Hurricane Ike: Eight Days Later

(Elizabeth Jones of San Leon sits with her four-month-old grandchild; photo by Sharon Steinmann of The Houston Chronicle)

Hurricane Ike: Eight Days Later

The news cycle in the rest of the country appears to have moved on from Hurricane Ike. I can understand this: The near-meltdown of our entire financial system and the resultant evil seizing of yet another opportunity by the Bush administration to shift the cost of their failure onto working people is critically important. This regime will continue to hurl their feces at us until we chop off their hands. However, I note a huge volume of folks still tuning in here at this blog to find coverage of what, for them, is first-hand disaster. I particularly want to shout out to the people dialing into us from the Gulf Coast -- you there in Point Bolivar, High Island, League City, Brazoria, Beaumont, Orange, Seabrook, running on generator, perhaps? -- who are coming here. I'm thinking about you.

And it's not just me. I'm getting daily hits on Ike posts from people in Trondheim, Norway; Boquete, Nicaragua; South Korea, New Zealand, Iran, Sri Lanka, Chile, South Africa, as well as all 50 states, looking for information about how it goes in the aftermath.

Many local and online news sources have gone either silent or perfunctory. Perhaps it is a concerted media blackout, the corporate powers and/or Republicans trying, once again, to reduce disaster to a short cycle of sensationalist reporting followed by the next Anna Nicole Smith frenzy, so large numbers of people won't ask awkward questions about civic responsibility and governance. When Letterman runs his nightly "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" moment, a frequent past excerpt is Ronnie Raygun declaring "Government isn't the solution to our problems, government IS the problem" with his shellacked dyed hair the first clue to his Alzheimer-plaque-riddled oblivion and his B-actor smile not hiding the coldness of his neoconservative eyes. For millenia, people have chosen to form governments in order to protect them from being swept away: Consolidate community resource so when the unstoppable strikes, we can save the lives of strangers. Leaving this to individuals, or to charity groups, has never worked long-term. It took a huckster like Reagan and the metastatic generations after him to convince average Americans to vote against their own long-term interests. How many more enormous swaths of geography, population, and culture do we have to lose to subsistence existence before we demand a New Deal?

If you live along the San Andreas fault, take note: When the Big One strikes, if these folks are still in power, you will be SOL.

(Richard Crook celebrates with a dog he rescued at Crystal Beach on September 18; photo by Eric Gay/AP)

And yeah, some of the TV shots portray big beach houses rendered to kindling, but the overwhelming majority of those whose economic survival has been destroyed by Hurricane Ike are working class and/or on fixed incomes. Tourism helps maintain the tax base of many Gulf Coast communities, but the tourists want a service industry to keep them happy on vacation, and those jobs are now indefinitely absent.

This section of coast also draws a high population of Snowbirds, retirees from northern states who come here to spend their elder years in a trailer on Social Security (because it was cheap to live here). Shrimpers, rice field workers, trawlers, rig monkeys, migrant farmers, and fast food workers don't have any other means of support.

Over one million evacuated elsewhere and those still not able to return home are wondering WTF to do now, without residences or jobs. Over 22,000 are still in shelters in Texas. It's safe to assume these people are hard workers, devoted to their families, often disabled, more likely to be people of color or children or single mothers than the average population. They will do the best they can, as usual. But we have to make sure Republican leadership and the media are not allowed to again perpetrate the smear job that was likewise done on the residents of New Orleans: They are just as deserving of respect and dignity as Katina evacuees were and are.

(Gerald Barnett, 10, takes a box in a human chain of volunteers preparing to handout boxes of food to Houston residents; photo by Marcio Jose Sanches, AP)

One striking exception to the trickling away of reporting on the aftermath is the Houston Chronicle online. This newspaper, which had an edition ready to hit the streets before Ike's winds had died down, is doing an unprecedented job with getting information out on its blog. They are utilizing every possible facet of online technology and resource in creative and community-created ways to go above and beyond "reporting the news": They are serving their community in profound and untiring outlets. This is absolutely a Pulitzer-worthy effort.

Because they are almost the only source for current, useful news, I'll be quoting from them heavily in this round-up. In every case I'll give you a link to go directly to the horse's mouth, because what is there is a goldmine of information, far more than I can even allude to. This is an example of what a newspaper can do which will never be offered by blogs: In the field reporting, documentation, and community connection.

