This is a continuation from events starting from
the end of yesterday's log.
I
found it hard to find sleep after finishing up my
recanting of details saturday morning. So once
again I crept through the house, looking out
various windows to catch glimpses of the storm
wailing outside.
I went out
into the garage and played with Duece for a few
minutes. He was happy for the company and I was
thankful for the coolness of the space, it being
the last place that I could smoke a cigarette and
still remain dry. The wind and the rain beat
relentlessly on the aluminum garage door,
imitating the sounds of bebes being rapidly fired
against it. Every so often, the wind pressures
outside would either give a heaving push on the
doors making the sound echo throughout the 2 car
wide area or suck it outward causing Duece's ears
to perk up in alert. I reassured him all was fine
and went back into the house.
I stood in front of the patio
doors and peered out into the darkened scene
before me. This alone was an active battle in my
head. Part of me kept thinking that this is the
worst possible place for me to be standing because
of the sheer vulnerablity of it all. At any moment
debris could come flying at the door, shattering
glass and me too. But the other part of me just
could not look away, kind of like the train wreck
cliche. Outside at the fence line is where the
back yard tree is located. Beyond the fence is an
open field that is owned by the electric company
because this field runs the lengths of several
blocks with a long line of transmission towers
that service all the homes in our neighborhood.
The tree is what held my attentive gaze as it
certainly appeared to be alive from all the
sporadic motions of the swaying branches. The
branches moved back and forth and up and down in
no particular order, but merely to the whim of the
winds that were rocking them. It was like a scene
right out of Harry Potter with a certain willow
tree. I gather that I must have watched the
dancing tree for about 30 mins before heading back
towards my room.
I stopped in
the happy room (cousin loves her smiley
faces......they are EVERYWHERE in this room) and
spoke to her for a while as we listened to radio
reports from the area. The voice on the wind up
radio said that they had been down in Texas City,
but had to retreat back North towards Houston
because the conditions had deteriorated so badly
and the flood waters were rising too quickly.
I returned to my room. I could
tell that the eye wall of the storm was nearing
because the winds had picked up even more outside
my window. The wall of the eye is always the
fiercest part because from this center is what
generates all the movement of the hurricane. The
headboard of my bed sits up against an exterior
wall of the house. Lying there, I could feel
vibrations. I placed my hand to the wall and
realized that the whole house was shaking from the
storm raging outside.
I
attempted to find sleep again, but a loud snap and
crack from outside brought me back to my feet. I
was sure that I had heard a branch break, but
could not make it out from my room window. I went
back into the happy room and looked out from
there. I could see the branch that had broken from
the great oak tree in our yard and that it was now
laying across the hood of my visiting cousin's
wife's truck. I could not see how much damage, if
any was done from my vantage point. I spoke to my
half sleeping cousin and told her what I
saw.....she mumbled something I didnt quite catch.
Since it was parked only a few feet from the front
door, I opened it to grab a quick peek. The
pressure inside the house immediately changed and
I could only bear to peer out for a brief moment.
This of course woke the sleeping cousin who
cautioned me NOT to do that again. Lesson
learned. Duh.
Next came a hard
single shake to the whole house. I could only tell
what side it felt like it came from, but not which
end. I looked out all windows I could see from,
but did not find the source. Oh well, it was time
to try for sleep again as it was now 6am. This
time sleep found me and I was out within moments
of shutting my eyes.
I awoke
and fumbled for my phone next to the bed. 10:30am.
I could still hear the rain outside, but the wind
had died down somewhat. The sky was light, but not
necessarily bright...typical with a gray cloudy
morning as if this was just another regular rain
storm. I surveyed the inside of the house. My
visting cousin and his wife were still sleeping,
evident by the deep snoring coming from beyond the
bedroom door. My other cousin was no where to be
found inside, so she must have gone out already. I
returned to my room to dress. Digging through my
suitcase, the irony did not allude me that I was
dressing as if it were an autumn morning back home
in Wisconsin. I pulled on jeans and my hooded RENT
sweatshirt and a pair of boots. Securing the hood,
I walked out through the garage, camera in hand,
patting Duece on my way out.
The rain outside was still
pretty constant, but light. The wind was still
blowing, but gusting at probably only 30-40 mph.
The debris was everywhere my eyes could see. Our
yard was littered with tree leaves, limbs and
branch sections. I got a better view of the large
branch laying across the truck and it appeared to
have escaped anything more than some possible
scratch damage. The 2 large trees in our front
yard had several snapped branches, both on the
ground and still clinging to tree by thin, yet
resilient tree skin and bark.
My priority was to survey our
house first, but I could not help but look at the
carnage up and down our street. There is a wooden
fence across the street from our house that runs
from the start of our block all the way down to
the dead end at the other end. Parts of this fence
were a casuality, laying flat in the middle of our
road. Best I can tell, this happened because for
that stretch of fence, there was a wide open
parking lot on the other side so there was lots
of area to build up the wind gusts. Also, judging
from the fact that it blew towards us instead of
away from us, the fence breaking had to have
occurred during the 2nd stage while the winds were
blowing from north to south. But again, that is
all just my uneducated speculation. Alas, I
digress...
