, please plug in to an organized entity and find out just what assistance is actually needed.

Stay tuned…

Take a nap between press conferences!

IKE hit Galveston texas officially around 3 am this morning (EDT) as a very strong Category 2, just one mile per hour shy of a Category 3 although some winds from this storm, as evidenced in Galveston and Houston, were of Category 4 strength. The power of Ike’s storm surge was incredible, actually a 5 on a scale of 1 to 6 according to NOAA’s experimental Integrated Kinetic Energy product. This puts Ike at the same strength as Katrina as far as storm surge…an interesting fact you probably are not going to hear from standard weather or news coverage.

Galveston’s Sea Wall worked well for them as storm surge was around 12 to 14 feet enhanced by high tide and high winds. Some storm surge was recorded near 20 feet as we expected near Galveston Bay. As we watched landfall, Ike’s pressure started to drop just moments before landfall meaning that he was strengthening even more, but the combination of Ike’s enormous size and the fact that he made a direct hit rather than slightly south of Galveston saved the city from what could have been worse, although the Coast Guard has already rescued over 100 people this morning that decided to stay after evacuation orders were issued.

This is not to minimize at all what has happened. We have no real death tolls, and damage reports are hindered by rescue efforts right now so I expect we will be seeing horrific reports over the next 48 hours and then the recovery will really begin in an area inundated by water with buildings and homes still burning, disease, mosquitos and missing people.
Houston was still experiencing high winds at 6 am this morning and the downtown area looks horrible. Galveston has been reduced to a city of debris and smoke and water right now and despite cautions and warnings, people are out and about gawking at the damage. Folks, there are power lines everywhere throughout this region, debris, broken glass and flooded roadways…GO HOME!

The next few days will bring about better reports and we will continue to monitor radio transmissions from the region for you as well as contacting folks we have in the area that can give us SUBSTANTIATED reports. This brings up another issue: right now, much of the media is struggling to stay on the air with “Up to the minute coverage” yet we are seeing a lot of unsubstantiated reports emblazoned across the bottom of many screens here in the Tracking Center. One report said that the 6th floor of a hotel was flooded, yet another channel had a reporter on the second floor of the same hotel reporting live. I suggest you stay tuned here or watch the press conferences throughout the day if you want accurate reports before you panic and assume Grandpa and Grandma must be dead. We have found that Texas television KHOU has stayed on things, broadcasts ACTUAL interviews with officials and is showing video from many areas rather than simply those hardest hit. You can watch KHOU online.

As for missing people or checking on loved ones, I suggest you email info@ chasing4life.org or hit the KHOU website forums today rather than relying on safeandwell.org as that website, although designated for just such a purpose, has only had about 25 posts in the last 24 hours. Like the evacuation order that was not heeded because of sore feelings and bad memories after Rita, I believe that safeandwell is probably not people’s first choice for the same reason.

Trust is a big deal during a time like this, and it is unfortunate that after disasters like Katrina, the public ceases to trust at such a level that potentially useful projects and efforts are overlooked for years to come, but this is what we are seeing.

During Katrina and Rita we stayed very active in tracking reports and assisting in the search for missing people. With over 13,000 posts on our forum website from 2004 to 2005, we learned the value of reporting only what we KNOW. I guess you could say that what stands the test of time is “Coverage you can count on”.

Ike has made me think that we should re-open our search forums again, but for now, my hat’s off to KHOU for a job well-done. Their city and surrounding area can be proud of that station and its reporters.

Stephanie Abrams and Mike Bettes, Jim Cantore and the Mike Sidell once again showed how professionals operate, making sure that they made it clear to viewers that they were reporting from a dangerous situation in order to keep folks from going outside. Another job well-done.

I have to recognize at least one more guy, and I wish I had his name. There was a CNN reporter last night that made a speech about the importance of responsible reporting and pointed out in no uncertain terms that he was risking his life in the hopes of people watching him and deciding to NEVER ignore evacuation orders again. My hero.