In addition, the Houston Chronicle is compiling a spectacular photograph collection, both from their own photographers (go here and scroll down to the Photography section) as well as making available images sent to them by online viewers here. I spent hours going through the hundreds of photos taken by journalists, which are arranged intelligently, download instantly, and are extremely high quality, both in terms of format and content. In addition, there is geographic coherence to some of the files, i.e., all photos from Galveston or the Bolivar Peninsula on a given day. Many of the images illustrating this post are from these files, and I do recommend viewing them yourself here. However, I have to issue a trigger warning: Some of these photos are heartbreaking. One in particular showed a dead animal on the Bolivar Peninsula with strong clues as to what it endured as it died, and I haven't been able to put it out of my mind since. I took care not to bring the hardest of these photos to this post, and if you don't want to see the underbelly of tragedy, best not to look through all of the Chronicle's photolog.

(Agitated water moccasin on the Bolivar Peninsula)

The City of Austin has announced it is shutting down our Convention Center as of Thursday, September 25, for "repairs". I find this suspicious given that over 1,000 Hurricane Ike evacuees are currently living there with no place else to go. Supposedly FEMA officials have the "goal" of getting them into temporary housing elsewhere, but our local news reports that the vouchers FEMA has issued some people for hotel/motel lodging have been refused by those motels because either (a) there was no clearance with the business from FEMA or (b) the people applying for the vouchers failed to make a second confirmation phone call. Does this run-around sound familiar to you?

In order to get transitional housing, FEMA will have to "determine that the applicant's house was not only damaged by Ike, but has to be deemed inaccessible and uninhabitable." Wonder how long that will take? Let's ask someone in one of the trailers outside New Orleans.

More than 400,000 people statewide have registered for FEMA assistance, and about 135,500 families had qualified for government-funded hotels, but apparently only 9,000 have received transitional vouchers. The KXAN article reports that Austin city officials have stated "they are still not going to turn people away. They are looking at the Delco Center as a possibility for those who by next Thursday are still not set up in transitional housing." For those of you not familiar with Austin, the Delco Center is a sports center 15 miles and over half an hour's drive from the heart of Austin with NO walking-distance food or shopping outlets.

To register with FEMA, call 1-800-621-3362, TTY 1-800-462-7585 or visit www.FEMA.gov (all Austin public libraries offer free internet access).

When dealing with FEMA:
• It will take approximately 15 minutes to complete the application process. Only one family member per household should register. Before you call or go online, gather the following basic information to speed the process:
• Social Security number (including your spouse's);
• Daytime telephone number where applicant can be reached;
• Address of the damaged property;
• Current mailing address;
• Brief description of disaster-related damages and losses;
• Insurance information; and
• Direct deposit information to help speed delivery of funds.
• If you have losses that are covered by insurance, please contact your insurance company prior to calling FEMA; it could speed up FEMA's delivery of assistance for any remaining uninsured essential items for which you may be eligible.
• When the home becomes accessible for inspection, you should notify FEMA through the helpline at 800-621-3362 or by visiting a Disaster Recovery Center. FEMA may provide additional assistance after the home has been inspected. If an applicant is denied assistance, the Helpline can also assist in an appeal of that decision.

To protest the shunting of Austin evacuees to a distant location, contact Sara Hartley, Office of Emergency Management, (512) 802-1469 (pgr) Hurricane Ike Media Hotline, (512) 404-4653. Or you can send an e-mail to the City of Austin Public Information Officer via this page: PIO form.

(Matthew Harris, 12, hugs his mother Karen Harris as they wait in line to board a bus that will take them out of Galveston September 13; photo by LM Otero, AP)

Galveston is now allowing residents to return as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, September 24, in a staged, tightly-monitored fashion. Only those who live behind the seawall will be allowed to stay. Residents who live in the West End can check on their property, but must leave before curfew begins at 6 p.m. Violators risk a $2,000 fine. Every resident will be stopped at a checkpoint and given an information sheet, letting them know what to expect and who to contact, according to City Manager Steve LeBlanc.

Here's some details:

• The West End has no water. The East End has compromised water supplies, not enough to fight fires, and if the water line extends above an electrical outlet or switch, turning on that switch will cause a fire which cannot be stopped.
• Gas service to every home has been turned off. LeBlanc said residents need to contact a technician with their gas provider to arrange for service to be returned.
• Residents will have to sort and bag their own debris and trash.
• Very little retail is open.
• LeBlanc urged residents to re-consider bringing young children and the elderly in the city, given its condition. He also advised residents who plan to clean up their property to bring rubber gloves and face masks to protect them from the mold.

