Sounds like a nice day to take a walk in the third ward.

Thing One is still in central Texas, waiting to hear when it's OK to return to Galveston and see what's happened to his garage apartment and belongings. And, near-term, it looks like TAMU Galveston is going to be shut down for a while which will wreck the semester for TO.

Reports from an interested source tell that the 1877 barque Elissa weathered the storm but is understandably somewhat tattered. Surge was pretty high in the harbor because Chron.com has video of a shrimp boat sitting high and dry, against the parking lot attendant's booth near pier 21-22...about 12' above the usual water level and 50 yds inland.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Wheres H-townbenzboy??



Anyone around Huntsville? I need to have someone check on someone for me.... I have not been able to get ahold of them, and am worried.

__________________
-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

I talked to Htown earlier. He's good, staying at his sisters since she has power.

I'm one of as of noon today, 262,000 people have power.

1.84 Million people are still without.

__________________
91 350SD
14 F150 Eco
19 Fusion Hybrid
11 GT500

As redassag00 reported, I'm enjoying the a/c at my sister's place. Her place was one of the few places in Houston to regain power quickly. They tried to get power restored at my place yesterday, but Centerpoint energy pulled a FAIL, a double FAIL when they didn't come back today as promised, but I understand that they have a large task at hand over these next few days and weeks. I don't know when power will be restored at my place, but for now, I have a place to cool down, to eat (re-stocked up at a well stocked grocery store), and otherwise continue on with life.

The house suffered NO damage. Some trees got heavily damaged. Brays Bayou, which I live next to, ALMOST came out of its banks at our point. It came out of the banks upstream, directly across, and downstream of us, but left us completely dry.

And as for the 300D? Sitting happily behind my sister's townhome. I'll post some pics of the aftermath tonight.

__________________
'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Pics taken yesterday morning:

__________________
'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Good to hear you faired well there! Looks like it will get back to normal soon.

Well, believe it or not, all the way over here in east Tennessee we are getting rain showes from Ikes leftovers and windy conditions. It was a sunny and hot afternoon (in the lower 90s) and very humid, but clouds rolled in the late afternoon and it became really windy. Gusts to about 40 mph at times. Still raining and windy at the midnight hour. Hard to believe that Ike has covered so much real estate.

Thanks to Ike, our baseball fields at the St Peters Athletic Ass'n in St Peters MO are under several feet of water and our season may be over...thank you, thank you, thank you...I hate sitting at those games getting eaten by mosquitos and listening to the other parents yammering about what great players their kids are!

__________________
2002 Ford ZX2
2 x 2013 Honda Civics

Report critical of Louisiana evacuation policy

NEW ORLEANS - Residents who were evacuated to state-run shelters before Hurricane Gustav made landfall will hold a press conference at noon today on the steps of City Hall to release a report on the "failures" of the state's handling of evacuations.

The report, “Never Again: Failures of Louisiana’s Gustav Evacuation,” is critical of the Louisiana's policy that led to sheltering "the poorest evacuees in the worst shelters," according to a news release announcing the press conference. The report also makes recommendations for the handling of future evacuations.

Critics of the policy, created on Aug. 29, say they have gathered more than 1,200 petition signatures.

"The policy states that in the event of disaster, evacuees fleeing by bus will be taken to 'large capacity' shelters – old, abandoned Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club warehouses that fail the most basic humanitarian standards," the release says.

Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice and a co-author of the report, said the report reveals "the stark indignities that poor and working-class African-American residents were subjected to as the direct result of state policy during Hurricane Gustav."

The report is based on hundreds of interviews with evacuees who shared their shelter and evacuation experiences.

“I blame Bobby Jindal for implementing a policy that forced me into humiliating conditions,” said resident Harriet Humes, who was taken to a state-run shelter in Shreveport. “We were forced to live 1,500 people in a room, without access to running water. Mothers had to wash their babies out of bottles in disgusting outdoor portable toilets. Diabetics were stuck without food. The policy forced us into horrific conditions.”

