I believe them to be OK. Swing weighed in [via generator] shortly after the big event and allowed as how he had finally gotten hold of Leon. It could be that neither has yet to get their power back on or that both are helping with cleanup and repairs for friends and/or kids and relatives. As for myself, power is back on here in NW Houston since Tuesday evening. My loses amount to a single limb of any consequence which missed the house and the back cedar fence which is 18+ years old anyway and about to fall down on it's own.
Leon and my respective families fared well, but Leon's home was still out of power yesterday ... ours is up and running now. I think a couple of the others from Houston who post here managed to get out of Dodge before Ike.
To say the least ... power outages are to be expected when the preponderance of the infrastructure is above ground. Too damn bad local politics and a false economy keep that "duh" factor intact in a hurricane prone area.
Galveston and surrounding counties are pretty much a mess, but have always been after hurricanes ... nothing new there, just too many relatively new folks to the Texas Gulf Coast, with no historical perspective and a propensity for a quick buck, who can't seem to understand that there are some places on earth that have no business being populated.
Nonetheless, our sympathy is with them ... a few years back our house flooded in a tropical storm due to area subsidence and poor building practices on adjacent lots, so we know the feeling ... it's a monumental inconvenience that's tougher on the older/poorer citizens. Thank goodness we've had a cool spell this week ... when the weather turns back to it's usual seasonal, tropical, hot, humid self, the suffering will get worse.
I managed to get my generator into the hands of someone who needs it, we've already distributed the ice we managed to keep from melting with the generator, and the only thing to do is to wait for "business as usual" to come back ... it always does.
ITMT, I've used a chain saw more in the last three days than in the last 30 ... no matter how old you get, there is someone older who can no longer help themselves. That's OK ... I needed the exercise, and there is a ton of pecan wood around that's going to make some good BBQ in the coming months.
Many of these homes you see in the pictures of devastation on Bolivar/Rollover Pass and Galveston's West end are also in the "vacation home", or "second home", category.
Saddest is those of this category that have been turned, by dreams, into permanent (no pun intended), primary residence "retirement homes" by unwary transplants to the area who have never been exposed to the fury of a hurricane.
It's the latter who do elicit most of that smidge of sympathy that can be generated for the foolish who have no respect for the power of Mother Nature. In any case, they are all, regardless of lack of judgment, in need of help and no effort should be spared in that regard. But, and after the dust/water settles, and were they my kids, I'd smack the crap out of them.
My homeowner's insurance premiums in the years to come will be covering said foolishness, like it or not.
No need for something new. The cordless drill with suitable attachments like the beaters from a mixer should be able to handle your Margarita needs. I'm guessing in the middle of a flood there isn't much to do except to sit around and drink alcohol before it floats away.
I doubt if the drill and a beater will make much of an outboard either HEHE I agree it'd be best to use the batteries before they go dead for mixing drinks :) CC
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