(A house lies across Highway 87 near Crystal Beach September 15; photo by Smiley N Pool for The Houston Chronicle)

On the Bolivar Peninsula, search and rescue has been concluded and all but about 35 residents have now departed, leading County Judge Jim Yarbrough to back off from his threat to forcefully remove residents. An article at the Huffington Post states "Authorities plan to allow residents back to the peninsula next week to examine their property. Because the main road is impassible in many spots, they'll load people up in dump trucks and other heavy vehicles."

(Shackle the lioness who rode out the hurricane at the First Baptist Church in Crystal Beach, Texas; AP photo)
Shackle the lioness has been taken to the mainland. In addition, the tiger at large (whose name was never given but I've been thinking of him as Guillermo Blake) has been captured and taken to safety.

(An alligator crosses Gulfway Drive on the north side of the Bolivar Peninsula, September 15; photo by Tony Gutierrez/AP)

About 1.4 million customers remained without power statewide, including about half of the Houston area. For a map of where power has been restored in the Houston area, click here at the Houston Chronicle. As of this writing, the local utility outages are reported as:

• CenterPoint: 46% out
• Entergy Texas: 29% out
• Sam Houston: 35% out
• TNMP: 24% out

As of September 19, CenterPoint Energy has released the map below showing estimated time for completion of substantial restoration (which they define as 80%).


The Houston Chronicle is maintaining a comprehensive list of Where to Get and Give Help (including make donations), in every conceivable category. This is the best source out there, bookmark it.

(Blanca Linares, 76, originally from El Salvador, smiles as she gets a bag of ice from 13-year-old volunteer Daniel Medrano in Galveston; photo by Julio Cortez, The Houston Chronicle)

The Houston Chronicle has a Guide to Tree Debris, determining how to tell if a tree can be saved, getting reliable tree-damage assessment and removal, trees that survive hurricanes, how to get rid of vegetative debris and haul it yourself.

(Salatheia Bryant-Honors, Co-Pastor of Reedy Chapel A.M.E., prays; photo by Nick de la Torre, The Houston Chronicle)

The Houston Chronicle is running a "Fact or Fiction" section to research and report back on rumors arising in Ike's aftermath. A few of their answers are:

• The rumor that "If you're out of power for five days, FEMA will pay you $2,000" appears to be false. The Chronicle reports "The FEMA Web site shows no indication that they are cutting checks for any amount of money due to Hurricane Ike, much less $2,000, nor is the agency offering any money to people because their homes have lost power."
• The rumor "The statue that commemorates the 1900 hurricane in Galveston was destroyed" is also false. The monument is still standing.
• The rumor that "All Houston-area YMCAs are open to the community for showers and battery-charging" is mostly true. But you need to know which YMCA's are open and have power. the Chronicle is providing that information here (PDF file).

(Photo by James Nielsen, The Houston Chronicle)

From the Houston Chronicle, an expansive and very helpful guide to living without power, Weathering Ike: What To Do After The Storm. This includes:

• Games to play with friends and family when the power is off
• Accounts of people doing generator and resource-sharing
• Recipes for those without power
• Places to take the kids, including libraries, museums, YWCA's and malls with power
• Tips on avoiding injury and disease after a storm
• Should you trash or eat defrosting food?
• Things to keep in mind when filing your insurance claim (with contact numbers for most major insurers)
• An updated list of distribution centers supplying ice, water and meals (MREs) for residents
• Phone number for hotel and motel chains in Houston
• Saving your wine

I'll reprint here one section from this excellent series: Tips to protect your home from power surge, by Corilyn Shropshire and Tara Dooley

"When the lights go on, it will be unexpected, the lucky ones with power say. Here are some tips to be prepared so you don't blow it when the lights go on in your neighborhood:
• Unplug it: Unplug all appliances, especially sensitive electronics such as computers, plasma televisions. Turn off air conditioners. New homes with electric water heaters sometimes have switches. Turn those off. When power first arrives in crowded neighborhoods, a short-term overload is possible. That can damage electronics.
• Breaker box: Stay away. Those boxes are often poorly marked and messing with the main breaker can cause more trouble than it's worth when the power goes on.
• Take it slowly: Leave one light on. But once power is up, plug in small appliances first. Then switch on the bigger ones. Finally, turn on the air conditioner.
• Check your connections: Energy companies are responsible for the system until it hits your home or business. The rest is up to you. Check the connections from the wires to the house. If there is a problem, call an electrician.
• Be mindful of dangers: Just because the power is on in your home, does not mean all is right in the entire world. Just yours. Remember to stay away from low hanging or downed power lines. Assume they are dangerous.
• Dig carefully: It's not just about the electricity. Gas lines are also a concern. Underground lines can be disturbed by well meaning maintenance efforts. Before digging holes in the ground to fix a fence, make sure the underground utility lines are marked. You are required to call 811 for the service that will mark the lines. Remember, there may be a wait for this service."