"We were treated like animals there," said Christine McCann, a mother who evacuated to Shreveport from Central City with her husband and child. "We were herded like cattle. Shame on Gov. Jindal for putting my child in a place like that. Would he put his children there?

Meanwhile, evacuees who had cars and could afford to leave were housed in better shelters operated by institutions like the American Red Cross, the report says.

As a result of shelter conditions, "a vast number" of of New Orleanians "are not likely to put their faith in government again as other hurricanes approach," the news release says.

“This report details many of the problems that undercut the Gustav evacuation,” said Bill Quigley, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans Law School. “The very serious defects in the Gustav evacuation process have clearly damaged the potential for all future evacuations. The result is that a large percentage of people who evacuated for Gustav have made it clear that they will not cooperate with a government-called evacuation in the future. It is time for government to clearly and honestly identify the serious defects in the Gustav evacuation.”

Charleston Preston, a New Orleans resident who was evacuated to a state-run shelter in Bastrop, said he "came back to New Orleans sicker and poorer as a result of the horrific shelter conditions.

"I will never again evacuate – unless I know someone in Baton Rouge is fixing the state shelter plan.”•

A nurse working at a shelter wrote this about his/her real experience with evacuees;

Dear Editor,

I am a nurse who has just completed volunteer working approximately 120 hours as the clinic director in a Hurricane Gustav evacuation shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana over the last 7 days. I would love to see someone look at the evacuee situation from a new perspective.

Local and national news channels have covered the evacuation and "horrible" conditions the evacuees had to endure during Hurricane Gustav.
True - some things were not optimal for the evacuation and the shelters need some modification.


At any point, does anyone a address the responsibility (or irresponsibility) of the evacuees?
Does it seem wrong that one would remember their cell phone, charger, cigarettes and lighter but forget their child's insulin?
Is something amiss when an evacuee gets off the bus, walks immediately to the medical area, and requests immediate free refills on all medicines for which they cannot provide a prescription or current bottle (most of which are narcotics)?

Isn't the system flawed when an evacuee says they cannot afford a $3 copay for a refill that will be delivered to them in the shelter yet they can take a city-provided bus to Wal-mart, buy 5 bottles of Vodka, and return to consume them secretly in the shelter?

Is it fair to stop performing luggage checks on incoming evacuees so as not to delay the registration process but endanger the volunteer staff and other persons with the very realistic truth of drugs, alcohol and weapons being brought into the shelter?

Am I less than compassionate when it frustrates me to scrub emesis from the floor near a nauseated child while his mother lies nearby, watching me work 26 hours straight, not even raising her head from the pillow to comfort her own son?

Why does it insense me to hear a man say "I ain't goin' home 'til I get my FEMA check" when I would love to just go home and see my daughters who I have only seen 3 times this week?

Is the system flawed when the privately insured patient must find a way to get to the pharmacy, fill his prescription and pay his copay while the FEMA declaration allows the uninsured person to acquire free medications under the disaster rules?

Does it seem odd that the nurse volunteering at the shelter is paying for childcare while the evacuee sits on a cot during the day as the shelter provides a "daycare"?

Have government e ntitlements created this mentality and am I facilitating it with my work?
Will I be a bad person, merciless nurse or poor Christian if I hesitate to work at the next shelter because I have worked for 7 days being called every curse word imaginable, feeling threatened and fearing for my personal safety in the shelter?

Whoa.

That's some kind of stuff right there. It's endemic to the culture of government dependency. Solutions for it are as Barak would say, "above my paygrade."

Ike resurrects river flooding fears across Midwest
By JIM SALTER, Associated Press Writer
36 minutes ago
ST. LOUIS - Just a few months after near-record flooding across the Midwest, roads in the region were under water again Tuesday and more than 1 million people were without power thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Ike.

"The old-timers knew it was wise to leave the sandbags," said Arnold City Manager Matthew Unrein, whose town south of St. Louis still has the sandbag defenses it built when it was threatened by floods in March. The Meramec was expected to reach 18 feet above flood stage in Arnold on Thursday.

