STILL WAITING

5:30 p.m. Friday, September 12, 2008

So far, not much has happened here today. The wind is blowing a little bit stronger, but intermittently. It has showered lightly a couple of times. Our city has issued a curfew from dusk to dawn, in anticipation of the idiots who would take advantage of an abandoned town in order to steal and loot. I’m not sure how many people stayed here rather than evacuate, but I’ve seen quite a few people out and about in town. The eye of IKE is still about 50 miles out from land, though the outer bands have already begun making landfall.

All day there has been footage on TV about the rising water in Surfside and Galveston. It began to rise quickly early this morning, and has continued throughout the day, still hours ahead of landfall. The enormous size of this storm means it is pushing a huge amount of water ahead of it onto land. Surfside is underwater. Bluewater highway is underwater. Galveston Island is slowly being flooded. This morning the waves were crashing into the seawall and spraying up into the air up to 50 feet. As the water bounced back off of the wall, it met the next wave coming in, and gave the appearance of the water boiling. Huge amounts of debris is washing up onto the seawall, made up of trash, seaweed, wood from the piers, pilings, stairways, etc. Piers have been destroyed. I feel sorry for the fools who chose to stay in their home on that island and ride the storm out. They will likely end up dead, or stranded in their attic or roof, with no means of rescue.

We weren’t able to get as much ice as I’d have liked. Only one store is open in town today, and has limited ice to 1 bag per person. So hopefully we won’t lose power for too long. When we do, there will be no means of preparing any cooked meals. We didn’t make too many preparations for this storm, except for batteries and flashlight and water. I wish we had a propane cook-stove, a small charcoal grill, maybe a propane lantern. For sure some plywood for the windows.

Right now we’re watching for our outdoor cat to come around so we can scoop him up and bring him inside for the night. He’s never been inside, and more than likely will act crazy, but I don’t want him outside in those strong winds and torrential rain. I don’t believe any animal should be left outside to weather a hurricane, and especially not left behind when the family evacuates. It’s just not right when they can do nothing to help themselves.

I’ll be sitting here waiting…

Patti