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A Neighbor's House Nearby
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Sunday, September 14th, 2008
I am so glad we have a generator! Sleeping with the fans going made a huge difference last night even though the temperature in the house is about 82 degrees. We had heavy rains this morning between 3 and 4 am that dropped another 2 to 4 inches of water on the Houston area. We were not expecting that. The weather stations focused so much of their attention of where Ike was headed next they didn’t report what was coming at us. Consequently, those with roof damage from fallen trees sustained additional water damage from the unexpected deluge during the night.
Dave and Ben both joined work crews to help friends and neighbors who had sustained the most damage (photo below). Not knowing when power would return or gas stations would be able to pump gasoline, people were encouraged to conserve fuel and resources. It was quiet here at the house.
Monday, September 15th, 2008
City and State officials are eager for people to get back to work and for things to get back to normal. I was supposed to go to Conroe this morning for jury duty but couldn’t imagine they’d be up and running and holding court. Guess I’ll get another opportunity to serve sometime.
Our house was like Grand Central Station today. Friends, family and neighbors dropped in all day long borrowing tools, shuffling food back and forth among those with generator power and venturing out to fill up 5-gallon gas cans. Most were anxious to share their personal experiences from the storm so we organized a dinner party for our street. Other streets did the same. When the wind picked up in the afternoon, we moved the party indoors. Everyone brought something to share and we sat around for a couple of hours talking and laughing.
As soon as we learned that one of the power companies sustained serious damage to their equipment and had to order new parts before they could begin to restore power, we realized it was going to be several days at the least and up to two weeks for some before we’d have power. Those neighbors who had been reluctant to run extension cords to our house to keep their refrigerators cool were now very interested in doing so. We ended up supplying minimal power to all six houses in our cul-de-sac. Each extension cord was able to run a refrigerator, minus the light bulbs inside, a floor fan, a lamp and cell phone chargers.
[Note: In the course of replacing light bulbs and using a gadget to measure how many watts our appliances pull, Dave discovered that we have 7 light bulbs in our refrigerator! It took more generator power to run those light bulbs than the refrigerator itself! So there’s a place where you can save money on electricity – replace those bulbs with fluorescent bulbs.]
Because we had replaced incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs, we were able to power the lights, ceiling fans, computers, refrigerator, chest freezer, washing machine and any appliance that does not generate heat. We were inconvenienced very little by the power outage even with five other houses hooked up to our generator. And the level of our comfort convinced most of our neighbors to get a generator for themselves long before the next hurricane threatens us.
Photo: The Gasoline Line on the main street in front of our housing development. Cars were lined up as far as you could see to the left, as in the photo, as well as to the right.]
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Some gas stations are running off of generators and the lines are very long. Dave’s niece ventured out yesterday to fill up some gas cans only to get close enough to see the gas station when they ran out of gasoline. She said that our main arterial to the freeway smells like a garbage dump from all the rotten food in the roadside restaurants.
A couple of our neighbors were successful in getting gasoline today and brought 5 gallon cans in to keep the generator going. More and more gas stations are opening up each day running off of generators. With gasoline becoming more and more available, work crews are venturing out to cut up fallen trees and clean up debris. Local officials have instructed us to bag the debris and set it out separately from household trash on pick up days.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
People are anxious to get their lives back to normal and many returned to work today only to be sent home. Without power there is little they can do. Gasoline seems to be readily available again. Dave and I went to Home Depot and the grocery store. Semi trucks were unloading power equipment at Home Depot and it was going out the door as fast as it was coming in. There were lots of people there but not as many as yesterday. Dave said that yesterday, Home Depot was only letting so many people through the door at one time and there had been a shooting somewhere over a generator.
The grocery stores are all running on generators. We found the fresh produce we wanted; bread was being sold as fast as it was being delivered as well as dairy products. Freezers were empty or taped off to prevent customers from buying foods that had gone bad. Cases of new products were stacked everywhere. Employees were having a hard time keeping up with the demand.
I discovered today that I could run the washing machine even with five other houses tapped into our generator. I was very surprised. My neighbor next door discovered that she could use her gas dryer from the extension cord running from our house to hers. We let everyone know they could wash at our house and dry clothes next door if they wanted.
Note: Its time to get a gas dryer!