For evacuees returning to their homes, Bobby Hankinson wrote for the Houston Chronicle a guide to What to bring back:

"If you evacuated from Houston or its surrounding communities for Hurricane Ike, please wait to return home until your city leaders give their public approval.
When it's safe to return, take the opportunity to pack accordingly. You may want to consider acquiring a few additional items while you're in an area that was not as hard hit by the storm.

"Here are some suggestions for what to bring with you, especially if you will be returning to a home with no power:

• Water. Buy bottled water for drinking and fill up jugs for sanitation.
• Gasoline. Lines in our area are very long, and fuel is in short supply.
• Ice. Fill up a cooler.
• Non-perishable food. Some supermarkets are open, but lines are long.
• Batteries.
• Flashlights.
• Candles.
• Matches.
• Prescription refills.
• Baby wipes and hand sanitizer.
• Cleaning supplies.
• Charged cell phone and laptop, plus a car charger for electronics.
• Disposable camera to document damage for insurance.
• Written list of important phone numbers.
• Extra towels, socks and underwear. Even if your water is on, washing machines need power to run.

Commenter cb mallard shares these additional tips to homeowners:
1. Disposable latex gloves to wear under work gloves.
2. Large clear and black garbage bags. Clear means save, black means throw away. (This is invaluable because everything is covered in mud - so items and piles become indistinquishable)
3. Small kitchen garbage bags (prior water,sewage, etc. - put under toilet seat , then tie and thow away.
4. Sense of humor. Find a stuffed animal and set it on an upholstered chair in your yard - any kind of trashy yard art like that (a) helps you find your home when trash is 8' high and (b) lifts spirits. We put a big stuffed bunny on a Harley.
5. Have a watch or alarm set for every 60 min to take a water break.
6. Take 6 million pictures.
7. When in doubt or really sad about something - keep it, every heirloom doesn't have to be thrown away today; some can be rescued, or thrown away later. CDs can be washed off, or you may not be ready.
8. Find out from state about generator, power washer allotments. You will need both if you are going to clean up. This is not the time to go off brand - get one from Lowes or Home Depot or someplace to which it can be returned if it doesn't work.
10. What you need in the begininng are people with lots of upper body strength (young, strong) ripping up carpet and tearing out walls, etc. calls for that. Someone with less strength can take pictures (take 2 of everything from different angles, take the ceilings, etc.)
11. Have a picture pile. People brought things out by wheelbarrow and I took pictures before we put in the 8' trash piles. This is so crucial for insurance - both flood, FEMA, etc.
12. Apply for all the help you can get. Don't worry, if you are not eligible you won't get any. This is a good job for the person who doesn't have a lot of upper body strength.
13. You need a bag with Social Security cards, driver licenses, electric bills, mortage papers, insurance papers. The Red Cross and Salvation Army were great. Go early in the process and early in the morning! Take a book to read and plan to be there 4 hours."

And here's one of the recipes for those without power, from Nicki: 'I make a "salad" from rinsed and drained black beans, drained corn and a can of Rotel. It's better with fresh cilantro and lime juice, but at least it's spicy and a relief from the peanut butter sandwiches.'

(Sculptures of the Blues Brothers sit in chairs in front of a demolished business on HWY 87, September 18, in Crystal Beach; photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

If you are one of those who will be returning home to assess damage, here's some advice from Texas Watch, a statewide consumer advocacy organization active in insurance, nursing home resident protection, patient protection and consumer law issues:

• Take Documentation.
• Make a comprehensive inventory of the household items lost in the storm, and keep receipts from emergency repairs and temporary housing costs.
• Track Communications with Your Insurance Company.
• Keep a log of all communications with your insurance carrier, including anytime they fail to return a call or miss a scheduled appointment.
• Be Careful What You Sign.
• Do not sign anything you do not fully understand. Make sure all documents are explained thoroughly so that you know what you are signing and how it will affect your claim.
• Ask for Proof.
• If your insurer tells you that you are not covered, require them to offer proof. The burden is on the carrier to point to the exclusion in your policy.
• Complain if Necessary.
• If you believe that you are being treated unfairly by your insurance carrier, file a complaint with the Texas Department of Insurance and/or the Texas Attorney General's Office.