The next door
neighbor's large pecan tree had uprooted and was
laying on their house. It appeared to have fallen
over in stages instead of crashing into it because
it did no apparent damage. My guess is that it
just came to finally rest upon it after slowly
loosing ground to the gale. That neighbor was
outside, busily sweeping her front porch amidst
the still swirling debris of the storm. My initial
mental picture compared that to straightening the
deck chairs on the Titanic as it sank. But, if
she needed to keep busy and distracted, that was
certainly an ideal activity. This particular
neighbor has the tendancy to be full of nervous
energy anyways.
I ventured
further down our street to see if the windows I
had taped up the day before had held and I was
pleased to see that they had. As far as I could
tell, no windows had blown out on our block.
I doubled back down our street
to our house which sits on the corner. It was then
that I saw we had lost a section of wood fence on
the side of the house and the gate as well. The
fence had been snapped from the ground, the posts
splintered from the buried section and lay flat,
creating a makeshift bridge into the backyard. I
carefully stepped on to it and over, concentrating
on keeping my balance on the soaked wood from the
wind gusts still blowing about.
The backyard was more of the
same scene. Copious amounts of debris were
scattered about, again mostly tree limbs, leaves
and small branches. No structural damage to been
seen. Small miracles.
In the
front of the house, on the corner, water was
pooling and creating a small flood into the
street. I quickly located the problem. Debris had
stopped up and blocked the water from reaching the
storm water drain. Time for the dirty work. I
yanked down my pant cuffs to cover the tops of my
boots and began sweeping the debris out of the
way, hoping all the while against disturbing any
critters that may have lodged there as well. Soon
there after, the water began flowing in and the
puddles were shrinking.
About
then, my cousin returned from checking on the
neighbors. Together we walked down the other
street to survey the other houses. The house on
the corner across from us looked like a jungle,
tons of wild plants and trees covered the yard
making it very difficult to even see the house
itself. About 5 houses down a tree had fallen into
an attached brick garage, cracking both the wall
and the foundation. That was pretty devastating to
see. We knocked on the door to see if the
inhabitants had fared ok, but no answer. The fence
on this block also lost a section of it to the
blowing wind. There was also the mangled roof of a
tin shed that had blown from the electrical
contractor company a block away. The shed was
twisted every which way and the roof had flown a
good 100 feet or so to have landed here at the
curb.
Further down the block
at the end of the street, a house had boarded up,
no cars in driveway. They got the hell out Dodge
remarked my cousin. Aww...spoil sports.
Back at the house, I was very
dismayed by the improbabilty a being able to brew
coffee. The generator was not operational yet and
the power inverter in the truck was no where near
able enough to produce the power necessary to run
the coffee pot. Certainly not for a lack of trying
though. In the end, I had to settle for bad
instant coffee.
Around noon, 3
of us set out to explore the rest of our
neighborhood, checking on friends as we went
along. 2 blocks behind us, a very large pine tree
had completely uprooted. It had missed the house
next to it, but demolished the front yard tree.
Amazingly it had also missed the pickup truck in
the driveway by less than 6 inches. Up close to
the fallen monster, the smell of pine permeated
the air...obviously from the pine needles now
strewn all over this mans yard.
Further down that street, a
huge oak tree blocked the whole street from the
yard on one side to the yard on the other side.
The entire root system and patch of grass around
the mighty trunk was uprooted and exposed for all
to see. We had be cautioned by a passer by that
there was a downed power line, so we walked around
the entire area, circling through someone's front
yard.
At the next corner, we
took a turn to head back towards our house. There
was a power line that hung so low across the road,
we needed to duck as we went under it. The corner
house at the next street belongs to a friend of
ours. We stopped in to check on him. His house had
fared well and he graciously offered wine. (One of
us accepted and it wasn't me.....I was still
carrying my mug of bad, but hot, coffee. Bad mix
in my opinion).
Back at the
house once more, I placed calls to family and
friends back home, assuring them of my safety
overnight. Now the rain had finally ended and
short of few wind gusts, the aftermath had finally
begun.
Around 2pm, my cousin
and I set out to the local spot for picking up day
laborers. As we drove, I was in awe of the
destruction layed out before me. Trees were down
all over the place. Billboards had collapsed upon
themselves, no longer recognizable to what they
once advertised. Power lines were all that
restrained light poles from crashing to the
ground, some hanging at 45 degree angles with the
street. Traffic was slow in places because you
needed to drive around lines dangling from above.
Every intersection was a wait and see situation
because the lack of stoplights. Some drivers are
better than others.
Despite
all that had occurred in the last 12-14 hours,
there was still a group of men hanging out in the
lot where they gather. After a few minutes of
haggling in a foreign tongue that I did not
understand (I took french in school), we had 3
guys in the back of our truck, headed for home and
a long day of work.
