"B.", all: I think ya'll are safe in Austin. Dallas may get some 30-40 mph winds and lots of rain, but they need a bath up there. Might wash some of the snoot off of them. Heh.
I'm on the far west side of unincorporated Houston, inches away from Katy, TX. We expect to get tropical storm to low hurricane strength winds, lots of rain and lose electrical power for an indeterminate amount of time. From prior experience with Alicia in '83, it could be 5-10 days before the Houston area regains electrical power, depending on where one is located. Bleh.
Galveston and smaller communities like Seabrook have been flooding since this morning, and that was before any rain, any of the real storm surge and with Ike 185 miles still offshore. Galveston is not going to "be" for some time after this storm. Galveston is going down.
But that's not the worst of it. Flooding inside Galveston Bay and up the Houston Ship Channel will probably be catastrophic and certainly disrupt the Port of Houston, the many surrounding refineries and chemical plants. One estimate is that this could affect up to 20% of US refinery capacity. I don't know the exact figures on this, but with Houston being a sort of energy nexus, well, I think Ike is going to make another uncomfortable blip in the US economy.
I guess we're all somebody in Houston now that we've got Anderson Cooper holding ground and reporting live from downtown Houston. Pffssssht. He won't be able to report much from downtown once the glass starts flying. The real story is along the coastal region from Galveston on up to "The Golden Triangle" of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange, extending into the Louisiana coast. The projected surge from this storm is hard to get one's head around. I find it mind-boggling to even think about what is now happening in Galveston. Lots of memories there for me.
U of Texas Medical Branch has a facility in Galveston, and it is, unfortunately, one of the state hospitals designated for indigent care, servicing about 180+ counties. Yeah, you'd think they'd have such a hospital designated in Houston and it's enormous Texas Medical Center, but no, the poors have to trek all the way out to Galveston. Before the storm, the state announced a 20 million dollar cut in funding for indigent care at UTMB Galveston, with the goal of eventually decreasing and getting out of indigent care. I don't think that will be a problem for awhile, now.
Of course they also have a new Hazard Level 4 biolab at the UTMB facility, but I am sure that has been safely secured before the storm.
For the best coverage of what is happening down here, The Houston Chronicle is doing a pretty decent job (finally!) of covering this, and there are some good pictures. www.chron.com Also, their science writer's blog, the SciGuy, has been doing some of the best and most reliable reporting on this (or any) hurricane.
As for the positives and negatives of Houston, well, where to begin. We know the negatives; they are legion. But as a member of the Houston Opera Guild and a former docent, I feel quite confident in bragging about the arts scene in this strange - and yes it is a very strange - city. We're not just about oil and Bushes. Hell, we can't even field a decent NFL or NCAA football team in this city. Now how "Texas" is that! lol
I figure we'll lose power in another 4 or 5 hours. Winds are starting to pick up. I'm a bit concerned about a couple of pines becoming projectiles, but the odds are better that all I'll have to piss and moan about will be the lack of electricity and air conditioning in our hot September humidity. Let's hope so.
- Deborah, along the fringe of west Houston