Contact Texas Watch's Ike Insurance Hotline at (888) 738-4226 for assistance in filing complaints. (Staffed M-F, 9-5 CDT) This toll free hotline will be the clearinghouse of information and a way to compile information about potential insurance abuse.
Texas Watch will not be able to directly solve victims' insurance problems. However, it will monitor complaints and refer them to the appropriate government agencies, such as the Texas Department of Insurance and the Texas Attorney General's office.

(A cat looks down from a a tree in Galveston's flooded West end; photo by LM Otero/AP)

Over 20,000 cattle and hundreds of horses have died or are dying as a result of consuming salt-contamined grass and water. In addition, Hurricane Ike reportedly broke down more than 90 percent of livestock fencing in Orange, Jefferson and Chambers counties. Officials with the Texas Department of Agriculture said the situation is "unprecedented."

As I reported in a prior post, owners of livestock may contact their local emergency management officials, or call the Texas Animal Health Commission at 1-800-550-8242 extension 296.

To assist in the care of farm animals in the stricken region, you can:
• Offer financial donations through the Texas AgriLife Extension Service at their website or by calling 979-845-2604. They are setting up horse and cattle feed donation and distribution sites.
• Contact the Texas Department of Agriculture at their Hay Hotline or call 1-800-Tell-TDA to sell or donate animal feed, hay, or other resources such as feed and water troughs.

(Employee Marleny Alvarado transports a cart full of animals from Galveston into the Houston SPCA; photo by Dave Rossman, The Houston Chronicle)

There simply isn't enough good to be said about the first- and second-responders to this disaster, many of whom are working on their own time to do heroic jobs. Any way you can honor and assist this folks, do it. I'm happy to report that not only did Gaido's Restaurant in Galveston survive, they prepared a sit-down linen dinner for exhausted rescue workers this week. Way to go.

(Mary Kay Gaido of Gaido's Restaurant prepares tables for a free lunch in Galveston for about 1,000 first responders helping with the recovery efforts following Hurricane Ike on September 18; photos by Scott Olson/Getty Images and Matt Rourke/AP)

Bits and Bobs:
• Texas oyster production has been hammered as a result of habitat destruction by Hurricane Ike. Shrimp and fish seem to still be in full supply.

(Thousands of fish are revealed on the shoulder of a road as flood waters recede in Orange, Texas; photo by Eric Gay/AP)

• The waves of Hurricane Ike have uncovered a ragged shipwreck near Port Morgan, Alabama that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later.

(Rabbi Roy Walter leads the Congregation Emanu El Shabbat; photo by Eric Kayne, The Houston Chronicle)

There's more...

Hurricane Ike: What You Can Do

(Debris from Hurricane Ike along the Galveston seawall; photo from Reuters.)

Hurricane Ike: What You Can Do

The Littlest Gator of Group News Blog asked how she could help in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike (and, I presume for all of you, the losses from hurricanes since Katrina). Here's my recommendations, with an eye toward groups who have immediate demonstrated impact and/or long-term infrastructure restoration. Thanks so much for asking, TLG. And thanks to Minstrel Hussein Boy's addendum to my last post, which already began to answer this question with a link to CNN's What You Can Do.

Austin is feeding and housing at least 6000 evacuees. Austin tends to draw refugees who are looking for strong people of color communities in Texas and more progressive places to land. We welcome several thousand from the New Orleans Superdome after Katrina, and many thousands of former New Orleanians now choose to live here, precious citizens to us (though many, understandably, still hope to eventually return home). But since Katrina, our local Capital Area Food Bank has been stretched to the limit with feeding those in need, not simply from hurricanes. They do unparalleled, open-handed work: For every $1 donated , the Food Bank can provide 5 meals to a hungry child, adult, or senior. For every pound donated in person, the Food Bank can provide the equivalent of .8 meals. Volunteer hours create the equivalent of nearly 20 full-time staff members each year. Or you can host a food & fund drive at your office, school or faith-based organization. Even a small team can make a big difference. Click on their link to donate money.

Next to needing food, people will require homes in order to return to their normal lives. Galveston in particular will need help, and its survival carries extra emotional and cultural import. Ancestral home of the powerful Karankawa and Akokisa peoples, Galveston Island first enters European history as the location where Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked in 1528. During the early 1800s, it was home for pirate Jean Lafitte and other adventurers. Juneteenth, which is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, owes its origins to the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation upon the return of Union forces to Galveston in 1865. Prior to the 1900 Storm which virtually wiped out Galveston, it had been known as "The Jewel of the West", with more money in the city than in Newport, Rhode Island.

(People make their way through flooded streets in Galveston; photo by Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency.)