Over the
next several hours and the amazing bonding of
neighbors in a time of need and crisis, 4 yards on
our block looked remarkedly like no hurricane had
been here only mere hours prior. Well.....save
that tree next door resting on the neighbor's
house. I just had to hunker down and not think
about all that I was touching. I could feel the
heavy air cling to my body and feared that a
shower would still be days away.
Around 7pm, the sky turned the
strangest color of yellow and orange. This was
noteworthy because only 15 minutes before, the sky
was clear and blue. Nightfall was approaching and
quickly. The curfew was still in place because of
the lack of power in the city. 3 million customers
were still without electricity and the estimates
are at 2-4 weeks for restoration. It would be a
pitch black night for most of us.
Although it was now after
curfew, my cousin's wife and I set out for a store
I had spied to be open earlier. Upon arrival, the
scene looked dim. The parking lot was crowded and
so was the inside. We walked around a bit, but the
pickings were slim. No batteries and no ice to be
found. We decided that the wait of AT LEAST 30
minutes in the line that wound all the way around
the store was not worth it for a few bags of chips
we would manage.
On the drive
home I saw a pretty horrific image. At an
intersection, a stop light tower had twisted
around completely so that it faced the traffic
going the alternate direction. The steel beam was
badly bent and mangled and I wondered to myself
what kept it standing.
Dinner
was ready when we returned. Thank goodness that
the gas was still working even though we had no
electricity or water pressure. City water pumps
had been shutdown at some point that morning. We
still had water but it trickled slowly from the
sinks instead of ran. Water was not an issue
though because we had stockpiled about 50 gallons
for cooking and drinking the day before.
Dinner was barbequed sausage,
pork ribs, chicken, okra and rice. I had a still
ice cold miller lite to compliment it.
A glorious discovery after
dinner was the fact that a shower was still an
amenity we had. Because the hot water heater is
gas, there was still plenty of hot water. City
officials had cautioned during the day though not
to ingest the water from the city supply due to
possible/probable contamination. Shower with a
closed mouth, got it. So as, not to tempt fate, I
opted to shower the way they do in some small
towns in Mexico where fresh water is a luxery. I
stepped in and wet myself down. Then I shut off
the water. Next I lathered up my hair with
shampoo. I then rinsed out the shampoo and
repeated this process with conditioner and soaping
up the rest of my body. I was relieved to get the
film off of me from the cleanup, the heat of the
day and god only knows what else I had come into
contact with. I dried off and put on my apparrel
for the rest of the evening...swim trunks and an
undershirt. The humidity was definately rising
outside and I wanted to be as comfortable as
possible given the current situation.
My cousin tinkered with the
generator outside, lighting the house with one
lamp. But, it began to have issues, so he shut it
off. Instead, I rigged the inverter in the truck
to power my laptop. 3 of us decided to watch dvd
movies. My cousin and my visiting cousin went off
to their rooms, respectively. So, myself, my
cousin's wife and a family friend who decided to
stay with us, stuck it out to watch the movie.
At some point during the
movie, we heard noises from the front of the
house. At first I had thought it was my cousin's
snoring, but Duece alerted us that he had heard it
too from the back yard. I went to my room and
retrieved my service weapon and went outside. The
family friend asked if it was loaded. I shot him
an incredulous look as he handed me a flashlight.
(nah, I figured the bad guy would just give me
time to load it if the situation called for it). I
searched around our property line and all of our
vehicles, but found no one and nothing disturbed.
Perhaps the dog had scared them off or they
realized someone was home and alert. Either way, I
was not taking chances. There had already been
reports of looting in the city and several people
arrested. The friend called me paranoid and I
reminded him that we were 1 mere step above
Marshal Law with Houston in darkness and the city
enforced curfews.
We returned
to the house and finished the movie. Afterwards, I
retreated to the back yard and listened to the
symphony of generators running throughout the
neighborhood and across the field. Although there
was not a light in sight, the sky was lit by the
full moon. Once your eyes adjusted to it, you
could see things pretty clearly. The sweat was
beginning to stick to me again and the mosquitos
were savage this evening, but still it felt good
to be in the night air instead of inside the house
without breeze.
After a while,
I joined my now awake cousin and the friend at the
front of the house. It was 2am and the lightening
was flashing in the distance. Over time, we
watched the storm get closer and heard the thunder
begin to roll. At 3:15am, the rain began slowly
falling. Within 15 minutes, it had turned into a
heavy downpour. The promised thunderstorms had
arrived and were drenching the already overly
saturated city. I retreated to my room for the
night and found sleep. It had been a long day.
I was going to go on to
describe my Sunday, but this has already become a
longer than anticipated entry, so I will end here.
I have taken lots of pictures and will post them
in an email when I am able. The power is still set
to be out for several days, if not longer. I hope
you have have all enjoyed my retelling of the
last few days and my adventures.
--Terrance
Sent from my Blackjack II
Mobile Device.
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