talk 645

Flood Story (1)

H. Soo

This is a two parts story; the first story tells about Rita hurricane, the second story is with Katrina.

Flood Story 1 – Rita

On Tuesday, the radio and TV started broadcasting about Rita. The path from Cuba had been a straight line pointing towards Houston. In Wednesday afternoon my office mates became restless and many local companies decided to close on Thursday and Friday. True to my character, I sneaked out Wednesday afternoon since I could not concentrate any more. The office manager told us to cover our computers with plastic garbage bags and transfer our C-drive files to the central network where they will be backed-up, or burn the CDs.

On Thursday, the weather was nice but hot. TV kept announcing a Category 5 hurricane hitting the Texas gulf coast. The Texas coast is 500 miles long and they sounded as if all 500 miles inland will be hit at the same time. Those meteologists became 24 hour anchors and after awhile, I realized these guys were just b.s. that whole time. All the news could be summarized into 5 sentences. It was their finest hour and they milked every minute of it. This was sensational journalism through and through. On Thursday, the Category 5 hurricane was predicted to hit Matagorda Bay, 100 miles west of Houston. Matagorda was declared forced evacuation. The National Hurricane Center showed several possible paths based on different mathematical models and these curves diverged quite a lot the further they were from the storm center at sea. It was a fan shaped section containing math models ranging from 100 mile west of Houston to east of Houston. (The amazing thing was that a few hours before the hurricane hits the coast, all the models converged to pin point the crossing at Port Arthur and at Category 3).

Thursday morning, the TV prediction was a Category 5 landing directly to Houston on Saturday morning. After the disaster of Katrina, nearly 3 million people of the 4 million residents started to exit Houston driving several hours to North, Northeast where they could find hotels or with friends. With such a mass exodus, the roads going out are bumper to bumper. It took a few hours just to drive 10 miles. Worst, the heat was 100 degree the whole day. Image you have young children or old folks with you! Even worst, there was no gas because the delivery trucks had stopped coming in and 3 million people were leaving at the same time. Even people starting with a full tank of gas were not faring well because the gridlock wasted all the gas. So, people stopped the Air Conditioning to conserve gas at this 100-degree heat with young children. Worst still, some highways were designed as express lanes and exit lanes were blocked and will not allow exit until several hundred miles further down the road. So, you could not exit this madness to turn back. Of course, you got to relieve yourself along the highway. The whole highway smelled foul in this heat. My restaurant friend told me his friend’s family used a bucket. I said what for?

Most of the people stayed in their car for 12 to 18 hours trying to get away. By nightfall, there was still no gas and some smart traffic expert finally allowed the highway counter lanes to open also for outgoing traffic. And the traffic moved fast. But there were several hundred strands due to car broke-down, over-heat, no gas. At midnight they were put into close- by shelters. Luckily the hurricane did not catch them on the highway. Their cars were towed by highway police or given gas by the state tanker trucks to drive on. The towing fee is $167 plus a storage fee. What a racket!

Along the highway, some local residents did donate their extra gas from their homes in 5-gallon cans to those stranded near their home. Some even provided cooked food and water. I hope I never have to entertain their hospitality.

On Friday evening, it was announced that the landing would be at Port Arthur, 100 miles east of Houston. It is a Category 3 hurricane. The center wind speed will be 100 miles per hour. Houston will have only a tropical type of storm with wind speed 40-75 mph. Then the stations kept showing the storm surges along the coast. What has it got to do with us inland people? We all knew the coast be will be stormed by waves. Cheap sensationism.

By Saturday afternoon, the wind lessened and the sun came out. There are very few damaged in Houston. I found only a few more leaves lying on the apartment ground as evidence of a passing storm. The problem now is finding gas for the people coming back. About 800,000 people are out of electricity in Houston. But these are only minor repairs.

Lessons learned:

1. Don’t be faddish. Stay cool. TV are not telling the whole story, they want to dramatize it as much as possible. One Indian told me none of his people left. Only the whites, blacks, Hispanics joined the exit rampage. Mostly they thought it was a family trip to visit some friends. Without thinking, they ended up in a gridlock for 12 to 18 hours in the 100-degree sun. They don’t deserve this!
2. Stock canned food and bottled/canned water, drinks. Don’t buy dry food such as noodles, sweets. You will still need they for a couple days after the hurricane.
3. Size A batteries for your radio and flashlights. Also first aid kit.
4. After the hurricane, the temperature will shoot up to 100 degree for a couple days. Quite different from Hong Kong. This is because the air is now heavier and compressed to give out heat.
5. Get a lot of cash. The banks, ATM and credit cards may not work for several days.
6. The lesson is if you decide to leave, leave early ahead of those afternoon crowd. Carry 5-gallon gas tanks, lots of water, diapers. Most important, treat this leaving serious, with planning for all eventuality. I wonder how many of us can survive in this 100 degree heat cooped up in a car for 22 hours.

