One Year Ago ....

[Nethilia]

>    From: "plinsenmayer" <pennylin at swbell.net>
> Subject: One Year Ago ....
> 
> Hi --
> 
> One Year Ago today .... I was about to be evacuating
> my flooding house
> in the costliest tropical storm in US history
> (Tropical Storm
> Allison).  Allison dumped 80% of our average annual
> rainfall on us
> over a 5 day period (but mostly on the night of June
> 8/9), which was
> 32 trillion gallons of water according to the paper.
>  When it was
> over, 22 Houstonians lost their lives, 73,000
> residences were damaged,
> 100,000 autos were damaged, countless businesses
> damaged ... a total
> pricetag of $5 billion.  

Ick, I remember that, I hated it, every bit of it. *is
also from Houston...er, was living there at the time*

> Apparently at one point that night 28 inches of rain
> fell in parts of
> northeast Houston, and the flood levels approached
> 15 feet.  They
> pumped astronomical amounts of water out of the
> downtown parking
> garages & tunnel system.  The Texas Medical Center
> (largest collection
> of medical facilities in the world) was hit hard ...
> sustaining 40% of
> the $5 billion in damages.  It is a ongoing
> nightmare since years of
> research projects were lost entirely.  One of the
> lasting images from
> Allison for me is hearing about how 2 hospitals lost
> power entirely &
> they were manually running the machines for the
> critically ill
> patients & evacuating them down flights of dark
> stairs with no a/c.  I
> know they landed Blackhawk military helicopters in
> Hermann Park to
> airlift many patients to San Antonio. 
> :::shudders::::
> 
> Of course, the other indelible image engraved in my
> mind is my husband
> zipping up our 6 week old daughter into his jacket
> to evacuate to our
> next-door neighbors' house (2 story).  It turns out
> we only got 3
> inches ... but we didn't want to end up on the roof
> awaiting the Coast
> Guard with a small baby.  <g>  

Mine is being stuck in a house, all by myself, and
having to wander outside in waist deep water, pop the
braker switch off and sit in the dark for almost three
hours, because we had a lot of extention cords for my
mom's machines and the last thing I wanted was to be
electrocuted as water rushed in. I also remember that
my mom and two sisters were out by themselves, in the
truck, and nearly got swept away by the water. As my
sister put it (and still does today), "I slept on a
bridge. I rode a tractor. When your mother points to
the sign on the 59 bridge and the water is touching
it, that is NOT A GOOD SIGN!" 

I also remember turning around, seeing water coming
in, and grabbing my comp off the floor and dropping it
on top of the nearest chair, then turning around and
seeing that exact spot waterlogged. I had to sleep in
the other chair, and I didn't sleep until almost 7 am.
My mom and sisters didn't get home until Saturday
evening. 


> The other thing I can remember vividly is watching
> the weather reports
> ... the meterologists were just ashen faced
> (apparently Allison was
> dumping rain at a rate of 100% of what any given
> cloud could
> deliver...).  I remember thinking, rather stupidly,
> as I looked at the
> map of Houston with the entire inner city area
> covered in "bright red"
> radar & wondering if they could simultaneously
> evacuate 1 million
> people by helicopter or if we would get preference
> due to the baby. 
> :--)  Silly things occur to you in a crisis I
> suppose. 

Yah...I was massively worried because I was supposed
to fly to Denver that Tuesday and I was stupidly
wondering if Intercontinental Airport was flooded and
if I could get there without drowning. (I did get
there, on the bus, with three suitcases, a backpack,
and a duffle bag.) I was also shocked watching the
semi trucks float on I-10 and going O_o.

> Anyway, one year later, I'm glad to be sitting back
> in my repaired
> house & it's *NOT RAINING*!  :--)

I'm glad for the same thing--only my mom moved out of
where we were to move to Milwaukee (but that's a whole
nother story). I really don't like floods. 

--Neth

=====
--Nethilia de Lobo--
79% obsessed with Harry Potter
Wand: Dragon Heartstring, Ash, 7 inches
**Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus.**

http://ww.cepheid.org/~marshmallow
Spenecial.com. Two girls. One Website. Total Chaos.

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