Once we have established better radio contact with Galveston, we will update you some more.

Watch carefully…

Oh yeah, there is a depression in the mid-Atlantic…

Finding Mom

KHOU TV has a forum for attempting to communicate with loved ones. It is located at www.khou.com/forums

Area Reports

Here is a preliminary report from KHOU TV in Texas:

Harris County: Harris County Office of Emergency Management suspends 911 service in Pasadena because of problems. People urged to call (713) 920-2136, (713) 920-1604, (713) 475-9714 and (713) 472-0144

CenterPoint says customers with service through above ground lines are without power

Conroe: Half of the city is without power

Liberty County: Reports of roof torn off of a home near 2018 Grand Ave.

Dickinson: Residents asked to boil water

West Houston: Building collapse at the Palm Court Apartments on 90 Country Place near I-10 and the Beltway

Reliant Center: Hole in the roof

Clear Lake: Damage reported at the Hilton Hotel on Clear Lake Blvd.

Galveston: Hooters restaurant damaged

Galveston: Several boats caught fire at the Galveston Yacht Basin Friday afternoon, but weather conditions prevented fire crews from responding.
Houston: Brennan's restaurant burned to the ground. Three people were hurt.
Downtown Houston: Bus shelters knocked over and shards of glass raining down from
Galveston: There's about three feet of water inside the courthouse building, according to Galveston County Emergency officials. There are 27 people currently inside that building but EOC officials believe they are perfectly safe, because they have moved to the second floor. The water was beginning to recede a bit by 3 a.m., so they’re not worried about it coming up further. The courthouse still has power because it is running on a generator. The people inside managed to move most of the first floor computers and several boxes of election materials up to the second floor before it flooded.

Deer Park: The roof has blown off the Casa El Dora apartment complex at 200 Helgra. Six residents were being taken elsewhere and no one was hurt.

Matagorda County: With Ike making landfall on Galveston, Matagorda County found itself more on the “clean” side of the storm.
John O’Connell with the Matagorda County Office of Emergency Management in Bay City said that outside of power interruptions, there were not reports of major problems within the county.
“We’ve had some gusts of wind and some rain, but no major rain,” said O’Connell.

Kemah: City adminsitrator Bill Kerber said there is high water across Kemah. Six feet deep even in higher areas. City hall and the fire station have some water in them, not sure yet how much. City Hall, which is on Highway 146, sits at roughly the high point in Kemah.

La Porte: With the eye of Hurricane Ike approaching, officials in this Galveston Bay community had reports of widespread street flooding, but no major damage.
But EOC head Jeff Suggs said the true extent of Ike’s damage wouldn’t be known until an assessment of the city could be made at first light after Ike had moved on.

Texas City: Officials in Texas City were breathing a presumptive sigh of relief early Saturday morning as it appeared that the levee system that encircles the city held back the vicious storm surge of Hurricane Ike.
Most of the city is without power and there are lots of downed power lines and tree limbs. Clawson said too that what water was coming into the city was quickly receding.
The local refineries and chemical plants also reported no significant damage.
He stressed that the city won’t be totally out of the woods until Saturday afternoon.
“It’s not where we wanted to be, but it doesn’t look like we suffered any major damage,” said Clawson.

Friendswood: Officials in Friendswood have been unable to assess what damage has occurred because of Hurricane Ike. Police Chief Bob Wieners said there have not been any calls to the public safety building of major damage within the city.
Power has been cut off to most of the city, he said.
He also said there were no calls from residents of life-threatening instances.

Angleton: A large chunk of the Brazoria County Courthouse was blown off by the winds of Hurricane Ike. It also damaged some cars that were in the parking lot.

Freeport: A police car had a window smashed out by flying debris. There are also downed street lights throughout the city.

San Leon: Boats pushed up out of the water into yards and houses

Jersey Village: The roof was blown off a hotel on 290 and Jones Road in Jersey Village and into power lines. The lines are across a feeder road. About 55 occupants were moved to a temporary shelter.