During the 1800s, "Galveston was also home to a number of state firsts, including: the first post office (1836), the first naval base (1836), the first Texas chapter of a Masonic order (1840); the first cotton compress, 1842), first Roman Catholic Cathedral (St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica, 1847), the first parochial school (Ursuline Academy, 1847), the first insurance company (1854), the first gas lights (1856), first Jewish Reform Congregation (Congregation B'nai Israel, 1868), the first opera house (1870), the first orphanage (1876), the first telephone (1878), the first electric lights (1883), the first medical college (now the University of Texas Medical Branch, 1891), and the first school for nurses (1890)." [from Wikipedia]

Galveston has a vibrant Jewish community of long-standing, with its first settlement of Europeans financed by Portugese Jew Joa de La Porta in 1816. The port was the hub of the Galveston Movement, funded by philanthropist Jacob Schiff, which "operated between 1907 and 1914 to divert Jews fleeing Russia and eastern Europe away from crowded East Coast cities. Ten thousand Jewish immigrants passed through Galveston, Texas during this era" and were settled in every state of the American West [from Wikipedia]. This is part of why Galveston has been called "Ellis Island of the West".

Galveston also proved to be a desirable location for Vietnamese refugees fleeing to the U.S. during the 1980s. As of 2000, "the racial makeup of the city was 58.66% White, 25.49% Black or African American, 0.42% Native American, 3.21% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 9.73% from other races, and 2.41% from two or more races. 25.77% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race." About 22% of the city lived below the poverty line.

To rebuild Galveston, my first thoughts turned to Habitat For Humanity, and they are already preparing for the job. Go to their website Habitat for Humanity to make donations or find out how you can assist.

Direct Relief International provides access to health services for people in poverty. You may choose the program you want your donation to benefit -- one choice is hurricane preparedness and response, which covers the losses from Ike internationally, not just in the U.S.

Along those lines, a donation to Doctors Without Borders will help address medical crises in the Caribbean from this hurricane season.

If you want to focus on the remaining aftermath of Katrina, especially since both Gustav and Ike have had some impact on New Orleans, I'd recommend donations to INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. (Hat tip to Feministe for a recent article about this group.) This is a national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities through direct action, critical dialogue, and grassroots organizing. They are particularly working in partnership with the Women’s Health and Justice Initiative and the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic to address the disproportionate difficulty faced by women and children in New Orleans after Katrina.

Feed The Children is a Christian-based organization whose financial accountability breakdown shows 83% of their budget goes to program services (childcare, food, medical, disaster relief, and community development), 13% management and 4% to supporting services. Their website states a $35 donation will deliver 250 pounds of food and water.

Many evacuees are having to lodge their pets elsewhere, and of course many animals were rendered homeless by recent hurricanes. The SPCA of Texas is picking up the care for these animals. Go to their website to make a donation.

If you have other philanthropic suggestions, feel free to add them to comments. And if you have already helped in some way, please tell us about it: It's not bragging, it is inspiring.

(Boats and debris piled up in Galveston, Texas after Hurricane Ike; photo by David J. Phillip via Associated Press, part of an informative slideshow at the New York Times article)

There's more...

Hurricane Ike -- Update Saturday Evening, 13 September 2008

(Radar image of Hurricane Ike at landfall around 2 a.m. on 13 September 2008)

Hurricane Ike -- Update Saturday Evening, 13 September 2008

I sat up until dawn, switching from channel to channel to watch foolhardy television reporters venture out into debris-choked winds or the eye of Hurricane Ike, which made landfall at Galveston just past 2 a.m. Dr. Jeff Masters' at his WunderBlog reports "Ike carried a storm surge characteristic of a Category 4 hurricane to shore. The destructive power of Ike's storm surge rated a 5.0 on a scale of 0 to 6 just before landfall, according to the experimental Integrated Kinetic Energy (IKE) product of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division. This is about the same destructive potential Katrina had at landfall."

There was no sign of wind or rain in Austin by dawn. I finally fell asleep, waking up at 5:00 p.m. to discover that EVERY BROADCAST CHANNEL except PBS had on sports (football), and PBS was airing a repeat of Ask This Old House. I had to wait until 6:30 to get coverage of the hurricane's damage. If you cannot afford cable, this is the crap we must watch.

It's going to take a long time to assess the toll. One piece of good news is that at the last instant, Ike took a little jog to the east (funny how they keep doing that) and hit Galveston full on instead of a little to the south, which means the surge there only reached 13.5 feet. This is probably the reason there's any city left at all on the island. Houston got hammered by wind, especially the downtown area where gusts higher up in the air reached the 150 mph mark. Ike remained a Category 2 storm at landfall by the thinnest of margins, with top wind speeds at 110 mph -- the shift to Category 3 begins at 111 mph. The surge moved instead to Clear Lake, Kemah, and northeast to Port Arthur, where less populated areas mean the waters may have done less than anticipated destruction and loss of life.

