A Quick Journal About Ike

I thought that this was ironic. A scrap yard that is now nothing but scrap itself

(An explanation for this later. My computer (or the blog site) wont let me delete this photo)

Wed 9-10 The Radio host Tom Joyner just came to town. He remarks that Beaumont, Texas is nothing but refineries. Well... it is a port town (the second busiest in the country in terms of military equipment shipped for the Iraq War) that has petrol-chemicals as it's greatest employers. We're at the center of an area that refines about 20% of the country's petroleum products.

Ike is said to be headed south of us towards Brownsville or Corpus Cristi.

Thur 9-11 To the rest of the country, it is the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, The Pentagon (I had a cousin killed in the Pentagon attack) and the downing of a flight into a field in Pennsylvania.

There was a scene in Star Wars when the Death Star had blown up a planet and Obi Won Kanobi states that there has been a great disturbance in the Force. A kind of universal sigh in disbelief. I imagine that it was the same feeling felt when people learned of Pearl Harbor, the Killing of J.F.K., R.F.K. or M.L.K. .

Here in Beaumont (and the rest of the Gulf), we were waiting to see which direction the storm would take and awaiting word of a mandatory evacuation.

I spent the day re-boarding windows with ply-wood (after the false alarm that was Gustav) and making preparations to evacuate people who would need help in the process.

Fri 9-12 Scores of buses and planes are seen leaving town with the elderly and the ill.

There will be no local shelters open (not wanting to repeat the mistakes of NOLA during Katrina) and a dusk-till-dawn curfew has been put in place.

It's hot and the wind is picking up. I'm ready to shelter-in-place.

The low roar of the approaching hurricane can be heard in the distance.

The refineries are burning product (for safety reasons) and the night sky in neighborhoods surrounding the refineries looks as though it is on fire.

I decide to stay with some of my cousins tonight. This family is three generations of single mothers (for various reasons) and two teenage boys.

The lights go out about 10:45pm.

The women are terrified and want to leave for Houston (It's too late. And the storm should make landfall in Galveston and into Houston, so it's not a good idea.)

The kids burn though the batteries of their flashlights, cell phones, PSPs and portable televisions.

I just go to sleep. So does one of my young cousins.

Sat 9-13 I drive across town to check on my house with one of my cousins (The kid in the cast and white tee-shirt taking a break and letting a guy we met coming the other way take a few swings of the ax. [My cousin isn't up to chain saws yet...]). It's a five mile drive with trees and house parts blocking the roads. The trip takes about two hours to complete but there is at least one clear road. We chop, cut and push tons of debris from roads, deliver food and cooking supplies to needy people and make mitigating repairs to homes with no roofs. We make it to my house (minor damage that I repair in about an hour and a few fallen trees) and check on my neighbors. We then go back to his grandmothers house and cook ALL of the meat in the freezer and make Long Island Iced Teas and invite the neighbors over for dinner.

Sun 9-14 The water system is flooded with salt water so we have a boil-water notice. Above is the method of showering that we must use for the next few days. The alcohol burns because of the many cuts and scratches acquired in the clean up process. I've gotten my Tetanus shot but still don't wish to risk an infection. I thought that I was still in good shape (I can still run a 4.2 ... umm... 20. No, not 40) but...ouch. My abs, glutes and lats are killing me. My young and helpful cousin apologizes that he has to leave. His mother and grandmothers can't take the heat and lack of electricity and water so they decide to leave for Shreveport, LA (which is where the storm would head after it was through with Houston).

Mon 9-15 - Thurs 9-18 Fences, trees, roofs, windows and walls. I used to work in construction (back in the day) so I end up making free repairs to many homes. Ants, mosquitoes and snakes - all are common after a hurricane.

Fri 9-19 The lights finally come on. Air Conditioning, T.V. and a cold Coke. I may be addicted to Coke. All I wanted was an ice cold Coke for more than a week. Oh... I had warm Cokes but the things one looks foreword to. (I wanted to type all this on this day but there was (is) still a lot of work to be done.) I make deliveries of food to my tenants. One says that he found some food that a store had thrown out and that he was fine but wanted to know if I could get him a couple of packs of cigarettes. Yes. I knew how he felt - with me it was Coke but for him it was a cigarette.

Houston is not NOLA What was the difference in the case of Ike ? The people. The people are taking responsibility for themselves and are not expecting the Government to solve all of their problems. Yeah, there are some (actually, some of those in Houston are there because of Katrina) who still want Uncle Sam to do everything for them. The worst example is that one of my cousins got a hotel room in Dallas next to people still living in hotels three years after Katrina hit NOLA. WTF? People in Galveston were warned of "Certain Death" if they failed to evacuate.

Those you see on T.V. failed to heed the warnings. Crystal Beach, High Island and most of Galveston are largely white - so don't try to use race as an excuse.

Where are all of the tele-thons for these people? C'mon Kanye, tell me again that George Bush hates Black people. He may, but the response to Katrina wasn't racially motivated - it was simple incompetence.

Where is the uproar? 5th Ward in one city is the same as 9th Ward in the other. Why no cries of racism? Why not the endless blog posts about government neglect?

Oh, that's right...our economy is about to implode. We actually have common threats to our well being and not the minor inconvenience of someone not liking us or looking at us in the wrong way.

Maybe we're actually growing up and realizing that what's in our best interest is to work on what is actually important and not the trivial disagreements on gay-marriage, overturning Roe v. or Britney's shorn hair.

NOLA failed because everyone was waiting for someone else to solve their problems.

Houston (well, all of Texas) is doing better because we are doing the hard work ourselves and working together to fix our common problems.

We were warned of the collapse of the dollar in coming off of the gold standard. We were warned about foreign entanglements, we were warned of giving up our rights through the instruments of fear (Patriot Act).

If we're smart we won't suffer the fate of NOLA and be sitting around blaming everyone else for that which we should have prepared.