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templelady
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Called ex this am (she lives in The Woodlands just north of Houston)

The storm has really wrecked havoc

They are all alive and well

But they have no power and have been told it will be at east two weeks and maybe even a month before they will have power

All the food in the freezer and refrigerator has spoiled

There is no gas because the stations can't pump without power

Any fuel brought in from outside the storm area is for emergency vehicles only.

The large oak by the hottub in the back yard fell on the house but from what they can see the roof is undamaged.

the other large tree is listing at a 45 degree angle

Even if you have fuel most of the roads are impassable and several of the freeways are flooded. There is really no place to go since stores etc are closed because of the lack of power and damages

Keep them in your prayers

Edited by templelady
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thanks much. TL for this info.........ex10 and hotsax have been on my mind throughout ike's miserable existence........i lost the phone with their number, so i've been hoping to see something from/about them here at the spot!.........sadly, the news isn't all that terrific......but, most importantly all are healthy, uninjured, and together..........

prayin' for all you greasespotters who were affected by ike..........let us know how you all is when you can...............thanks again templelady..................peace.

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I got to talk with Ex10 last night. She sounded so miserable. With having no power, it is stiflingly hot. She thought the house was undamaged but of course no-one has not been up a ladder to check the roof, but no water seems to have got in.

Her mum's home has also not suffered any damage though a tree has blown down.

Even so, Ex10 is better off than some people in Texas, who have been flooded or had considerable damage to real estate or to vehicles.

She can be phoned but not necessarily emailed (no power to hook up!). Prayers, of course, bypass "normal" worldly channels.

((((Ex10 and HotSax))))

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For those of you in contact with Ike victims...

I've been in the business of providing operational support for first responders (from a science perspective) for a number of years, especially with tropical cyclones (the broad name for any cyclonic storm, hurricane in the Atlantic, typhoon in the Pacific...so I am not going to entertain what often becomes the Greasespot debate cycle...I've also been through some pretty serious storms personally...

That said...

PLEASE encourage them NOT TO USE CANDLES. It is the third most common cause of death post a cyclone event. These people, as TL indicated, are tired, hot, hungry and generally miserable. With batteries running low and no power a candle seems obvious. However as tired as they can get; it is all too often someone falls asleep with a lit candle on the coffee table. Once the wax starts to run, if it runs onto the wood there is some chance (not giant but it happens every year) that the flame will follow the running wax and set the table on fire while they are sleeping. As exhausted as they are some will only wake up to find themselves being asphyxiated by the fumes of an already burning room.

Additional if there is significant local infrastructure damage they run the risk of gas line leaks being exposed to open flame.

If they feel they must use a candle - say it is dark and someone falls and needs first aid - use what are called utility candles (sometimes also referred to as plumbers candles). The fuel in those candles is a modified paraffin which burns almost completely with no dripping. Put the candle in a bowl, NOT a candlestick...a bowl big enough to hold the wax of the entire candle. Make sure the bowl is reasonably deep so that if the candle falls over it falls into the bowl and not out onto a table. EXTINGUISH the candle when done the emergency need.

Make the best of daylight hours and revert to "pre power" days of resting at night as best you can.

Since the newer, or renovated, parts of Texas will have phone infrastructure underground they will likely have phone even with no power. If they use any of the internet phone providers probably no dice. Avoid calling their cell phone since they have no way to charge them and may need them for local emergencies.

TL did the correct thing in passing on the info to a number of people for ex10 instead of causing ex10 to try and make a lot calls on her own...phone lines will be tied up anyway and a lot of cell towers will be down.

Thanks for listening (reading) and thanks for the show of compassion to the people stuck down there. Here is a useful link from the NHC although a lot of the discussion of preparation is currently immaterial for those already in the post storm recovery and mitigation.

http://www.weather.gov/os/hurricane/index.shtml

In addition each state as an emergency management office. Those in the Gulf Coast and East Coast areas have specialists in hurricane preparedness and recover. Texas follows:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/pages/index.htm

And Louisiana:

http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/

Edited by RumRunner
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I've been offline all day due to the remnant of Ike. Believe it or not here in Louisville we had Hurricane category 1 wind gusts (81 mph from the reports). I was flabbergasted at that. we are Ok, just some limbs down but it's a hassle basically no electricity and probably out for 4 or 5 days from what I've heard. I can't imagine the stuff going on closer to where Ike actually hit.

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I live an hour southeast of Columbus, Ohio and my power just now came back on...it's been off for about 20 hours.

Yesterday we had winds of 50-60 miles per hour all day long and there are still thousands and thousands of people with no electricity just in the Columbus area...

My heart goes out to our fellow greasespotters in Texas...

Edited by GrouchoMarxJr
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The effects of Hellstorm Ike are far-reaching -

here in the Chicago area, there are schools that are closed, and a lot of people have lost power, due to flooding from all the rain we got from Ike.