(Post-Ike debris across Highway 146 on bridge Kemah to Seabrook, TX, 13 September 2008 -- AP Photo by Frank Franklin II)

Dr. Masters' states "Galveston was also lucky that Ike did not have another 12-24 hours over water. In the 12 hours prior to landfall, Ike's central pressure dropped 6 mb, and the storm began to rapidly organize and form a new eyewall. If Ike had had another 12-24 hours to complete this process, it would have been a Category 4 hurricane with 135-145 mph winds that likely would have destroyed Galveston."

Our local news says 4 million people in Texas are without power, most of them with the CenterPoint Energy utility, who is repeatedly saying it will likely take weeks to restore electrical power. The last major hurricane in that area, Alicia in 1983, left 750,000 people without power for 16 days. This morning, Austin had over 6000 evacuees in 22 shelters, plus 125 in a special needs shelter at the Austin Convention Center. In addition, every one of our 22,000 hotel and motel rooms were occupied, and every RV and trailer park were jammed. Our local Red Cross is begging for volunteers, and the area food bank is running constant requests for food or monetary donations.

However, the effort to evacuate, house and feed folks has run much smoother than it did in 2005 with Rita. Systems are now in place to do the work that FEMA once did. I have to wonder, thought, what will happen Monday or whenever local officials in Galveston and Houston say it is all right for evacuees to return. Without power, and with a boil water order in place, even if their house is intact, how will people manage? The Houston metro area has a population of 6 million. That can easily overwhelm local resources.

Despite the mandatory evacuation order, an estimated 140,000 people rode out the storm in Houston and Galveston. During the 4 hour period from the time the outer bands of Ike began hitting shore and nightfall, Galveston's 911 line received 1200 calls for assistance. By that time, no one could respond, and whatever trouble people were in, they were alone for the night. One elderly but tough-looking old guy in Surfside Beach was interviewed this afternoon, having survived in a frame house on stilts about 30 feet from the ocean. He intended to leave and had arranged for a ride with a neighbor, whom he said "ran into town to buy something and never returned." He was rattled but intact when the reporter discovered him: He was the only person to remain in that devastated town during the hurricane. Search and rescue was only this morning being able to begin the work of going door to door to check on the fate of those who stayed behind.

There are three known fatalities so far. One woman was asleep in her bed in Pinehurst when a tree fell on her house and crushed her. A 19-year-old man was on the end of a jetty in Corpus Christi as Ike began approaching, and was swept into the water. Two people with him jumped in to try to save him, and one of them suffered serious injuries, having to be flown out by helicopter to an inland medical center. The teenager's body has not been found. The most tragic death was earlier in the day, when a family was preparing to evacuate but at the last minute the father, a professional tree-trimmer, decided to cut down a tree which threatened to come down onto their house. His 10-year-old son was somehow under the tree when it came down. This is a parent's unthinkable nightmare, from which I cannot imagine recovery.

A refugee from Calhoun County, Ku Paw, was at an evacuation shelter in a New Braunfels middle school when she went into labor. Dr. Mark Burns, who specialty is geriatric psychiatry, happened to have stopped by the shelter to check on a few elderly evacuees. He wound up delivering his first infant in 20 years, on the floor of the girls' restroom. Both mother and baby were later taken to Christus Santa Rosa Hospital. When asked what it was like to deliver a child after such a long gap, Dr. Burns replied it was "like riding a bicycle".

A boat and yacht warehouse in Galveston began burning at nightfall and could not be reached by firefighters. Another neighborhood in Galveston lost several houses to an unchecked fire. The historic Balinese Room along Galveston's water front, built 79 years ago and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, is no more, swept away by the storm surge. It once had Howard Hughes as a patron, and featured entertainment by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns and the Marx Brothers, among others.

The JP Morgan Chase Tower in Houston, the state's tallest building at 75 stories, suffered extensive damage and continued to rain down glass and office furniture on the streets of downtown this afternoon. It is theorized that the taller a building in Houston, the worse the damage because of the higher velocity winds at altitudes.