9 AM Update

Good morning. We slept a little early this morning but we are back now. radio frequencies are hard to listen to this morning as Emergency Management and Responders are on the streets and beginning door to door searches in Galveston and Houston just begins to assess damage.., That damage includes windows out, homes destroyed and widespread flooding. Several fires are still burning without any attendance yet, so the day will be a long one.

Death tolls are not an issue right now as daylight has only now allowed action on the part of search and rescue so we will be monitoring that as well this morning as we report to you. Millions are without power and we cannot stress enough how important it is to try to keep your phone calls to a minimum despite the urge and desire to try to reach loved ones. Clogged lines deter those in real need from making calls that they need to make right now.

We will have an update for you agai in an hour as we gather information, but for now we know that there is millions without power and it was a scary night as Ike made landfall during our last blog post.

We know that Galveston experienced winds in excess of 110 MPH as the eyewalls struck the island and according to reports, we had over 140,000 folks in the evacuation areas that did not evacuate. FEMA is on top of things with several thousand officials at the ready and a plan to begin shipping in packaged meals, generators and water.

Ike is still a Cat 1 and storms will continue throughout the day.

Another update soon.

Ike 1AM Update

Ike is only a few miles from landfall now. It is still hovering on the edge of Cat 2/Cat3. Current reports indicate a 12ft. storm surge in Galveston. Authorities have received several calls from residents needing rescued from the rising water in their homes. Unfortunately, they were warned to evacuate, chose not to, and now rescue is not an option. In addition, Centerpoint Energy is now reporting 750,000 power outages and estimate it could be 2-3 weeks before all power is restored. We knew it would be bad, morning will tell the full story. We are going to nap a little, but will continue to update throughout the night. Stay safe.

Ike Report

Just a quick update. We just heard the first floor of UT Medical Hospital in downtown Galveston is flooded with 10ft. of water. We will have more information in our next hourly update.

Ike Midnight Update

Ike is only about 35 miles from Galveston now. It is still a Cat 2 and the NWS is saying to expect 50ft. waves and peak wind gusts of 115mph. We are starting to hear numerous reports of trees and power poles down. Everyone needs to beware of Ike's large, slow moving eye. Avoid the temptation to venture out as the eye passes over. While the winds will be somewhat calmer for a few hours, the storm surge will still be building. The Coast Guard is estimating as many as 37,000 people may need rescued after Ike passes. Stay safe, more updates to come.

Ike 11PM Update

Not too much change. Ike has slowed down slightly, but the eye will make landfall in the next couple of hours. It has shown some signs of strengthening still with an increase in upper level winds. Centerpoint Energy is now reporting 425,000 power outages, and fire crews are reporting several large fires around Galveston that they are still unable to get to. As I said before, we are here for the duration and will continue to update Ike's intensity and any damage or other pertinent information we recieve here at the tracking center.

10 PM Ike Update

(Left: Eddy and John at the KHAS Weather Center during the 6'0'clock news)

Well, we are only a couple of hours away from Ike's landfall and the hurricane is now just 1 MPH shy of being a Cat 3 hurricane before it makes landfall. The lower parishes in Louisiana are taking quite a hit from wind and water but Galveston is still taking the brunt of Ike's fury with water continually rising and wind gusts now in excess of 130 MPH out in the water...soon to be on Galveston's shore. The latest report shows Ike gaining strength and centering it's eye on Galveston Bay and then directly on to Houston.

On a lighter note, geraldo is standing out on the sea wall in Galveston doing his "thing"; in other words, once again being the perfect example of irresponsible as soon he will need rescuing and will then endanger the lives of responders who I hope are too smart to go get him.

The Weather Channel has done an awesome job today on the other hand and I am extremely impressed with Texas station KHOU-TV.

KHAS has dedicated more time than usual to the weather, and you will be able to catch our web broadcast here shortly by visiting http://www.khastv.com/. Eddy has been at the station all evening and we will have a KHAS crew here at the C4L Tracking Center in the morning to further cover this major weather event.