Summer Stress Starts Off With A Bang

"In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive." — former Chrysler CEO, Lee Iacocca

It's been a tough week! This coming week is Lobby Days for the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC), and trying to get the packets printed up and the logistics coordinated for it all have been a bit stickier than usual. And to begin last week, I ended up inheriting (once again) President of Harris County's Women's Political Caucus here in Houston – just in time for putting together and conducting our city election candidate screenings! Our current president got a lobbying job in DC as of May 1, and our VP there was AWOL from her election. Nobody else has experience in the screenings but me, so ....


Methinks generally that I've put too much community activity on my plate and things are starting to fray around the edges, in-home family drama notwithstanding. Giving it an extra bump of Murphy's Law, we lost electricity again on three consecutive days (and I lost two first halves of a blog in the process each time – causing me not to bother with blogging until I was certain I'd have power in order to finish!) And as the week before, our block was the last one to be restored due to our wacky electrical grid!


Two days' worth of our power outage here was due to a rather heavy flood in West Houston. Thankfully I had no flooding, though folks on the other side of the bayou from me weren't so fortunate. The repetitive power outages really started getting on our block's nerves. After we'd gotten power back only to have it go back off two hours later once they powered on our neighbors across the street, one lady from around the block got a bit physically hostile with the electric crew, kicking the truck and hitting the poor guy trying to head up the project. We were all pissed, but that was a bit much.


Then again it turned out she had a salt-water aquarium that overflows and floods her house when the power goes out, and she'd had two incidences of cleaning up flood water and dead fish in her house before that particular outage. Anyway, personal drama. Guess we all have it in abundance, just in time for the dog days of a very humid summer! Joy.


Instead of the previous blog I was going to write, other issues popped up instead. There was lots of big news this week: Sen. Arlen Specter's big defection from GOP to Democrat, the Hate Crimes bill passed the House of Reps, and Supreme Court has had its first resignation: Justice David Souter, the progressive Republican on the bench.

Of course the Swine Flu in the U.S. has its first death, startlingly right here in Houston (when the day before there were no reported or suspected cases!) Now, of course the confirmed cases are piling up and we have ten schools now closed until further notice.

As we were hearing of the spread of Swine Flu here and I began wondering about the impact on NTAC's Lobby Day, got a call from my friend facing foreclosure whom I'd written about a few weeks back. Hearing her voice I immediately feared it was suicide watch time, but it was a false alarm of a different kind. It turns out she was coming down with the flu just days after a trip to her local Dept. of Human Services. And of course, now, her area has gotten its first confirmations of Swine Flu ... and she's unemployed and in desperate straits as is!

To make matters even more fun, our state's Hate Crimes bill which was moving along swimmingly, defying Equality Texas' earlier predictions of certain death, has suddenly and completely inexplicably languished for nearly a month in a committee known for processing quickly and efficiently. Even more interesting is the fact that my contacts in the State House are suddenly not returning my Emails and calls.

"Seem like the whole world's walking pretty and you can't find the room to move. Well everybody better move over, that's all! I'm running on the bad side and I got my back to the wall! Tenth avenue freeze-out...." — 10th Avenue Freeze-Out, Bruce Springsteen

Further more stressing is my pool of federal-level contacts has dwindled precipitously this year. It's actually good news for them as they're getting good Administration jobs in various departments (or in one case, a paid-lobbyist position). But I get nothing out of this except four lost contacts where I could monitor what was *actually* going on in committee and on the floor, as opposed to the sugar-coated poison pills we get from our so-called "advocates" and "champions."

Many years ago when I first began lobbying, I learned that lesson of relying on my staffer contacts and not GLB or T groups. They've been invaluable to me, personally, to keep me apprised of what was coming down the pike on specific bills I inquired about. Even without being physically in Washington, I was able to find out bits of information on trans-uninclusion and backroom dealings, probably even earlier than Mara Keisling!

Losing two of my really good contacts hurts, but at least I have faith in the Obama Administration and their principles. The key is getting decent legislation coming out of Congress, which is going to be much, much more tricky.

Meanwhile, we've got upcoming HRC Gala protests and the upcoming Pride Parade (again, I'm stressing as I'm coordinating both of those and not getting too much feedback). Malcolm Gladwell, in the Tipping Point, proffered the 80/20 rule: that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Perhaps he was being too generous in the low number and way conservative on the high one!

Summer's starting off with a bang. Now all we need's another hurricane ....

"Ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics." — author Malcolm Gladwell

Lend More, Spend More: GOP’s Insane Plan For Consumers

Having not monitored the news sites recently, I had to hear it on the TV morning news: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has decided the solution to our nation’s economic woes is for banks to lend more, and for consumers to spend more. At first I thought it to be quite a joke, until I realized they were serious!

What planet did we get this current Administration from? And can we send them back? Now?!?

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend….” — from “Hamlet,” Act 1, Scene 3 by William Shakespeare

The Bush Administration (yes, those “free market fiscal conservatives”!) wants to dump $800 billion in additional funds into the struggling U.S. economy. Even we democrats see this as ludicrous! This is even more than Congress approved in October’s bailout - the Wall Street Welfare Act. And without even a vote over it! I’m absolutely furious with this brain-dead president’s signature statement deceit and swindling of the American economy! We’re NOT brain-dead, we see every bit of this and we are furious! How do we make this clear to Washington?

Sure, maybe they’re meaning this for only the upper 2% of the economy – those who’ve done well during Bush’s “Economic Recovery” these past eight years. Yet they certainly weren’t structuring the message that way! And even if is for the upper crust folks, why need a program to “make $200 billion available for a range of consumer loans - including credit cards and car loans”? With cash in their bank accounts, do you think these moneyed folks would believe it wise at this time to borrow money? Why?

They should’ve been already picking up the slack that the vast majority of us used to consume in the American economy as they’ve got it all already. And typical to wealthy types, they’re saving and investing – not consuming! Wisely investing over spending as they always do … get it yet?

But Paulson whines that "this lack of affordable consumer credit undermines consumer spending and, as a result, weakens our economy."

As for those of us in the lower 90’s, the last thing we need to be doing is spending on anything that is not an absolute necessity!

Why? Here’s the answer: the Flat Earth. Call it the global economy, free markets, whatever … jobs have been heading overseas for years, wages had been flat or deflating, costs on everything (especially necessities) have gone up until recently, and we’ve already been tapped out. Now what few jobs still existing are evaporating here, and even beginning to affect the Third world burgeoning economies.

Bottom line, there are few jobs down here, they won’t pay much, and it’s not changing any time soon. Free markets, remember? And as a result, as well as the crunched credit, no one should spend (unless they’ve got a death wish!) It’s a recipe for bankruptcy, foreclosure, homelessness … you know, really good stuff! Well, we’re trying to stave off that ‘good stuff’ Mr. President and Mr. Paulson. It’s called “fiscally conserving” our meager resources. Quite a concept, huh? Does that sound familiar?

Even if we do happen to find jobs, HELL NO we’re not gonna be spending any time soon! We’ve learned! Bush and the Neo-Cons have taught us all that we common citizens are on our own. There is no hope, no cavalry running to our rescue, nothing to save or bail us out (those are only for large corporations and their execs – Bush’s base). If we can’t save ourselves, we are shit-out-of-luck … period. We’re saving up for the future calamities we’ll need to be prepared to weather.

To soothe us (I guess), our Treasury King described the $200 billion program as a first step, one that could be expanded later to include different kinds of debt, including assets backed by commercial real estate mortgages and business debt. Ah … here comes the rub! Now the true nature of this is coming clearer….

Paulson stated the fact that the Fed and Treasury had to get an additional $800 billion into the system is not a sign that the $700 billion bailout of banks and Wall Street firms passed by Congress last month has been a failure. He said that without that program, it is likely that the financial markets would be in even worse shape than they are today.

