A few random notes from various items I found today.

There’s always a way.
The first comes from the problems in Galveston. The city has been using the San Luis Resort and Conference Center as the base of operations during the storm, as the hotel was one of the best built buildings on the island to weather an event like this.

The generator on-site is functioning fine, but city officials simply needed more juice. A request from FEMA returned with a “we don’t install generators in private buildings” reply. What is a mayor to do? The mayor commandeered the facility and declared it a city facility.

FEMA generators are now installed in the building. [original story from chron.com]

Initial shock.
The City of Galveston starting allowing individuals to “look and leave”, giving residents the first chance to check out what happened to their homes or businesses. A chron.com blog entry details the shock that fell upon one gentleman, 20 blocks from the seawall, who saw his never-flooded-before-in-70-years home ravished by at least two feet of water. More than what I can type here, so head to chron.com for the story directly.

A picture is worth a thousand words.
If you can’t tell by now, chron.com, the homepage for the Houston Chronicle newspaper, is an excellent resource for information. Virtually every time you refresh either their homepage or hurricane blog page, new information is present.

One of the things currently on their homepage is a before and after photo spread of Bolivar. Says only things pictures can say.

Mini-update on Vanessa’s parents
According to news from earlier today, The Woodlands will not be fully back on the grid until September 26th; however, the area of town where her parents are at should be restored today. We haven’t heard anything from them yet, so we’ll see.

A few people have asked me about Vanessa’s parents in The Woodlands. They’re fine. Like the rest of that area, they’re without power and will be for awhile from all accounts. Cell and landline phone service is also not operational, but we can occasionally get a text message through.

They weathered the storm fine. Mr. Gonzalez had to go out to clear debris from a gate to allow rain water to flow out to the street since the water started to flood a portion of the backyard. Once he cleared the passage, the water drained as planned. The pool looks disgusting, full of mud, muck and more.

I’ll post any news on here for those who are interested.