RLW O brother, where art thou?

It's actually only been a little over a week, though it does feel like longer.  There's still a significant number of people with no power; in the hundreds of thousands and a lot of those are people that live in houses with big trees around them.  He only lives about five minutes from me, but I don't know if he has power yet or not.  A lot of the stuff east of I-45 got hit with storm surge too.  I hope he didn't get any of that.  Even if he didn't though, there has been a lot of roof damage in our area, so a lack of storm surge doesn't mean he didn't get water damage.
 
Although I sincerely hope he isn't among them, were there a lot of injuries down in that area? 
 
I haven't too much about injuries to be honest and about half of the deaths last I checked were from the improper use of gasoline generators.  They accounted for a good number of hospitalizations.  A lot of the others were people that needed power for dialysis and things like that.  Most people that needed to get out did.  The biggest area of concern is the Bolivar Peninsula where around 250 people got cut off by water before they could get out.  That area was completely and totally devastated.  More buildings along the coast completely gone than not.
 
I assume he's OK but too busy with the cleanup to talk about guitars.  Hopefully we won't hear otherwise...
 
He said he was leaving on the other thread.  The roads didn't become impassible in our area to my knowledge.  I'd be amazed if he didn't get out for some reason.  Even if he didn't, I'd be surprised if anything bad happened.  And like I said before, he may very well still be without power.
 
From Wikipedia:

On the morning of September 13, 2008, the eye of Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast near Galveston Bay, making landfall at 2:10 a.m. CDT over the east end of Galveston Island. [79] People in low-lying areas who had not heeded evacuation orders, in single-family one- or two-story homes, were warned by the weather service that they may "face certain death" from the overnight storm surge.[80]

In regional Texas towns, electrical power began failing before 8 p.m. CDT,[81] leaving millions without power (estimates range from 2.8 million[82] to 4.5 million [83] customers).

In Galveston, by 4 p.m. CDT (2100 UTC) on September 12, the rising storm surge began overtopping the 17-ft (5.2 m) Galveston Seawall, which faces the Gulf of Mexico;[84] waves had been crashing along the seawall earlier, from 9 a.m. CDT.[85] Although Seawall Boulevard is elevated above the shoreline, many areas of town slope down behind the seawall to the lower elevation of Galveston Island.

According to RLW's profile, he was seen last at "2008-09-12, 09:31:50", when he said:

Later, guys. Moving to higher ground. Grabbing the dog and a few guitars, and that's it.

So it looks like the flooding was getting pretty bad around that time, but he left home.  If his computer got drowned he probably hasn't replaced it yet, or the power might still be down.   :guitaristgif:
 
damn, we guys here dont realise how bad the situation has been, or was, or is. We naggre around about the new governmentplan for next parliamentairy year, about water from the sea and from the rest of Europe that MIGHT flood us (though the dykes are quite ok for the next 3 to 7 years I believe). I hope it will turn out allright in the end.
 
sounds like he cut it kind of close. How did you fair, Lucky? Also, I think Super Turbo deluxe and Marko were in texas at the time. I know it's a big state...



Brian
 
dbw said:
According to RLW's profile, he was seen last at "2008-09-12, 09:31:50", when he said:
Later, guys. Moving to higher ground. Grabbing the dog and a few guitars, and that's it.
So it looks like the flooding was getting pretty bad around that time, but he left home.  If his computer got drowned he probably hasn't replaced it yet, or the power might still be down.   :guitaristgif:

He actually posted another message  on September 12, 2008, 04:17:52 pm  under a different account: "lspaulsp", writing:
RLW here, we're bunkered in behind a 43 year old levee, while watching parts of Galveston burn to the ground. My house, being right on a bayou, was rapidly becoming a deathtrap. As cocky as I tried to sound the other night, conditions went downhill rapidly last night. The thing that sealed the deal was looking at my dog's nose being one foot above the ground, and knowing that if the shite hit the fan, she would be a goner.

Don't know why he used that account and not his usual one, but from what he wrote I gather he didn't move all that far. Lucky, any chance of checking on him?
 
There's been a fairly effective news "brownout" instituted by the federal government - they posted a "no-fly" zone above Galveston so that news helicopters couldn't broadcast "disturbing" images like they did after hurricane Katrina. Like, of people starving and dying because the government screwed up.... before anything bad was even broadcast, FEMA was blaming local government for tanking the relief efforts - pre-spinning the story to keep it pointed their way. Because the major media have no pictures to show, they've already moved on to new & more visual stories, "Britney's underpants have been FOUND!" etc.
 
While the mainstream media's attention span has been, as typical, that of a gnat or a hyperactive pre-teen on crack, there has been extensive coverage available on the web. Here's a story from the NYTimes today on this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/media/22ike.html

The referenced TV station: http://www.khou.com/

Texas Gulf main newspaper sites:

http://www.chron.com
http://caller.com
 
We did ok.  Our fence got messed up but not beyond repair.

I think I have his address in my PM.  If I get a chance I may be able to run back that way later tonight and see what I can see.
 
Anybody starving and dying on Galveston Island is doing so after being warned there would be limited services on several occasions, offered free transportation off the island before and after the storm, and ignoring all common sense.  They had another path they could have taken and now people want to blame everyone but the one person who could have kept them out of the mess in the first place.  Galveston is unfit for human habitation right now.  They have no power, gas, phones, sewer, roads and on and on. 
 
bpmorton777 said:
sounds like he cut it kind of close. How did you fair, Lucky? Also, I think Super Turbo deluxe and Marko were in texas at the time. I know it's a big state...



Brian

it looks like Ike took a breather by the time it got to North Texas. all we got was a little rain! I believe Turbo and Dangerous experienced the same. strange thing is, one of my coworkers in Ohio was without electricity for 2 days because of Ike..
 
Fleeing, even from "certain death", is not part of the Texan psyche.  Remember the Alamo?  :(  Thankfully there seem to have been relatively few deaths, considering how bad the damage is.
 
dbw said:
Fleeing, even from "certain death", is not part of the Texan psyche.  Remember the Alamo?  :(  Thankfully there seem to have been relatively few deaths, considering how bad the damage is.

If you've seen some of the overhead shots of all the flotsam/wreckage littering the Gulf, there is probably an unknown number that got swept out with their houses in some places.
 
That's the concern on Bolivar Peninsula.  They have at least a few confirmed cases of people being swept out to see and they don't know how many more there could be.  Bolivar is completely obliterated.

There is a picture out there of where beach houses were and there is only one left standing.  That one's owners lost their house in Rita and had their new one constructed to take on a Cat 5.
 
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