As Jeff Foxworthy would say: “there’s your sign!”

It’s not about the common consumers at all. It’s about continuing to prop up the banks who received bailout money already, have not been lending (and have not been making profit) and have bottom-lines that show near-zero revenue. And maybe after borrowing more money we have no jobs to pay off, we’ll go out and buy stuff that pumps business revenue into the other industries.

The arrogance intrinsic in Paulson’s statement that the initial bailout is not a failure is jaw-dropping.

“Any informed borrower is simply less vulnerable to fraud and abuse.” — Former Fed. Reserve Chair, Alan Greenspan

Message to the Bush Administration and all “Free Market” Republicans: If you want people borrowing money and consuming, go to your patriotic CEO’s and CFO’s, your executive class, your wealthy investors, or “the haves and have-mores” that Bush called his “base” so famously displayed in the movie Fahrenheit 911. They are your only hope to save your American economy.

Don’t even bother us “spread-the-wealth socialists” who live paycheck to paycheck if we’re fortunate enough to have a paycheck right now – which many of us do not! All we get from our delusional “fiscally conservative” Republicans is “spread-the-debt” fascism. Thanks!

My house got damaged during Hurricane Ike, insurance was extremely stingy (leaving thousands short of getting it fixed), FEMA denied me. If you think for half a second I’m applying for even a small, low-interest Small Business Administration loan to repair my home, especially now that I’m having troubles finding even temporary jobs I’ve relied upon the last six years, you’re way beyond wrong! There’s no way of knowing what’s coming at me, and I’ll be damned if I feel confident enough to take out some loan even for necessity!

So Mr. Bush and Mr. Paulson, if you entertain any delusions of America suddenly running en masse down to the bank to take out a loan to bail out your Wall Street buddies once again, snap out of it! We can’t afford to participate in your American economy any more, nor will we further bankrupt ourselves to help you.

Now … you’re on your own! How does it feel?

“Good night, and good luck.” — Edward R. Murrow

Hurricane Ike, Two Months Hence

"After the hurt has gone away,
Oh will we feel the pain?
After the storm begins to turn,
Oh will we ever learn?" — After The Storm, the Outfield

Yesterday was the two month anniversary of Hurricane Ike. From a time perspective it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. Personally, I will credit the political campaigns – and specifically the Obama campaign – for contributing to time’s supersonic flight. Then again, it does seem worlds away from the summer heat and humidity from two months ago, especially considering we have our first brisk norther which is expected to drop our nightly temps in Houston down to the 30’s for our first time. Nights in the 30’s are about as far away from summer as one can get.

But as it’s been two months, I thought I’d do a periodic post-script of life after Ike.

There were a few things we discovered after my last hurricane blog entry. At the time, I couldn’t figure out why my neighborhood smelled of such a pungent musk and rather gutter-like. It turns out there was a simple answer. With the loss of electricity across the area, all of the sewage lift stations lost power too … which caused overflow of effluence into the area’s creeks and bayous.

Yep, I was catching a whiff and even enjoyed the residual aroma of the raw sewage leached into the north fork of the Upper Brays Bayou (in my case) running in back of my house. To be sure, it was a common complaint across the city. At least I can take solace in the fact that I’m in the upper bayou instead of the more unfortunate folks further down our city’s bayou systems who had the collective of all of the other sewer stations further downstream. I’m glad nobody took the notion to go swimming!

Another somewhat annoying discovery was that a large number of the semis filled with ice were parked in Houston parking lots, waiting … and all the while, places in one of the rural areas hit hard across Galveston Bay, who were desperate for any ice, went without. Much of the ice was ordered to be melted in some cases. FEMA decided the need wasn’t there, and figured it cost more to have the drivers sitting and rigs running than it cost to just melt the ice and send them home! Something about this really speaks to the level of planning (or lack of) by the Bush Administration’s version of FEMA / Homeland Security Dept.

Shortly after I ended my blog, all of the gasoline shortages here, as well as lack of grocery staples around the Houston metro, ended. Galveston and areas closer to them obviously suffered longer with these issues, though surprisingly they seemed to be in much better spirits than one might expect, living without essentials for such extended periods. Unfortunately, there’s been very little news that’s come from points across the bay, in the Bolivar Peninsula communities hit the hardest. That’s been a bit curious.

Speaking of Bolivar, there are still no firm numbers on the death toll, the most recent number I’ve heard was 82. As mentioned in my previous blogs, there may be bodies swept out to the gulf, post-storm surge. There are also a number of sand spits and islands dotting the bay side of the peninsula that have yet to be fully examined, not to mention the places on the peninsula still in varying states of clean up with the same lack of full search for body recovery. The last estimate I heard on TV news was that eleven people (however accurate that may be) are still unaccounted for in the coastal communities.

The coastal communities themselves, Galveston being epicenter of this, are in the process of rebuilding. While FEMA has been processing the applications and attempting to get things back to some normalcy, there has recently been some strong criticism of the agency and the Federal Government. Houston’s Mayor Bill White has voiced criticism with both the snail’s pace of government promised reimbursement of the city for out-of-city-pocket costs to get Houston and the region back to speed, as well as FEMA’s disaster aid stinginess, and requirements that hurricane victims instead seek help through a laborious Small Business Administration (SBA) loan process instead. In a nutshell, FEMA doesn’t want to hand out disaster assistance – they’d rather lend you the money to rebuild.

Additionally, Galveston’s residents and some city leaders are also upset with FEMA. To date, there are a large number of mobile homes ready for deploying and sitting in storage in Mississippi, yet few if any have been delivered to and established in Ike-ravaged Galveston and other coastal areas here. The double standard between the post-Katrina response with housing, and the post-Ike response are too blatant to be ignored. Meanwhile, many of Galveston’s residents not getting emergency housing assistance are living in tents, makeshift shelters, even one man lives in his trailer park’s laundry room.

Just three days ago, FEMA announced that people in Galveston – mostly indigent – that are being housed in motels or other temporary emergency housing would be asked to leave. Many families living in hotels learned of the FEMA cutoff from fliers slipped under their doors. Many of them have nowhere else to go.

“We can't get leases for three months,'' Mayor White added at a City Council meeting. ''Landlords won't do that.'' He called the directive absurd and added, ''I'm sure they'll change that today.” Well, they didn’t. The edict is going ahead, likely necessary due to the government’s tight purse strings in light of the recent Wall Street bailout. Those newly evicted, former hotel-boarded residents are vowing to return to Galveston and live in their cars parked along the city’s seawall in both protest and utter frustration, having nowhere else to go.

This of course comes as the northers have begun blowing through, putting everyone in the instinct (if not the mood) of the coming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Economically, the region’s only bright spot was that Big Oil had been immune to the Bush “Economic Recovery” that has hammered the rest of the nation’s budgets. On Sept. 22, 2008, oil stood at $122.61 a barrel. Friday, Nov. 14, the same barrel was $55.95. The same station I bought gas at immediately before the storm (thinking it was a good deal, even) was at $3.82 per gallon. Today it is $1.79.

Needless to say, the job drought is starting to migrate to Houston for this economic winter. Just recently the news warned that Houston could see a loss of 15,000 jobs next year.

As if that’s not bad enough, Galveston’s University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) – the largest hospital on the island – announced that they must shed 3,800 jobs due to declining revenue. UTMB is the largest employer in economically challenged Galveston.

While there were promises of reimbursement for those temporarily unemployed due to Hurricane Ike’s workplace closures, I personally filed, had difficulties getting the information adequately explained to the Texas Workforce Commission, and even to this date – two months later – have yet to see a penny for the week I was out of work due to the storm.