For the first time ever, the Chicago River overflowed its banks.

For a lot of people, it took 4 or 5 times as long as normal to get to work this morning.

It's this bad over 1000 miles from Houston - I cannot possibly imagine how hard life is going to be in the Houston area for the next month!!

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((((((((((ex10))))))))))) and all the rest of the affected Tejanos!

I'm just thankful I evacuated from Texas back in '88 and was reminded this past weekend of why.

We, here in the Ozarks, got the remnant of Ike Saturday night. I was happily chatting with Doojable in the GS chatroom when I lost power at straight up midnight. She probably thinks I hung up on her cuz she was speaking EVIL of Dallas, TX, but it was a power failure. I just now got power and internet service back up and running about an hour ago.

Dooj is probably okay since the brunt of the storm headed off to the east and, as everyone knows, Fort Worth is where the west begins. I think Tom Strange lives in FW, also, or in that vicinity. I pray all is well with them, also.

I was pretty amazed at the intensity of the storm that blew thru our hills, knowing we only got a tiny leftover corner of a remnant (most of it was in Oklahoma) and was struck by how violent it must have been when it made landfall in Galveston and Houston. I've been thinking and praying for ex10, ex70shouston and all the others who weathered that horrific storm.

Watching newscasters on tv blowing around in the wind and rain just doesn't do justice to the reality of these dreadful things.

I haven't had any news or anything since Sat night, but last I heard, the storm was headed off to Chicago where there was already flooding from an already existing storm system.

I think ol' p-mosh lives in the Houston area, but was evacuated to Dallas or something. I hope and pray all is well with him and his family.

A lot of local folks are packing their chainsaws and heading south to volunteer assistance and I may join them. Many think they can be of real help to folks down there and be recompensed with free firewood for the winter.

Groucho...

I'm amazed and appalled that you'd feel the effects all the way up into Ohio. These storms seem to have a life of their own.

Glad all is well with you and yours.

Edited by Ron G.
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Ron - The previous storm system that you mentioned that Chicago dealt with was the remnant of Hurricane Gustav.

And we actually started getting rain from Ike at about 2 AM Saturday, and it rained - hard! - for most of the next 36 hours straight.

Edited by Steve!
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templelady,

Thanks for info! I was wondering how ex10 and family were doing, we were lucky here in east Texas, only had our power off for 20 hours. Thousands more do not have power at this time, and this area was hit pretty lightly compared to the Houston area. ex10, we will be thinking about you. :)

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I sat on my front porch Sunday and watched as 75 mph winds toppled a massive Black Walnut tree.

The wind was literally stripping the green leaves right off the trees.

Power here is expected to be restored by week's end.

I borrowed a bit of power from my neighbor's generator to run the refrigerator.

Mother Nature is one tough lady.

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My niece is in Houston and lives close to one of the downtowns. Her place was untouched. There are areas of Houston with power, but it is difficult to get around due to the fallen trees and such. There was no gas or bottled water prior to the storm with everyone filling up and stocking up, but she had been able to grab a shower on Sunday with power on temporarily, so I'm not as worried. Apparently there was a generator available, but they weren't as well stocked with gas as they needed to be.

You would think that everyone in that area would have a "72 hour" kit.

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Good afternoon folks.

I'll write something up real quick just to let you all know that my family and I are ok. The storm moved a bit so we ended up being on the eastern side of the eye, so we didn't get it as bad as other areas of Houston. We lost power Friday afternoon, it just got restored this afternoon. Our house suffered no damage that I've seen so far, other than a few plants leaning over and my fence leaning over. Obviously all our food in the fridge was lost, but I grilled up as much as I could and we drank all the beer (I would have done this without the storm, of course.) My employer ended up messing up and only sending a few people to Dallas because they made the gamble that we wouldn't have to go into disaster recovery mode. It was a gamble they lost, and it sounds like there was a lot of problems as a result.

My thoughts are with those that are suffering, because as bad as it was for us to be without power for a few days, it's nothing compared to what others have been through. I've heard from everyone I know around here and while there has been some damage to property, it sounds like everyone survived without injury. Given what I've seen on my little 3.5 inch battery powered TV, I feel extremely lucky that we don't live somewhere like Galveston or Crystal Beach, which had areas of those towns literally wiped clean. No houses, no trees, nothing. Just a smooth area of ground where people used to live. It's horrible and I think the media hasn't been in to cover a lot of those areas yet, so this could end up being worse than Katrina in many ways.

I encourage all of you to donate to whatever charities you feel might be able to help people out here. People desperately need it. Once I can find a place with gasoline, I'll run some ice up to some friends of ours on the northeastern side of town that got hit hard.

If anyone is in contact with ex10 and if she is still without power, send me a PM please.

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