Austin never lost power, and as I type this a loaf of potato bread is filling my house with delicious smells. (I used Barbara's organic potato flakes and pepperincino flakes, plus a mix of organic whole wheat and white flour.) I feel lucky. Our mayor, Will Wynn, is currently meeting with others to figure out what to do on Monday, when our local schools being used as evacuation shelters will be needed for classes again. He can be a goober, but I trust him to do the decent thing, after his performance during Katrina and Rita when he went all out to bring in evacuees. Austin's current population is over 1.5 million. Since this is three times the population of Alaska, does this mean Will Wynn is triply qualified to be a Vice Presidential candidate? Let's put lipstick on him and find out.

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Hurricane Ike -- Update Friday Evening, 12 September 2008

(Hurricane Ike from the International Space Station, photo by NASA)

Hurricane Ike -- Update Friday Evening, 12 September 2008

The grim forecast for Ike has not changed and in some ways has worsened. Honestly, evacuation is what you need to do if you live in its direct path on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Thanks to reader Kent's comment from yesterday's post here, I've discovered the best blog ever for understanding this hurricane, Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog. Dr. Masters co-founded the Weather Underground in 1995 while working on his Ph.D. at Michigan, and flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990All of the information in this post comes from his research, so hop over there for the latest. I'll quote a small portion of the excellent information he has on tap:

"Although still of Category 2 strength, Ike remains larger and more powerful than Category 5 Katrina or Category 5 Rita. As I discussed in yesterday's blog entry, a good measure of the storm surge potential is Integrated Kinetic Energy (IKE). Ike's Integrated Kinetic Energy has fallen from 149 Terajoules this morning to 124 at 3:30 pm EDT this afternoon. However, this is still larger than the total energy Katrina had at landfall, and Ike's storm surge potential rates a 5.1 on a scale of 1 to 6."

"Ike is attempting to create a new eyewall, and visible satellite loops and Galveston radar suggest the storm is becoming more organized. However, Ike has only a few more hours over water, and there is not time for the hurricane to intensify more than 5-10 mph before landfall. Ike will not inflict extreme wind damage like Katrina's or Rita's. The big story with Ike will be the storm surge."

(Illustration of Storm Surge Guidance for Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, Friday -- image from NOAA. Click to enlarge.)

"According to the NOAA) tide gauges, storm tides are running 6-8 feet above normal along the central Louisiana coast this afternoon...The fact that Ike's storm surge has reached such high levels 200-300 miles north of the storm is a very bad omen for the upper Texas and western Louisiana coasts. The latest forecast surge values from NOAA):

Shoreline of Galveston Bay... 15 to 22 feet
Bolivar Peninsula... 17 to 20 feet
Galveston Island... ... 14 to 17 feet
Gulf-facing coastline from Sargent to San Luis Pass... 8 to 14 feet"

Dr. Masters is predicting that Ike will flood the city of Galveston. He states "If the surge exceeds the 17 foot forecast, it will overtop the sea wall and act like a battering ram against the buildings in Galveston. It is also possible that the sea wall will be destroyed along some sections, allowing the ocean direct access to Galveston." Shades of 1900.

(A formerly populated area of Galveston four blocks wide, half mile long, which was wiped clean by the storm surge during the Hurricane of 1900; complete pictorial plus some of the earliest films ever taken in the aftermath available at The 1900 Storm.)

Dr. Masters also predicts "significant tightening of gas supplies in coming months, due to extensive damage to the oil refineries in the Houston and Port Arthur area." Regarding Houston, he states "Nevertheless, winds of Category 1 hurricane force (75-85 mph) will affect the city for about a 4-hour period in the early morning hours of Saturday. People in well-built homes will suffer only minor damage, but mobile homes and homes not build to code will suffer significant damage. The extremely long duration of the hurricane force winds will cause much greater damage than is typical for a hurricane of this strength."

He goes on to discuss the Inland Wind Model developed by NOAA scientists and has an excellent graphic and explanation at the link above. In this section, he states "We can expect Ike to cause the largest and longest-lived power outage in Texas history, with power knocked out along a 200-mile wide swath in eastern Texas and extreme western Louisiana extending 300 miles inland to I-20. Dallas will be at the fringe of the region of widespread power outages, and should not suffer major power failures." Our local news has repeatedly warned of the possibility of local power failures. I've pulled out my candles and have my crank-powered radio/flashlight handy. I've also backed up my hard drive to an online briefcase, and topped off the cat's self-serving food and water supply. I need to go cook what I can from my refrigerator in case I have to go a couple of days without power, and fill up water bottles plus a bucket for the toilet.

Austin has taken a large number of special needs refugees at our local hospitals, including many premature infants. The shelters are filling so rapidly that all our local schools closed early today, in order to convert them into evacuation facilities. Stay in touch, folks, and help where you can.

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