As of Halloween, I’m now truly unemployed full-time as well. My job – with a Big Oil giant – was complete and my position has henceforth moved to Chennai, India. Trick or Treat!

And for the Houston / Galveston region, in the wake of Hurricane Ike, it’s Seasons Greetings as well. Along with the storm recovery, the Bush neo-conservatives’ Economy Recovery grinches have come to stay. We’re just one big happy!

“It’s never too late to say a prayer.
It might be all we got to share.
There’s always a hope that someone’s there.” — After The Storm, the Outfield

Hurricane Ike’s Lingering Effects: Day 8

It really is starting to feel more like normal. Even the weather is getting back to normal patterns: warm, but now with humidity back along with the stillness. It makes work chopping down branches and debris and hauling them to the street even more physically taxing.

Not only is there the heavy sweat to now contend with, we’ve also seen the return of something else we’re well acquainted with here: mosquitoes. They began coming in with the humidity last night, but I notice quite a number of them out back while I was toiling. During the heat of the day, they’re not too bad. But once the sun goes behind the fence and shade moves in, the swarms come out.

With so many other priorities around the region, spraying for bugs isn’t one of them. Making my situation worse is the fact that I have a bayou right out back. If that’s not great breeding ground, then just beyond my dead end is open fields and a series of large detention ponds (for those unfamiliar, in the flatlands, we have essentially pits dug into the ground to trap heavy rain runoff, or in my case, connected to the bayous or creeks to catch heavy waterflow into them and keep from overtaxing – flooding – the waterways leading to the ship channel. We have to have them because we’re flat, and the floods will otherwise just sit for long periods of time in wherever they would flood prior to the ponds system being built (like roads, or out of bayous’ banks).

All the detention ponds have a little water sitting in them, stagnating and waiting until the sun evaporates it. Meanwhile, they’re virtual mosquito metropolises.

Another part, not so enjoyable, is smelling the musky murk emanating from the bayou. With windows open, the smell permeates the house. It’s like living in a storm sewer pipe. It makes me wonder how people on the coast are living with the smell, much less the mosquito swarms. It’s going to be a while before either floods or our bloodsucking friends leave.

Just driving around tonight, it appears most every store is now open. With the exception of a few smaller storefront still struggling, all the major businesses have opened for business.

Businesses way outpaced the other infrastructure in getting back to normal. Driving down the street, you still see patches without streetlights. Store signs are occasionally there, but many are not or are darkened. Some of them appear not to be open, such as Starbucks with their intimate lighting inside … until you realize the parking lot is full of cars. There’s just no sign to display who it is.

Stop lights are also lagging behind business. We’re getting more of them back, but that’s only about half. The rest vary from blinking red lights, to darkened, to no lights at all – just wires, or dangling fixtures. Even some of the stop light street signs are dangling from the wires. A mile or so away, one stoplight installed on a pole had the pole itself blow completely 90 degrees – not even showing over the street it covers, but parallel to the curb right next to the other stop light.

With more stop lights coming on line, there’s a new problem. We’ve all become so used to all stop lights being treated as four-way stops that we now automatically presume that at every stop-lighted intersection. I did it too, and nearly got hit by the second car who tried to drive through the intersection. Only when the driver honked at me and gestured toward the stoplight did I realize it was functioning.

I can imagine the opposite happening soon as well: once everyone becomes used to most intersections having working lights, then blow through one which is out and supposed to be a 4-way stop.

Even complaining about this makes me feel selfish. People on the opposite side of town, and more so on the coast, would give anything just to have this quasi-normal routine back now. It’s going to be months before these folks even reach our level of routine.

Hurricane Ike's Lingering Effects: Day 7

Each day brings the region a little closer to recovery, and one baby step closer to the ultimate goal of the long trip to normalcy. On my part, I actually feel a little guilty. We’ve had electricity for three days now, but 1.18 million – over half – are still without. I revisited my friends, Karen and Bunny, who I walked over to visit on Saturday night when I was bored. When I drove up, I noticed everyone was outside – they’d never gotten their power restored. I felt so bad for them.

The night I was at their place, they’d decided to reserve a room in a hotel to at least enjoy a couple days of air conditioning and get a shower. It turns out the hotel they’d reserved at also had no electricity or water. They’d been homebound since the storm.

On the subject of hotels, as FEMA has already announced that displaced residents whose homes were destroyed will receive housing vouchers, FEMA and the State of Texas put out a website showing hotels that will accept FEMA vouchers. You have to be careful when going through it though. It reportedly lists Galveston hotels among those that will accept FEMA vouchers.

You can’t get into Galveston! Strict restrictions on who can come onto Galveston island … only essential personnel.

Last night, the TV news highlighted a sensational story headline: are utility crews being redirected to wealthy neighborhoods and leaving poor neighborhoods in the dark? This was the case in Cypress (northwest outskirts of Houston). Utility crews from out-of-state were in the neighborhood, reconnecting customers to electricity. Then suddenly, with five more blocks left, the crews climbed back down from the poles, packed up and left.

They were reassigned to Bellaire (a high dollar inner-city suburb of Houston). Residents in Cypress were in disbelief, one lady said she cried. Electric service is the latest field to see classism’s ugly head rear.

The intrepid news crews called Reliant Energy, confirmed the story and caught up with the utility crews that were reassigned from Cypress. They found them in River Oaks – Houston’s version of Beverly Hills! When they caught up with the electrical crew, the utility workers said they were aggravated that they couldn’t finish their assignment and upset with having to re-deploy for no good reason. Six days without power was apparently more than River Oaks could handle – even though I’d wager there were few homes there without generators. Meanwhile, many in Cypress still use water wells, and their pumps don’t work without electricity. Apparently they can wait.

All I can say is whomever made that decision better not deploy a crew in an African-American neighborhood and pull them off to go hook up West University Place or other tony districts. That would not be taken kindly. Regardless of the neighborhood’s ethnic make up, or economic power, everyone should be treated equally. The process should be continuing as stated – with no arbitrary “special consideration” doled out. If we’re all in this, we should be all in this together. It shouldn’t mean rich folks, first.

They’ve begun the early stages of recovery along the coast. Today deaths were confirmed from seven bodies in Galveston County yesterday: two from drowning, five from other causes. With the surge washing everyone in, then the outflow taking them back out to the gulf, it may be months before all bodies are recovered.

They had one story on news of a man living on Bolivar Peninsula who attempted to ride out the storm. When the surge washed away his home, he managed to grab hold of his patio table washing by, grabbed hold, and rode it like a boogie board across Galveston Bay. He had to fight debris, dodge a snake and fight off an alligator, but in the end drifted over to the east end of the bay, where the Coast Guard finally found him. He said he’s had it with living on the coast and plans to move.

On hurricane victim assistance, the state will not issue payment vouchers. Texas authorities were going to do food stamp distributions for many families who (like myself) ended up having to get rid of their refrigerated items. As a result, the first food stamp location opened up Thursday, but they processed their “allotted number of applications” and then turned the rest away. Word spread of this, and with the pressing need, today (Friday) they have opened up with a huge, blocks-long line in wait.

Texas’ Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) websites showed they would raise the level of income in order to assist those moderately above the official wage level cutoff receive food stamps. Folks who stood in line all night then had HHS personnel distribute spreadsheets that showed the usual wage level cutoff (about $700/mo lower). Needless to say, the contradictory information between the web and what HHS was allowing caused quite a stir. There were folks who drove there from all around the area and some waited from the night before. One interviewed lady drove down (about 25 miles each way) and waited all night only to receive $14 per month assistance.

Apparently there’s some problems with the temporary FEMA application process as well, which was set up by Cong. Lampson to expedite the process. Those who applied are not receiving assistance. I’m unclear what the problem is with these applications. However, the news also noted FEMA was setting up their own location across the street from Cong. Lampson’s stop-gap site at the American Legion location across from Ellington Field. Why FEMA finds it necessary to open what appears to be a competing site when the one across the way already exists and was created to facilitate getting residents assistance is also unknown.

