Wow, this sounds pretty bad. Sounds almost like Katrina 2. Almost - much lower death toll of course. But still, a huge disaster. 2.2 million without power...37,000 people in shelters...and stories of serious unpreparedness by relief services - running out of supplies, services asking the public they are supposed to help for support, etc. Shit. So, Tex, what say you? Hyperbole or not? How bad is it? Then again, it's Houston - aka "Fat City" (well, formerly) - those people can probably survive months on just their body fat. And in case of flood, they serve as their own flotation device. Then again: I guess they aren't used to going without food for very long there...keeps up, they may start eating each other...
Well, there's no supplies for the people wanting to stay in Galveston because they're trying to get them to leave. Search and Rescue on Galveston Island isn't oriented towards keeping them there.
That makes sense. They should have been there in the first place, IMHO. It's places like Houston that sound really bad. The picks on the link show lots of lines and such at relief centers. I'm - all kidding aside - just trying to get a sense of the scope of this. (I was born in Dallas - and went back a lot between my dad's posting overseas - and spent some time in San Antonio when I had my first surgery at 7, and towards the end I was actually allowed to leave the hospital for trips and got to tour the town, top to bottom. I really enjoyed it.)
The worst stuff is south of Houston. I still don't have power or water at my place so I am staying with a girl who does. Seems like every tree in town fell down and took a power line with it. Gas lines are about 6 hour long, I filled up before the hurricane and am not driving when I don't have to. On the other hand, last night I ate Chinese food and tonight I had pizza hut. Stores are open if you need the basic supplies in Houston. But things vary so much from block to block it is hard for me to say what the situation is like anywhere but pretty much right where I'm at. Caboose can probably offer more insight about what's going on in the South East area of town.
Ouchl there was a small micrburst a few years back in rockford that knocked power in places for as along as few weeks. We had power back in several days. Power was fluctuating at rvc.
According to the Chronicle and other news sources, it's not that there are shortages in houston, it's that the trucks getting the supplies in are being blocked by traffic from all the people out gawking and driving around.
Sounds more like Andrew Part Deux to me. Yeah I heard about the logistics fuck up with the NG troops and was like And they were expecting FEMA to feed them? The power loss doesnt surprise me. Man it was close to a month before some areas of Miami got their power back. Even with those lessons learned, even in Florida it can still take 3 or 4 weeks to get power back up and running. Thats a shit load of infrastructure to deal with rebuilding Oh and if any one can give me a report on how the Woodlands came through I'd appreciate it. How many trees collapsed? Im figuring its a night mare of downed trees and power lines. Friends of ours live there and their eldest (14 yo) suffers from a form of MD and its critical that he has power for his life support mechanisms and I havent heard from them in a week.
Question - if rebuilding costs so damn much every time, why don't gulf coast cities bury their power lines instead of putting them back on poles for the next storm? Might cost more initially but it would have to pay off
We've been told that the over all expense of burying them would still be more than the cost and inconvenience of just restringing lines after every storm
No shit. Yes, I know it's expensive. But, what modern subdivision isn't burying it's infrastructure? The only argument aside from cost I can think of off the top of my head is flooding, but that was figured out a long time ago with undersea cables.
Interesting. Evil Liberal Media™ affiliate NPR did a story on how the response is much better than Katrina (and about as well as can be expected in a, you know, disaster). It looks like FEMA actually managed to get its shit together.
Say it aint so. Why the fuck aint they sharing this technology? If only the power companies down here knew about that Oh its not aimed at you. Its just that the power companies are fucking lazy and too cheap. They would save money in the long run with burying the cables, but I guess there is more money to be made by restringing the lines.
I've got some friends that work for Alabama Power as linemen. It can't be more expensive than the pay they get when they go to neighbor states to help clean up after a disaster (hurricanes in Florida, MS, and LA and tornadoes in others). They get something like $100 per hour plus expenses. I can only imagine what rate Alabama Power is billing the other companies for a few thousand employees, vehicles, and materials (poles, lines, etc.).
[Tinfoil hat time] I got it!!! See they dont bury the lines so that everyone rotates helping each other out, for a fee. Thats gotta be nearly close to free income to the power companies! [/Tinfoil hat time]
