Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | September 16, 2008
Per the Chronicle’s Tropical Weather blog (a good source of information about Hurricane closings and openings, though I wish they would list ZIP codes when they publish a list of businesses that are open — since ZIP codes are generally geographically near their numerical neighbors, sorting by ZIP is a good way to provide such [...]
Mark Bennett | September 15, 2008
One of many fallen once-majestic trees:
Snapped, not uprooted:
The tree fell in their child’s room. Fortunately, they had left before the storm:
This garage is going to need a little more work:
The guy in the maroon shirt with the chainsaw lost the front half of his house to a falling tree — he and his 7-month pregnant [...]
Mark Bennett | September 13, 2008
The wind and water are still blowing, but the worst appears to be past. The neighborhood is a mess. Trees are shattered or downed. The only areas in Houston with power are downtown and the medical center (per USA Today). Lower-lying areas might still see flooding from the rains.
We’re extraordinarily lucky.
Mark Bennett | September 13, 2008
1.6 million people are without power.
Brennan’s Restaurant in Houston reportedly burned down.
There have been major fires in Galveston too. No emergency services there for the people who stuck around despite the mandatory evacuation ordered two days ago.
We are very lucky.
Mark Bennett | September 12, 2008
I went to fetch Oma back here; there was hardly anyone on the road — I passed maybe three other cars on I-10. There are lots of small branches in the streets; lots of people don’t have power, probably as a result of transformers blowing when branches blow onto power lines. I guess it’s not [...]
Mark Bennett | September 12, 2008
A nice breeze, with a few gusts. Few drops of rain. We heard a transformer blow in the neighborhood about 15 minutes ago, but we still have power. I relented and boarded up a few critical windows — Jennifer can be very persuasive.
Oma’s power (she lives a few miles northwest of here) is out already. [...]
Mark Bennett | September 12, 2008
It turns out that storm tides were largely responsible for the 6,000-12,000 deaths in the Galveston Storm of 1900 (the deadliest natural disaster in the United States, even now). Those tides were 8 to 15 feet.
Since then the elevation of the city has been raised, but with a storm surge up to 22 feet above [...]
Mark Bennett | September 12, 2008
Thank you to all who have expressed concern about how we’ll fare in Hurricane Ike.
Ike looks like it will come ashore somewhere on Galveston Island (50 miles to our southeast) with a huge (up to 22-foot) storm surge. Galveston has a seawall that is 17 feet high on the Gulf of Mexico side only. So [...]
Mark Bennett | September 11, 2008
Yes, that’s plywood duct-taped to the windowframe.