My personal opinion is that FEMA feels they’re not being assisted but being “shown up” by a congressman who just happens to be of the opposite political persuasion of the President. Gee, politics showing up during a disaster recovery process? I guess someone doesn’t want another black eye a la Katrina and Rita! Maybe something politically triumphant they can stand upon, like Giuliani atop the rubble of the Twin Towers post-9/11.

Well, at least they’re trying to be Johnny-on-the-spot. A week later. No hurry. We’re patient. We’ll wait for ya…. Heckuva job!

Hurricane Ike's Lingering Effects: Day 6

Things are finally getting back to some semblance of normalcy. More stores are open now and stocking some of their shelves. Dairy is beginning to show up, some bread. There are still empty shelves of canned goods, crackers and cleaning products. But the usual day-to-day is an osmosis that's gradually filling in all those exposed gaps.

More gas stations are opening around the Houston area: no more reports of the lines and the tempers. The media only note the newly discovered price hikes.

It was just today that I began taking stock of what's damaged here. There's the obvious roof leaks between my dining room and living room, but other odd little leaks in the living room and inexplicably in my wash room (which is under my bedroom!)

My biggest fear after losing power was losing my computer. The power surge on that initial outage made my 24-inch flat screen monitor audibly pop and flash! I scrambled in the dark and unplugged both it and the computer, but truly feared I had likely lost both of those. I also did likewise with my refrigerator. Amazingly there appears to be no problems!

However, other things didn't fare as well. My overhead fluorescent kitchen lights (which I'd left on), are out permanently. One of the sets of bulbs are brand new, so I know it can't be the light tubes. Another thing I didn't think of: my gas oven. The temperature gauge and timer runs off of an electric digital display. The gas probably works, but the computer display is fried -- nothing. Even though my ceiling fan on the back patio survived the wind and the power surges, the master bedroom ceiling fan didn't! As best as I can tell, those are the only electrical things that fried.

I'm just glad I've still got my computer, and truly dodged a bullet there!

I've got fences on two sides gone, a front gate that's trashed. My back deck oddly lost a number of boards. At daybreak, I saw one of them peel up, get caught by the wind and immediately disappear down the block somewhere. There were branches needing pruning from my trees. There were other trees' branches that had broken off and lodged in my trees! Apparently I lost screens, a loose one in my bedroom and a couple small ones in front of the house, and a cracked window on the back corner of my house. Lots of nagging little problems, but nothing major!

As FEMA is busy themselves with other priority issues, Cong. Nick Lampson (D-TX) from Tom DeLay's old district opened up a location on his own to begin the process of getting residents with damage a chance to log in and receive disaster help from the agency.

It actually brings up another issue: political campaigns. We're in the midst of key national campaign season. In gridiron terms, this is the "red zone." Yet, in the midst of this, Texas politicos have had to put campaigns on back burners. Lampson should be out campaigning hard to keep his seat. Instead, he's put it on hold and is in process of helping the region recover.

Our State Senate candidate, and likely my next State Senator, Chris Bell, has also suspended all fundraisers and campaign work for the next few weeks due to the hurricane's devastation to his senate district -- which took the brunt of Ike's impact.

President Bush, likewise, suspended the fundraisers he was to attend for Republican Party fundraisers yesterday, sending his wife Laura in his stead.

Even U.S. Senate candidate, Rick Noriega (D-TX), has been indefinitely impacted. In the midst of a tight race, as Lt. Col. in the National Guard, our State Rep. Noriega has been called back to duty and is directing recovery operations. It's not surprising – he had to go to active duty in Afghanistan in 2003. It's the downside of being a member of the Guard – you are duty-bound to serve when the call goes out. Needless to say, Sen. John Cornyn, the GOP incumbent, has no such restrictions or responsibilities.

Doubtless, Hurricane Ike is blowing holes in a number of our local political campaigns. Especially in a situation such as Noriega's it's sad, and really unfortunate timing. But another way to look at it, Noriega faithfully fulfills his obligations to the country. You can't criticize that!

Indeed, our political schedules are officially FUBAR. It brings up other issues as well: what happens to displaced residents' ability to vote? We've already heard of the caging issue in Ohio again this year, and 300,000 New Jersey residents suddenly discovering they're not registered. What would prevent local GOP authorities from sending out similar "do not forward" notices to registered voters, receiving them back, and disallowing and suspending their registrations? Galveston, Bolivar and the Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange area) are all heavily democratic areas with largely blue collar residents. That could effectively kill a lot of very close races right now.

It's no doubt Karl Rove and his McCain campaign acolytes have already noted this and are licking their lips in anticipation. It would not surprise me at all to see a serious spike in southeast Texas voters finding sudden problems and refusals from voting.

Hurricanes don't know politics, and the local folks lose it quickly. But the carpetbagging folks on the outside looking in aren't affected by Ike. They only see opportunity for victory.

Hurricane Ike's Lingering Effects: Days 4-5

[Photo of Point Bolivar Lighthouse in the foreground, and Crystal Beach TX further beyond, taken from the direction of Galveston Island the day after Hurricane Ike made landfall. Virtually everything's under water even hours after the water has begun receding back into the Gulf!]

Day Four

The tedium becomes overwhelming, so I'm really sinking myself into yardwork. After beginning the back yard yesterday, and getting the first two attacks from yellow jackets, I retreated. This afternoon, I got stung inside my own house! If the damn things are going to get me, then I'll take the war out to their turf -- not mine!

There isn't really much else I can do, and we're blessed with amazing cool weather -- low 80's! I can't emphasize how unusual it is to have decent weather after a hurricane! We really got fortunate.

With this weather, I shouldn't be short-tempered. But apparently frustration isn't only the product of the usual sticky heat and waiting in lines. Mine is clearly frustration borne of tedium and minor aggravations like those of the aggressive insect variety. Again today, I get two more stings -- one in my open eyeball! At least now I know the vitreous fluid doesn't come pouring out deflating your eye! Strangely, beyond the uncontrollable eye-watering, I actually caught a little buzz. It made the colors (once the white-out stopped) very intense in that eye. Nevertheless, it's not a trip I want to repeat: it's painful.

During the day, there's more activity in sound: frequent sirens from groups of either fire or paramedics vehicles (unsure which). One that was in my vicinity was clearly a fire, due to the black smoke, and brought both fire vehicles and even a chopper. It's noise! Maybe not the welcome kind, but it breaks the eerie silence that hovers in those immediate days after hurricanes.

Beyond that, the persistent uncertainty gnaws at you. I catch a little news on the car radio in spurts, but nothing personally useful. It would seem easy to drive to Katy, but a 30 mile roundtrip takes gas, and gas is still a long wait, to say nothing of people's temperament at the pumps. Staying in Katy is a different problem: leaving my home unattended and a looter's draw. So I stay home just to avoid that prospect. With 2/3 of a tank, I think I can wait it out. If I get down to 1/4 tank, I'll just drive out to Columbus an hour west. They'll have gas without the hassles.

This evening I drove to the Home Depot near my home to get wasp spray, and apparently they close early. Wasted trip, wasted gas, just another of those little cumulative frustrations of life in indefinite uncertainty.

Another is the frustration of intermittent cell phone signals. I've been very happy to have cell phone service (thankfully I had the presence to know I'd need a car charger at some point). That said, I've had a number of partial conversations with friends, unless it's under ten minutes or so. Trying to call back is usually fruitless – there's no available signal. Looking forward to another boring night in the dark, the only thing you can do to break the boredom besides walking around the darkened neighborhood is get on the phone with someone. But after a few minutes, getting cut off abruptly is no fun.