Several rivers in Missouri were rising toward crests expected later this week, some more than 15 feet above flood stage. Flooding already was occurring at several towns along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, including St. Louis. The President Casino on the St. Louis riverfront shut down for the third time since April because of high water, and the boulevard that runs in front of the Gateway Arch was closed.

Ike dumped as much as 8 inches of rain on parts of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri after coming ashore in Texas during the weekend. It spawned hurricane-force wind in Ohio and a tornado in Arkansas that damaged several buildings.

The devastating rain and wind in the Midwest brought Ike's total death toll to at least 47 in 10 states from the Gulf Coast to the upper Ohio Valley.

The violent weather also knocked out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses across the Midwest, most of them in Ohio. As of Tuesday, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency said 1.4 million customers still had no electricity.

The governors of Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky declared states of emergency. Several utilities said many customers might not be back on line until the weekend, and Louisville Gas and Electric says it could be two weeks before service is fully restored in Kentucky's largest city.

More than a half-million Kentucky customers lost power at the height of the storm. "This is the biggest outage on record in the commonwealth of Kentucky," said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear. He said half the state's 120 counties reported storm damage.

Hundreds of roads were flooded around Missouri, including about 200 state roads and highways.

The National Weather Service is projecting moderate flooding from Hannibal south to the convergence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Major flooding is expected from St. Louis south to Cape Girardeau, although few homes are expected to be affected. At Hermann, the Missouri is expected to crest 11.5 feet above flood stage Thursday, enough to flood 37,000 acres of farmland and threaten at least two businesses.

The Coast Guard closed stretches of the Missouri and Mississippi to recreational vessels Tuesday, saying the strong current created by the rising water and heavy floating debris created significant hazards.

In central Illinois, the rising Illinois River had chased about 100 people from their homes in Morris, Assistant Fire Chief Robert Will said. By Friday, the river is expected to crest more than 7 feet above flood stage at Peoria, officials said.

The rain from Ike combined with earlier storms in southern and western Michigan to rupture a dam in Berrien County and cause massive sewage overflows and street flooding, authorities said.

An 8-foot section of that earthen dam gave way Monday night on the Dowagiac River and about a dozen homes had to be evacuated.

The rain also overwhelmed Chicago's 4,300 miles of sewers — backing up into homes and inundating streets and parking lots.

Stores in the Chicago area reported a run on sump and utility pumps. "People were running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to stop the damage," said Pete Palermo, a manager of the Keystone Ace Hardware in Albany Park.

Hundreds of homes were flooded in northwestern Indiana during the weekend and a busy stretch of Interstate 80/94 was still blocked by water Tuesday. Road crews were still working to pump water from the highway, a major route into the Chicago area, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday.

Indiana National Guard troops were activated Sunday and Monday to help evacuate about 5,000 residents from flooded parts of Munster, Ind., during the weekend.

"The water was nothing but a trickle in the middle of the street and by the time we decided what to do it was too late," said Munster resident George Polvich, who was rescued by boat.

Ike pics:



http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of.html

__________________
-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831799&postcount=13
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831807&postcount=14

Did this nurse really think it would be all roses when it comes to helping in shelters? Everyone there's not June and Ward Cleaver.

How come their name isn't posted? There is also no news source listed as the source of this publication. I'm not saying that this really didn't happen to a person, but the prominent absence of those few qualifiers and the presence of stereotypes really does make one question the validity of this story, as it reads more like a political agenda story/slander piece rather than a first hand account.

I for one would just pass it off as another chain letter destined for the junk e-mail pile. Though if this story is true, I don't know how a person could be so naive, especially a nurse, which is one of the most thankless jobs in the world.

__________________
'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

I dont know if anyone has mentioned it but the Boliver peninsula is now Boliver Island ,these people I believe have lost not only their home from the storm but their right to rebuild also.I was down their in April to see my friends band ,The Stone Coyotes ,play the Stingeeray festival .Those were some really nice beaches down their.The State will hopefully let people rebuild and bring back the Boliver to its original state .