The Oil Drum | Damage Caused by Hurricane Ike

51 comments on Damage Caused by Hurricane Ike - Open Thread

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ROCKMAN on September 15, 2008 - 3:35pm

Gail,

Here's the situation here on the ground in Houston. Just took a tour around the neighborhood (downtown). Much fewer stations open today then yesterday. And those open had 100 - 150 cars in line. And during the last two days I drove down to refinery row and have not seen one tanker truck on the road. They did have many tankers staged on the highways out of Houston to refuel evacuees on the way out.

I'm sure all the crews are working as hard as possible. But didn't see one elec repair crew working in Baytown...home of the largest refinery in the US. All the flare towers were burning and lookedlike most vessels were venting. Not really sure want that means. Most of the workers live in Baytown and they have no elect or water at home.

Our worse problem is that we just lost cable TV. Otherwise in great shape compared to 95% of everyone else.

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Ben on September 15, 2008 - 3:48pm

Thanks for this. All I hear is what is on the news (they took KHOU off of our satellite, and my wife is suffering withdrawals).

Here in the Brazos valley, our shelters are officially full; some homes w/o power (in rural areas), but nothing like what Houston / Galveston / Port Arthur / etc. has suffered.

I find the lack of comments on this thread interesting, either there is nothing new to say or interest has already moved on. Storm chasers are notoriously fickle :)

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Undertow on September 15, 2008 - 5:52pm

KHOU and all the other local channels at http://flhurricane.com/ikecoverage.html

To be honest I'm too shocked by what the local stations are showing to comment much more right now (see the Crystal Beach before and after shot in the previous thread . Yet watch BBC news in the UK and it's just as if nothing happened.

Oh local news just reporting that the Houston ship channel is "completely blocked with debris" and showed video of about 50 ships lined up just offshore unable to get in.

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DaveMart on September 15, 2008 - 5:48pm

Disaster is exciting, and attracts those not personally involved.
Even starvation may get an audience.

But grinding misery, poverty, and lives which are inconvenienced and disrupted will never attract the public.

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Undertow on September 15, 2008 - 6:00pm

Surely pictures like this (better posted in this thread anyway then the previous one ) should be front page news around the world.

Crystal Beach before and after. And this area of total destruction goes on for miles and miles and miles...

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DaveMart on September 15, 2008 - 6:02pm

The BBC for all it's pretensions is remarkably parochial.
It is also very bureaucratic, and has a party line on what it will show.
I prefer CNN, even though that also tends to superficiality.

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Undertow on September 15, 2008 - 6:22pm

Yes and I see that CNN International is starting to show before and after pics (but not getting to the worst yet). Auntie Beeb surely can't ignore the images of catastrophic destruction reaching its newsroom much longer. Maybe they have to wait for Anderson Cooper to break the news first.

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DaveMart on September 15, 2008 - 6:30pm

The BBC only covers London in any detail.
Floods in the North of England were virtually outside the pale, and were briefly reported then dropped off the radar.
The only other good way to get on the Beeb is to provide an 'ethnic' angle, to have an exotic location that a team might fancy jetting off to to 'research', or preferably both.

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WNC Observer on September 15, 2008 - 9:00pm

That looks strangely similar to the photos of Banda Ache after the Dec 26th '05 tsunami

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Undertow on September 16, 2008 - 11:10am

And Bush finally used the "disaster" word to reporters a few moments ago as he begins his tour.

Unfortunately all the local stations still streaming are still being transmitted with a high bitrate but the resolution and frames/sec is really degraded over what it was 48 hours ago so its very difficult to see clearly the helicopter shots. KHOU which was streaming in near broadcast quality seems to have stopped streaming completely. Hopefully just temporary technical problems.

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unrepentantcowboy on September 15, 2008 - 5:57pm

We're in the dark. I have a couple of adult children I haven't heard from in Conroe, Texas. I read that electricity there will be out for up to four weeks.

I think some of the problems to follow may be worse than the storm.

What happens when all these people now without a paycheck miss their house and credit card payments? Grocery stores need electricity to operate freezers and coolers. How long until there are food shortages? No A/C. Mosquitos. West Nile virus? Clean water? Inoperable sewer systems and all that entails.

Sooner or later there will be social unrest. Lots of pissed off people.

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Gail the Actuary on September 15, 2008 - 7:37pm

Thanks for giving us your on-the-ground report.

Usually on day two or three, all the reports are--we don't see much damage, things don't look too bad, etc.

The devil is in the details. The people operating refineries have to get close enough to see whether everything is in place to get started, workers are able to travel to the refinery, and crude oil and other necessary inputs (like natural gas) are available. All it takes is one supply line to break down, and it holds things up.

Also, the reports aren't looking at where people live, just the oil infrastructure. There can be a big difference.

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unrepentantcowboy on September 16, 2008 - 12:18pm

One of my sons made contact today from Conroe. He says 7 or 8 homes in his neighborhood had walls crushed by falling and flying trees. No electricity. No gasoline on a regular basis, but when a tanker does arrive, lines for fuel entail 3 to 4 hour waits.

No clean water, but they have restored a supply of contaminated water through the lines in places (much better than none).

Power in eastern Montgomery County (red-neckville) will not be restored until Oct. 14. He says power companies from all over the US are there however and he expects to see the juice restored on the West side soon (rich white folks live out that way). (The stuff in parenthesis is mine.)

Most people aren't working; those that are worry they won't be getting paid.

Fortunately the weather has been cooperative. We've had a cool spell. In mosquito paradise, that is really good news.

A lot of people sitting around waiting for a government issued debit card.

Wonder what all those folks that made fun of Katrina refugees think now?

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AlanfromBigEasy on September 16, 2008 - 2:56pm

Just a minor aside.

Approached by family @ Lowe's in New Orleans (next to truckstop, exit off I-10), two middle twenties blue collar plus @ 3 y/o daughter. Texas plates, said that they were from Bay City (Bay Town ?), Texas, evacuated and out of money & gas. Gas guzzling pick-up with bedding & luggage in back under tarps.

Directed them to shelters, explained local job situation, bought them 11 gallons of gas and a meal. Perhaps a scam, but it did not seem that way.

A story repeated many times over I am sure :-(

Best Hopes,

Alan

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jeffcc on September 15, 2008 - 6:06pm

It's not just here. Today's coverage about Ike in our paper described the weather over the weekend in the midwest. I had to work a bit to find an update on the situation in Texas.

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51 comments on Damage Caused by Hurricane Ike - Open Thread

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“Data always beats theories. 'Look at data three times and then come to a conclusion,' versus 'coming to a conclusion and searching for some data.' The former will win every time.”

—Matthew Simmons, ASPO-USA conference, Boston, MA, October 26, 2006