I'd noticed today the cell phone signal seemed to be more consistent, so I started making a couple calls. After the last one cut off, to my surprise I was able to get a signal about two minutes later -- a hopeful sign! During my last call, I nearly got heart palpitations as I saw a bright blue flash of light in back of me (I thought lightning!). Then a sound ... and TV! My electricity came on! Hallelujah! Four days was long enough!

Finally I started seeing some of the images of the devastation on Bolivar Peninsula (across the pass from Galveston Island). It's wiped out. A friend of mine, Jackie bought an older beach house in Crystal Beach back in 2000 (one that's only about 4 feet off of ground level) and had mentioned at the time that she was going to sell her condo in Houston and move out there permanently. I have no idea if she did so.

But knowing Crystal Beach was ground zero for Ike's storm surge, and now seeing the town -- save for the lighthouse and the water tower -- has been virtually wiped clean off the map, I worry that she may have stayed. She's obviously transgendered (not a good mix in a shelter), and has her poodle. It strikes me that with her tough military background, she may have decided to stick it out and fight it. I'd drop her an Email, but that doesn't work well when you have no electricity.

Galveston is devastated. Bolivar's little towns are utterly destroyed. So much more damage further inland than I thought I'd see. And the flared tempers show on TV. Even the mayor is angered at FEMA, and is taking over the POD distribution. They apparently sent a truck from one of the POD sites -- against the mayor's protestations, as there were assigned police to guard -- back to the staging area at Reliant Stadium. 7AM Tuesday, the POD opened and there were no supplies. FEMA just can't seem to get it together!

Really, the county and city are the only ones who seem to have a grasp on things! Thank God for Mayor Bill White! He was great post-Katrina, and he's shining again now that we have our own unique version of it. There's been other confusions as well – communication by the mayor’s office and media that PODs were supposed to all be open until 8PM, but a few locations shutting down at 6PM.

KTRK, Channel 13, has been really digging to get the information this whole storm (kudos go out to Miya Shay, Wayne Dolcefino and Art Rascon for not being easily brushed off with fluff or vague responses). Tonight they showed President Bush who apparently visited the area today (maybe explaining all the helicopter activity I’d heard). According to reports, he disallowed any media from riding along with him, and did another fly-over, surveying damage from a helicopter. According to Melanie Lawson, the President gave a press briefing before doing his flyover survey, and gave a fluff-filled, soundbite pat on the back to Houston:

"I have been president long enough to have seen tough situations, and have seen the resilience of the people to be able to deal with the tough situations…. I know with proper help from the federal government and the state government, there will be a better tomorrow." What a feeling guy! He couldn’t buy a clue if it was given to him for free!

The electricity return is making progress, and I truly feel fortunate! I’m part of 836,000 people who’ve had power restored. That’s out of 2.26 million who lost it originally. Only 37% of us have gotten it back.

With all this communication breakdown and miscommunication, keep this in mind: the agency overseeing this is FEMA. Since Hurricane Katrina and Rita in 2005, FEMA has been wrapped up under the direct purview of Homeland Security Dept. and Michael Chertoff. Homeland Security Dept. answers to no one else, and directly reports to President George W. Bush. And as Dick Cheney has asserted numerous times, both he and the President have “unitary executive powers” – unrestricted powers to do anything they want without explanation, oversight or accountability for any of it. Houston has been hometown to Bush-daddy and Bush-mama since his junior high school days.

If Bush-baby had wanted this effort to run smoothly, he would have made it so with unfettered command. Or maybe he did exercise his authority and order Homeland Security Dept. to do so, which communicates a very different and disturbing message…. YOYO!

Finally, the came real shock of being in "Hurricane mode" this past week. The stock market tanked, badly! Trust me, there was no way for anyone in the Houston region to know! For those not in hurricane areas, this may be something you never have to live through, and so cannot relate. Since last Thursday, what media and news we've had has been commercial-free, non-stop news of the hurricane's track, the expected landfall and damage, and even this evening on TV, nothing but damage reports, POD reports, communication of needed information and press-conferences. We have zero news from the outside world! Absolutely nothing. There is no regular programming.

It wasn't until I went through this that I remembered back to my days in Corpus Christi and the same occurring there after Hurricane Allen, and Fern and Celia years before it. You become inured to focusing on locally surviving. But you forget the rest of the world goes on. The campaign stuff is infuriating and I'm worried about what's happening financially. And yet, we may as well have all been planted in Indonesia with no contact to the outside world. Without internet access, we're all clueless -- and even that's an understatement! I literally feel like Rip Van Winkle!

This is testament to how dependent we’ve now become on internet news. It’s happened gradually, but it’s had a comprehensive change on our lives – especially if you have any sociopolitical interests or activities. Now I've got new worries -- what else have I missed? Even with newfound electricity, it's going to be an unsettling night.

Day Five

A good portion of the morning was spent catching up! Catching up on outside news, catching up with friends who worried over me surviving the storm. After so long on the internet, I got a headache. So I decided to try to make my way to Home Depot and the grocery stores again. As it's Wednesday now, apparently traffic had picked up considerably. I tried three times unsuccessfully to attempt a trip and never made it out of my neighborhood. The east-west streets (Richmond and Westheimer further north) are clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Even my north-south artery (two-laned Synott Rd.) was clogged with traffic back ups, which is unusual.

I've become an involuntary urban shut-in!

Instead, I spent most of my day -- as before -- out in back, clearing vegetation debris to get to the downed fence debris. The angry yellow jackets are out in force. All their paper, honey-combed nests are down, and they're already hostile. My disruption of their new attempts at temporary homes is enraging them further. This takes up a good portion of the day.

After 8PM, I finally had a successful drive out of my neighborhood!

Unfortunately, stores are still closing early -- Home Depot at 7PM, Kroger at 8PM (I just missed it!). Again, more infuriating frustration over wasted trips! Waiting in long lines don't appeal to me, but making trips for nothing compounds the problem. But in my drive around, I noticed something good. Four gas stations are now open, with power and gasoline, and there was no waiting in multi-block lines! In fact, there was lots of business, but no lines at all -- a great sign. Noticing that the prices have gone up to $3.77/gal. -- a little over 10% rise from the $3.35 I paid two days before the storm -- was not so welcomed a sight.

But it is gasoline and I didn't have to drive 75 miles each way to get it. I topped off my tank, so it wasn't a totally wasted trip. The comfort level increases just a bit.

From what I see on TV, it seems FEMA is finally getting it together. Chertoff and the county and the mayor are all working in concert, and for the most part, everyone appears to be on the same page. It's about time.

Other things on hurricane news: there are over one hundred tankers parked in a line, anchored off of the Galveston coast. All of them are waiting to come into the Port of Houston to unload, maybe even some to load. Refineries are just in the beginning stages of bringing things online again, so it may be a while for some of those loading. This would be a horrible time for another storm to hit the western Gulf of Mexico -- thank God for the current weather patterns!

Only in Texas: after Ike devastated a lot of the coastal areas in Chambers County, across Galveston Bay from Houston / Galveston, many of the pastures lost fencing (and even some cattle). As there were numerous reports of wandering cattle, some of the ranchers have begun old-fashioned cattle drives of their herd to relocate their stock. TV news showed shots of the cattle drives heading up Hwy. 124.

There's actually a few hundred people still on Bolivar Peninsula, along with the thousands in Galveston. How these Bolivar folks survived, I don't know. But they stayed, and probably for good reason. Even in this difficult time and conditions, lootings are being reported. It makes it impossible for authorities or military to convince people to leave. They'll live with the hardships, they're staying with their homes and belongings.