As Dave was on his way to help a friend with their fallen trees and roof damage, our SUV got hit with a paintball. Dave spun the car around and saw several teenagers take off. He followed the larger group and caught up with them. With cell phone in hand, he gave them the option to fess up or he’d call the police. No one admitted to anything so he called 911. An officer who was in the area responded immediately and then the kids spilled their guts. Dave was not interested in pressing charges; no damage had been done. But he was concerned that a paintball could hit another vehicle and cause the driver to swerve and hit another vehicle or person on the street. The kids got a warning from the police officer and Dave suggested to them that if they were bored they could get some garden tools and go help their neighbors clean up debris.
Our neighbors across the street are originally from India and have relied on us a lot during this storm. Their teenage son has gotten involved in working with local clean up crews and comes home every night feeling great about the experiences he’s had rendering service to those in need.
Power crews from neighboring states have arrived and more and more people are having their power restored every day. There is a great sense of community here – of people helping people and working together to get things cleaned up and back to normal. Words cannot express the gratitude people feel at having their power restored. We hear we may get power back by Friday.
Some kids are back in school now but many are not. Families that would have taken off for Dallas or Austin or San Antonio remained because half their kids were in school and half were still at home. Moms are beginning to go stir crazy without all the electronic gadgets that keep kids entertained.
Chain Saw Crew Member Gets Creative...
...A young Mom gets a new patio chair
out of the tree that fell in her yard.
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Dave worked most of the day today on a work crew removing fallen trees from people’s yards. He said a lot of good was done today.
Friday, 19 September 2008
Dave and Ben both went out this morning to join a work crew removing more trees. While they were gone I tackled the huge job of cleaning out my garage/shop and putting everything away that got piled in there before the storm. Still no power. We hear we may not get it until next Thursday.
Our neighbors across the street acquired a generator from Chevron who was making them available to some of their employees. They were very excited until they could not get the electrical connector to hook the generator up to their electrical panel; all of the home improvement centers were out of stock on such supplies. But they ended up using their generator to power the neighbors’ houses on their side of the street and we continued to power the houses on our side of the street.
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Dave left this morning to join a Church work crew in an outlying area. I think it will be the last work project he does. There isn’t that much left to do. Some folks need professional tree removal.
Dave ran into an older couple the other day who were quoted $800 to have their fallen trees removed professionally. That would take their entire monthly social security income. So Dave got a volunteer work crew over to their place to take care of the tree for them. They were most grateful (see below). Dave was glad they could provide the service.
He has had some interesting experiences out in the community with these work crews. Some people don’t want volunteer help because they believe their insurance companies will pay them to remove their own trees. One lady with a few ruffled shingles was convinced that her insurance company was going to replace her entire roof. Many homeowners have been willing to help with the work on their property while others expect the government or somebody else to come do the work for them and they refuse to help themselves.
FEMA finally set up a POD (Point of Distribution) just across the street from our housing development and the Salvation Army came in with hot meals twice a day. The grocery stores are open here just down the street and they are well stocked. Those without power have ice chests and ice. I am sure there are some in our area who are grateful for the bottled water and ice that FEMA provided, as well as the hot meals, but I suspect many of those in line didn’t really need the help but were interested in the handout because it was free.
The weather all week has been temperate and pleasant. It has been a great blessing to those without power. The heat and humidity returned today and we are all anxious to have power restored so we can use our air conditioners. How spoiled we are!
Sunday, 21 September 2008
We were just finishing up a big family dinner this evening about 5 pm when someone knocked on the door and Dave left. I thought it was a neighbor with a problem. Then the generator died. The lights went out and the fans stopped working. A few minutes later the lights and fans came back on but the generator was still off. The power was back!!! Our neighbors were dancing in the street! It was a wonderful surprise. We closed up the windows and got the AC going. That felt great!
Friday, September 26th, 2008
Two weeks to the day, most of those still without power finally got power restored and all the kids are finally back in school. But we know of isolated pockets in the area that remain without power. An older gentleman we know lives on a piece of wooded acreage not too far from us. He still has trees down over his power lines. He has seen power crews come in, take a look at all the work there is to do on his property, turn around and leave. They are still trying to get as many people restored to power each day as they can. Eventually they will get back to take care of our friend.