Side Shows:

1. I chose to stay at home because over the years I have collected many, many boxes of books, documents for my work in off-shore oil drilling. Many of which I have yet to read. If I leave and the condo is flooded or a window is broken, these materials will be ruined and I will not be able to replace them. So I chose to stay. If fact, if I had to leave, I will drive 6 hours west to El Paso and have several days off into Mexico for a good time.

2. A couple days before the hurricane hit, one station showed several math models and their paths diverging over different parts of the Texas coast. That meteologist said he had still another separate model and that model tested out exactly for Katrina landing in New Orleans. He then showed that model, and it pinned point the landing at Port Arthur. Somehow, that model was never mentioned again in the following days. Mt suspicion is that they keep that model secret otherwise they wont be able to b.s. for that 72 hours.

3. Now is on the way back. The roads are gridlock again. There wont be gas for another 2 or 3 days. 2 or 3 million people are rushing home to see any damages. The TV interviewed one lady. She said she had to return because she could not afford to pay another $200 dollar a day for a motel. She is white, young and has a new car. Quite amazing. Their class must have spent a lot with no saving. Very typical of the American middle class.
4. Most astonishing is that those returnees when interviewed show good temper on their ordeal.
5. Very little looting in Texas. The Cowboy State police will not tolerate those same acts as in New Orleans.
6. Those people with property insurance can easily leave town because they know that any damages will be covered.

Flood Story 2 – Katrina

1. It was four days before President Bush talked about the tragedy in New Orleans. There had not been much action from Bush at the beginning. The story is that aids did not want to disturb Bush on his last two days of vacation in his Texas ranch. Only on the third day, since Bush does not watch TV, an aid was brave enough to burn a CD to show him the TV news in New Orleans. That stirred him into action. Very Chinese. I hope that aid has not been fired.

2. On the fourth day, Bush ventured into New Orleans. Riding on the Hummer, he reminded me of Jesus riding a donkey entering Jerusalem on Passover. He praised the FEMA director: Brownie you are doing a heck of a good job. It turns out Mr. Brown is a qualified horse judge and had grossly overblown his resume. Mr. Brown was later promoted to Washington for bigger projects. Again, very Chinese.

3. The European presses overwhelming derided the U.S. as a third class nation for such ineffectiveness in the rescue. When TV showed the blacks and poor whites struggling in the floodwater, it exposed such a large under society of the welfare poor. They had been fed with subsistence welfare checks and told to disappear into the under belly. How long can this neglect continue in this most abundant nation on earth? Taking of water, food, daily supplies were ignored. But they were criticized for looting TVs, refrigerators, sports shoes.

4. Snipers had shot at rescue helicopter and ambulances. Can you believe it?

5. FEMA in its infinite wisdom had decided to hand out twenty thousand $2000 debit cards to the evacuees. But after distributing 7000 cards, it stopped. What a joke! Note: ATM and credits will not work because of flood and electric outage.

Now we have some more interesting stories:

6. Two blonde blue-eyed beauties were shown on TV handcuffed into a police car. It turned out they were from Alabama and had driven to Houston claiming to be New Orleans refugees. They each got a $2000 FEMA card. Then promptly they used that money to buy cold medicines and started cooking amphetamine (ice) in their hotel room. Some body must have tipped off the police. What a shame to free enterprise.

7. Some one used the $2000 as down payment for a new car. What is wrong with that? People need wheels.

8. Some lady bought a set of Louis Vitton bags. What is wrong with that? This may be her only chance in this dog gone life to own something she admired!

9. TV interviewed a Mrs. Gandhi who owned a motel in Houston. The rent was $99 a night. Now it is $199 a night for the evacuees. Mrs. Gandhi claimed by doubling the rent, and limiting to 2 people per room, she will attract better class of clients and resulted in more safety for the clients. There were also cases of hotel owners roused up the guests at mid-night and demanded 50 dollars more, or move out. Some people were forced out of their rooms because the ATM and credit cards stopped working and they could not pay. Mrs. Gandhi is a sure disgrace to that universally reverenced Mr. Gandhi.

10. Now President and Washington had open the money spigot, money is flowing to Halliburton, Bechtel to rebuild New Orleans. Yea! Great! Hallelujah, the mona is raining again.