Crazy Shirley, a Daily Kos contributor who has a beach home in Crystal Beach sent me a video response to my previous diary entry on Kos. It was well-done, with many photos of the old, casual Crystal Beach days. It reminded me of my days living on Corpus' North Beach, and days spent out at Port A or J. P. Luby Surf Park on Padre Island. Then showed the news shots and satellite photos of Ike bearing down. Finally a few shots of the devastation post-storm. It was all done to the tune of Green Day's "Good Riddance (I Hope You Had The Time Of Your Life)." I started worrying about Jackie again, remembering our GCTC beach parties on both West Beach and at Jackie's on Crystal Beach. I worried about whatever happened to the nursing home staff and residents from Baytown and where they ended up.

I also started remembering Corpus, in those first few months post-Celia.

That was too much -- I started crying uncontrollably. You can only stay numb for so long....
"All last night, sat on the levee and moaned
Thinking 'bout my baby and my happy home." — When The Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin

Hurricane Ike's Lingering Effects, Day 3

Kinko’s is not my favorite place to have to go to use a computer. But in a desperate pinch, it works.

It’s Monday, I should be back at work. But the Shell Westhollow campus that I work at is apparently on the same electricity grid as I am. No power, no work. We got a major break this morning – a norther! That’s unusually rare after a hurricane as we usually get the opposite: high heat and humidity with zero breeze. Couple that with no electricity, nothing cold to drink and worse – no running water adequate enough to take a shower! – and you have a recipe for extreme frustration.

So in that sense, I’m doing well.

However, electricity (as I noticed coming back from my sister’s place way out in Katy) is a fickle thing. Driving back last night, it’s an inexplicable, piecemeal quilt of little squares of electricity amongst a larger dark mass. Even the area right at the tollway, apartments that were likely mostly evacuated before the storm, has power along with the collected storefronts and convenience stores. But crossing the Upper South Brays Bayou, you slip into a sea of darkness with nothing but the occasional candle flicker in a window, or a rare house or two with generator-powered lights.

Even some of the sights are otherworldly. Riding along the Westpark Tollway, a section of it was lit up, but the lights flickered on and off individually on each side and in random patterns – seemingly in time to the music I had on the radio! At one point I spotted a high tension electric pole with two of its connectors spitting fire and sparks like a crazy sparkler, while folks drove by it like it was mundane. It was almost like I’d landed in some crazy country for Carnaval.

While in Katy, I got my first glimpse of news last night. It seems strange, but I really had no idea what was going on in the outside world. Think of wilderness camping with no contact to the outside world. So my first glimpses of the devastation were a bit of an eye-opener. I know we got hit here with well over hurricane-force winds, but it doesn’t compare to the coastal areas.

Miya Shay with our local ABC affiliate was very good in peppering both Michael Chertoff and later County Commissioner Ed Emmett, with hard questions on FEMA’s response and seeming confusion. On Friday, I was struck with some of the things that should’ve been pre-strategized and foreseen that weren’t.

Now we heard the post-storm distribution of supplies such as ice, water, and emergency food were not coordinated. FEMA had pre-determined the state would deliver supplies, but the state declined or said it could not do so, passing it back to FEMA. Great storm planning once again from our vacuous closet queen, GOPers’ boy, Gov. Rick Perry. Chertoff, meanwhile, didn’t have time to do so either and instead tossed it on local authorities – County’s Ed Emmett, and Houston’s Mayor Bill White – to conduct it.

It seems to me that with FEMA being part of Homeland Security, who’s head Michael Chertoff answers directly to no one but the President, who according to Dick Cheney has “unitary executive powers” (meaning he can do whatever he damn well pleases), it would seem the President – who’s family is still here in Houston – and Cherty could have gotten this done. Instead its dumped on the locals – where a bunch of it was to begin with – to get it done. Cherty, yer doing a heckuva job – you too, Bush-baby!

I’m sure somewhere Bush is probably now trying to “cover his ass” and make promises about working to get assistance down to those in need in a timely basis. In other words, YOYO – You’re On Your Own!

Meanwhile for the rest of us, even though we’re lucky, it doesn’t help our moods. Traveling anywhere is a bit testy as all stoplights are four-way stops – but some folks don’t care about good traffic etiquette. I saw one fender bender, and the damn fool who should’ve waited was the one out of his car acting like the enraged baboon. Stores aren’t much better. You don’t know which ones are open, and most of them have lines outside of them. Even Home Depot had me waiting in line just to get in. Once you’re in, you often times don’t find what you went there for – requiring a trip to somewhere else that’s open. One large grocery near this Kinko’s is open, has full power and is doing a brisk business. But there’s no ice, no water, no bread, no chips, precious few crackers, tuna and potted meats are gone (thankfully I’d stocked up on most all of those before). At least they had some pumpernickel and onion pretzels that turned out to be pretty good. Hey, it’s something besides tuna and crackers!

They did bring in a couple pallets of ice while I was there, but the pushy-grabby clambering to grab their allotted two bag limit just gave me a headache. Screw ice. I don’t need that.

Gasoline is also an iffy adventure. Some gas stations appear to be open – but only by generator. That means no gas that can be pumped – something that could be frustrating for someone thinking they’ve found gas, only to find it’s a mirage. The few stations with legitimate gas end up with lines up the block – they’re pretty conspicuous. They can also be hotbeds of temper flares (as I saw on the news at my sister’s).

One of the reasons I don’t make the trip to my sister’s more frequently, even though they have electricity, is the 30 mile roundtrip will whittle down my ¾ tank of gas much quicker. If I stick close to the house, I can last until next week when (hopefully) the electricity will be more widely restored and gas will be more widely available. When it comes to getting those precious supplies like gas or water or ice in the immediate days after the storm, it becomes too animalistic, not unlike what we see in third-world countries during post-disaster food distributions. As I saw close up when I was thirteen, frustration, heat or discomfort and desperation all create a maelstrom that breaks down civility rather quickly.

Three days without electricity gets tedious, even though it is better than 26 days without during August (Celia). The inertia, without even the benefit of vacation, is the maddening part.

For me personally, it’s another day down with no pay thanks to my job being closed, another day down while Human Rights Campaign and the other GLBT opportunists trash the trans community, exploit trans tragedies leaving us bereft of hope, and shoves us collectively even further down the food chain and into permanent poverty, another day while the RNC opportunists trash anyone who’s not devoutly neo-con, cleverly steals everything they can from the national tax base to “no-bid contract” out to themselves while they capitalize on any possible tragedy – esp. from Hurricane Ike – and portray themselves as heroic compatriots, down in the trenches in the same fight!

So all I can do is go cut down the mess in the back yard – and then get surprise attacks from yellow jackets! Twice! Yes this will be over soon enough. But in the meantime, it sure looks like a never-ending stretch of unforgiving rough road.

Damn I hate Kinko's keyboards!

Hurricane Aftermath: Ike!

This will be short as I'm using my sister's computer. Thankfully my baby sister, Holly, lives further out in Katy. They had damage, but it's thankfully much less (thus, they have electricity!) And running water! Until you don't have them, you don't realize how much you take the essentials for granted.

[Photo: Until this past February, I used to work at the big Chase Tower, across the street and 7 floors above where this man is standing]

Ike was a pretty tough little hurricane. Having lost power around 2:15 in the morning, I have no idea how strong it ended up being -- 110 mph sustained was the last I heard. Since then, it's been life in the dark -- literally and figuratively. Only today did I decide to drive a bit.

Not having power meant I had lots of thawing meat and fish in the freezer that I had to do something with. Normally it would be barbecue time. But this morning brought some really heavy rain, and intermittent showers throughout this early afternoon. That's not good barbecue weather, so it was time to truck my meats over to my sister's house in Katy.

The drive out was an eye opener. But damage was heavier in some of the areas just north of me. Most all of the stoplights were dangling from the lines or poles they were attached to previously -- some precariously about the height of an S.U.V's rooftop. Others were completely gone, nothing but dangling wires. Many businesses lost signs, a few lost front windows. Fence, tree and other types of debris are still in some of the busy streets even 36 hrs. after the storm -- and may be there for a while. Electricity was mostly gone, but oddly there were little pockets that still had power!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . [Katy Freeway's T.C. Jester underpass flood]
Businesses were mostly closed. What few stores were open had massive lines, and yet still didn't have the most desired items in stock: water, ice or ice chests, bread, batteries, flashlights.... There were gas stations that were open a little further out from me, and they had gas last night, but again the lines were astronomical and the crowds waiting in line were more than restive. Most gas stations that were open were only selling soft drinks and beer (and still doing a brisk business!)

The damage in my area was mostly trees, power poles and line, fences down everywhere, and some lost shingles and leaks (which I had). As it was hot and still in the house, I walked the area around my neighbohood last night -- in the dark -- and noticed it was pretty consistent all around. I ended up with another longtime trans friend, Karen, and her wife in the next neighborhood over. We sat around, along with two other refugees from town, one a trans student at Univ. of Houston dorms. We chatted into the early morning hours.

Earlier in the day, once everyone had finally ridden out the worst of the storm (around daybreak in my neighborhood), I took a nap until 2:30PM. Once I was up and stirring, all the neighbors and I simultaneously got out and began raking our gutter and yards, dragging limbs and branches out to the street. We had two neighbors on my street who'd been out of town for the last week, so we all pitched in on clearing out their front yards as well. It helps make it look like somebody's there (so looters don't get any ideas that the house is empty).

I love my neighborhood, our little United Nations! We've got folks from Ethiopia, Iran, Phillipines, Spain and Vietnam on my street. Black, white, brown, yellow; we're taxicab drivers, used car lot owners, Dept. of Defense, Sherriff's deputy, security guard -- and even a transgender activist! But we're a close-knit street -- family (even if not of the GLB variety).

[<------- Only in Texas!]

After spending the afternoon cleaning up the street en masse, satisfied, we all retreated back into our hot, still homes -- with all the afternoon's worth of sweat, unfortunately. It'd be so nice just to have a cold shower even, but that's the downside to losing power: water treatment plants can't filter and pump out the water. The conditions bite, but we're all in this together (and have been through it all before).

At some point, once I get electricity back, I'll try to upload more video to the blog. Until whenever that happens, I'll be offline for a bit (unless I make the drive out to Katy between then).

My Hurricane Blog: Ike!

[Calm the night evening before the storm, about 12 hours before the peak]

[Some last minute preparations indoors]

[A quick pre-storm shot of the Brays Bayou's north fork which runs behind my house]

Evening’s coming, and the winds are picking up! Actually it’s a nice respite, early morning and all day yesterday were typical: hot, humid and very still. But the gusts are really picking up at 6PM. This will be a bit unusual of a blog as it may end abruptly, depending on electricity. I’ll add and update as much as I can until then.

One oddity: Greens Bayou a little way up the mouth has already flooded! It doesn’t sound unusual accept for one fact: they haven’t had a drop of rain yet. This is not good. Essentially, the storm surge is now forcing water back up the bayou system! I’m quite a way in the upper Brays Bayou (the north fork of which literally runs in back of my back yard), so I’ve seen no effect … yet. We’ll see if the surge wends its way up ours as well – hopefully not! That’s more than a little unsettling.

There are reports on Crystal Beach, across the channel from Galveston, of people stranded on rooftops because of the rising water ahead of the hurricane. County authorities can’t confirm the reports because conditions are too bad and they won’t chance a rescue now. But as it’s 6:30 PM – a full six hours from landfall – these folks may have a long night.

According to the report, there were two on one rooftop, and across from them were fifteen people on a church rooftop all tied together. The tying together thing may sound good in a panic mentality. But history showed in 1900 that during Galveston’s last big flood, an orphanage where the nuns had tied themselves and all the children together ended up contributing to their own deaths as debris caught the ropes and in most cases, pulled them under.

It may sound weird to folks not here, but it’s been a relatively normal day in the neighborhood. If you didn’t go out and notice all the boarded up and closed businesses, you’d never know there was anything different. This evening (while apparently my friends were worrying about me) I was outside eating dinner and visiting with my neighbors, talking about the storm and the presidential race. We had a really nice chat over in the park at our dead end, and I ended up on my sitting on my front porch with my Ethiopian neighbors across the street, enjoying a glass of wine. Maybe later I’ll think about working up a pitcher of daquiris.

There’s quite a number of power outage reports coming in from around the area, and the storm won’t really hit for another three hours at this point. Most all cities in the area have imposed a curfew as well. Thankfully (as my neighbors and I noted while chatting) we live on a great street in our neighborhood. We all know each other and look out for each other. It helps in uncertain times.

Now I’m getting notice of the earliest damage coming in from Galveston, I should watch the TV instead of just listening. I’m worrying about the folks who didn’t take heed in this storm and stayed put on the island. They estimated 40% of Galveston remained there. With 22 foot storm surge, it will overtop their seawall by four feet – without counting either the high tide or the height of individual tides. It could be sad news at the coast.

It's just after 10:45PM and we've yet to have rain! However, we just had our first brief power outage due to the high wind gusts. This is a strangely dry hurricane for such a surge and what should prove to be high winds. It's so dry that I've had my windows open all day -- no rain, no need to close them (though the gusts are a bit annoying at times).

Just got word on Facebook from one of my city council friends that my bayou out back, the Brays, is 2/3 full way downstream (which she attributed to storm surge). It's unknown (and to me doubtful) that any surge is that strong to send it all the way to the upper Brays where I am -- but it bears monitoring, just to be safe!

In case I lose power longterm, know that it's due to power blackout. That first one was just a warning.

Strangely, even with all the high winds I've had so far, we finally got our first rain at 4 minutes before midnight!

I got a chance to visit with a friend in Indianapolis, Marti Abernathey, on Facebook's instant message around 2AM, and let her know everything was fine. It's windy, and really not that rainy -- which I don't understand. We've should had at least some heavy rains at this point (even though the eye is currently poised five miles off of Galveston), but nothing much to speak of. Yet for as little rain, we've had an inordinate amount of wind. I can only speculate, but I'd say we're maybe 45 mph sustained -- some gusts much stronger. Listening to my house creak and the chimney rattle so much is mildly unsettling. But other than a mild loss of lights for a minute or so, there's been nothing much yet. Who knows?

The latest report seems to indicate it's going straight in, and I'm due northwest of Galveston. We could have a long night of this.

[After the lights went out, I chased down the sound of the drip and filmed the leak in my ceiling]

[A different spot where I found a leak around the window up on the 2nd floor -- one I can't get to]

[What I originally thought would be the height of the storm, I went outside at 4:45 AM to try to film. Mostly it's just lots of noise and darkness.]

[This was about the height of the storm at my house, just as dawn was breaking around 6:20. After I got hit with a couple small branches and watching something whizz in back of my head -- not to mention getting pinned to my front porch wall as I tried to get back in the front door -- I decided I had enough video.]

Hurricanes Don't Know Politics

“You better duck and run
Get under cover 'cause a change is come
Storm warnings and it looks like rain
Be nothin' left after the hurricane.” — Change In The Weather, Buddy Guy

Friday. Hurricane Day. This is going to be a memorable one, I imagine.

Even though there are far too many things going on in the midst of presidential campaign season, and even the GLBT political intrigue as well, it takes other things more personal to bring you back to life – remind you that you actually have a personal life too. For us in Houston, it’s Hurricane Ike.

It acted like it was making a beeline for Corpus Christi, maybe even further south. I really didn’t think it would make this turn towards us. Well, it did.

As I live out on the western edge of Houston, I don’t have to worry over storm surges. Floods and storm surges are vastly different here in the flatlands. Floods just sit there – still water. Storm surge sweeps folks, cars, houses away. This storm surge will be bad – estimated at 18-20 feet, last I heard.

Storm surge people have to run the from hurricanes, should run from hurricanes. For the rest of us, there’s no reason to clog the roads and highways (as we amply saw during the panic evacuation from Hurricane Rita). For me, the only concern is wind, and with it tracking practically right over my house through nearly all models, it means my house will get the brunt of the wind this far inland. They’ve forecasted it could be Category 2 when it makes it to my area.

As anyone who lives in the Gulf Coast knows, news tends to go 24-7 Hurricane once it’s within 48 hours of imminent landfall. I knew it was coming in, and didn’t need to sit and obsess on news.

Thursday at work, Shell sent out a note to all employees to ask for volunteers to assist those at Houston’s Metro and City of Houston to process evacuees. So I was game! Better than just sitting and watching the hurricane bear down on us in slow-motion.

After work, I quickly changed and headed downtown to the GRB – the George R. Brown Convention Center. Traffic was extremely heavy going out, virtually non-existent going in. Even 30+ hrs. away from landfall, there were a number of gas stations that were already closing, even a few boarding up.

Once at the Convention Center, I noticed that things seemed a little slow in the sunset hours. In looking around Shell had a large presence of volunteers (as evidenced by our bright yellow T-shirts with the red Shell pectin) The only real activity surrounded the evacuated residents from a nursing home in Baytown. They were all loaded onto four Goose Creek I.S.D. school buses with lift capability – 38 residents in total, plus 8 caregivers and the registered nurse overseeing evacuation. They came to GRB as instructed in order to evacuate them in one group.

There were a couple problems: first, there were no evacuation buses with the lift capability needed for non-ambulatory folks. Second, there was no facility within easy reach of Houston who were willing to take in 47 people in one group with special medical needs.

Unfortunately there was nothing within a shorter drive for these evacuees, and nobody had an answer. Originally the nursing home residents, caregivers and school bus drivers, they were initially told they would have to drive them out of town – to which they all refused. School buses are not equipped for that long a ride for special needs patients. But none of the authorities appeared able to get any answer either!

After Katrina, and the nursing home residents who couldn’t evacuate and drowned there, you would’ve thought this logistic would’ve been worked out by now. Apparently, three years after Katrina and Rita, FEMA or the state coordination are just not there yet. Heckuva job, Perry!

Our evacuation coordinator explained that they did not want to send the non-ambulatory and special medical needs folks on a bus ride to Dallas (again, mindful of what happened in evacuation of Rita), and were looking for a place to take them in. But the school buses were herded down to the other end of the convention center and sat from about 6:30 until 10:30 or so. Being at GRB, I didn’t have my political contacts so I felt a bit neutered myself.

Once the sun went down, we started getting many more evacuees – including, again, more special needs buses. We even got a couple buses from Baytown with mixes of both special needs and non-special need. You wouldn’t think that would be a problem, but we had to determine which were staying on the buses and going to a local facility for special needs, and which were going to disembark, be processed and then wait for buses to take them to Dallas. Needless to say, many of the folks were not happy about the news – especially those boarding for Dallas. My people skills became very popular!

"Look at the people, they got terror in their eyes.
Bad wind is comin' it can't be denied.
They're runnin' with the dogs and afraid to die." — Change In The Weather, Buddy Guy

Finally, my political connections started coming through: Councilmember Peter Brown and his chief of staff Maverick Welsh showed up at GRB. They made a beeline toward me and wanted a run-down of the process, how we were coordinating it, and also any problems (to which I let them know the situation with the nursing home residents and also the special needs, non-ambulatory evacuees.) They left and headed to TranStar (the state’s coordination for transportation and logistics during hurricane threats) to try to get someone to address the problems we were having.

An hour or so passed, and we were having more logistical logjams in evacuations. Finally I got a call from Jason Fuller with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s office – he was coming over, and the situation would be addressed! The nursing home folks actually left shortly before he made it to GRB, and I don’t know if they found a location or what happened to them. But no one seemed to know where they were headed. Baytown will be underwater tonight, so I’m hoping they didn’t decided to just go back.

However, that visit seemed to unlock some of the logjam – and just in time! Buses were now coming in steadily around 11PM. Again, more of the same issues with who would drive to Dallas, and where the local folks would go.

Later Cong. Sheila Jackson Lee made a personal visit to see how the process was working. She and I chatted for a bit over some of the logistical snags: lack of extra-wide wheelchairs, the issue of not having long-trip buses with wheelchair lift capability, and even some of the ongoing issues of drivers getting message to “drive to Dallas”, but not having a specific destination – creating more delays.

It struck me how storms or disasters bring all the politicians from both sides together, working for once on the same team. Dems Brown and Jackson Lee, GOP Hutchison – it didn’t matter. Disasters don’t know politics.

While it seems like the logistics were nothing but a nightmare, that's not true. Vast improvements are having families kept together due to the new process of having everyone entered into a computer database, receiving a wristband that stays on them, and scanning them. This way, TranStar and FEMA have access to the information of who evacuated and where they went. Special consideration is given to keeping families intact in transporting them out.

Even pets are kept with owners -- a key issue overlooked before Katrina. Once upon a time, shelters took humans only. Pets either stayed behind (as we saw at times in Katrina), or their owners refused to leave in order not to let their pets fend for themselves. We've had numerous pets come in, and they're being well cared for -- even having access to their owners in a segregated area in the GRB.

Somehow, as the evening went on we had fewer problems and evacuation locations began immediately opening up. It seemed to impress the staff, the bus drivers and their evacuated passengers and cops watching it all clear up. They were impressed with me thinking I’d done it – I didn’t.

Apparently just getting with the politicos and communicating the logistical snags got the process moving better. It may not have been deserved, but I became (as the volunteer coordinator told me) their “superstar.” It’s nice when efforts coincide and the pieces fall in place. It was like I told the police officer with me after Sheila left, it’s just like team sports: you involve yourself, see what’s happening and what’s needed, then do it.

Finally, about 1AM, I was toast: sleep and recharge time. As I drove home I was impressed with how deserted the roads were, and how typically warm, sticky and calm it was. It’s deceptive.

While I’m sitting here at the house this morning, I’ve been watching the news reports showing the very beginning of the storm surge – 16-18 hours from the storm’s landfall – already topping the seawall in spots. This is going to be a bad storm for Galveston and points in the coastal area.

Just this morning I heard of a freighter with 22 people onboard that’s 90 miles off the coast of Galveston, and the eye of the storm is around 200 miles off. The Coast Guard told them there’s nothing they can do and they’re just going to have to anchor and ride it out. What damn idiot captains this ship? Was he just flown in from Pluto to take over and sail right into Galveston right in the midst of the storm? Lord only knows what’s going to happen to whatever this guy has in cargo … although everyone along the islands will know soon when it washes up. Idiots!

However, it’s not just the ship captain playing stupid. This morning, we’ve seen numerous people still in Galveston and the bay coastal areas, standing around watching the waves. There’s going to be a lot of folks (as we saw on TV this morning) making a last minute decision to leave.

I guess that makes up my mind. In a while, I’ll likely head back downtown and help with the evacuations again. This will be fun.

As I write this, there’s no rain at all, bright sunny day … but the winds suddenly began gusting ….

“Aha, you best believe it's true!
The levee's busted, bad news comin' true!
Oh no, there ain't no place to hide.
Reach out and pluck you, take you for a ride, yeah.
Sheer frustration takin' everything in sight.
Won't be no blessin' if we make it through the night.” — Change In The Weather, Buddy Guy