Ahira's Hangar

If not the poorest, at least one of the poorest for sure. The huge disparity between the haves and the have nots in the world never ceases to sadden me. I can't help believing that there must be a better way.

--A

What I do not understand is why we have given so little help to a country so close where there is so much suffering right now. As far as I know, we have only sent in one navy ship packed with supplies? Does the Haitian goverrnment not want any help (if they do not trust the US government I can understand that, by the way)? If they do want help, why such a small amount in comparison to the resources at our disposal?

And from what they say, the biggest problem in Haiti (as opposed to the Dominican Republic which shares the same island) is deforestation. That is why the flooding is so devastating in Haiti as opposed to Dominica, which has kept forests. The UN (or relief groups) needs to start replanting trees... I am not sure of the political ramifications, but someone needs to do it before the whole freaking country gets washed off the face of the Earth. (of course, the poverty and the deforestation often go hand in hand...)

Ike is predicted to hit the Texas coast as a major hurricane. Houston is thought to be on the "dirty side" of the storm. They are not evacuating Houston and its millions. They say the evacuation will cause more problems than the storm. As was proven in a tropical storm a few years ago, Houston is really prone to flooding.

I am hoping the Texas government is correct in its decision to not evacuate the city, that the human suffering will be minimal, and that (admittedly selfishly) my friends and I will not be deployed. We will not be deployed for property damage - only if there are huge numbers of living casualties who need emergency medical care... We do not need that - no more Katrinas, dammit!

The situation with Ike got really bad while I was at work.

They are predicting catostrophic flooding in the barrier islands and Galveston - and possibly as far inland as Houston. A million people live in those low lying areas, and National Weather is using language I have never heard before in my life - that anyone who stays in those areas in one or two story buildings is facing CERTAIN DEATH.

They are still not evacuating the higher elevations (such as they are) in Houston proper. Too many people to move - millions and millions of them. They want those people to stock up on supplies and ride the storm out. However, they are expecting flooding, and up to 60% of even those higher elevation houses to be damaged. They are expecting somewhere around a twenty foot storm surge.

A good 12 hours before landfall and some Texas coastal towns are already underwater. The coast should see more than a twenty foot storm surge, with 2-3 feet of water moving as far as twenty miles inland. Houston will see a foot of rain and level two winds. Tropical storm winds and heavy rain will be felt as far inland as San Antonio abd Dallas.

In the year 1900 a strong hurricane hit Galveston and killed approximately 10,000 people. They then built a seawall out of solid granite, miles long and 16 feet tall to protect the city from future storms.

They are expecting the storm surge to come right over that seawall - the water is already up to the top and splashing over, with landfall 12 hours away.

They are saying that there are still some 20,000 people on Galveston, who refused to evacuate, even with the CERTAIN DEATH warnings.

The Coast Guard is pulling people who had not evacuated and are now calling for help out with helicopters. Obviously, as the storm comes closer, they will have to ground the copters.

They are saying that some Texas towns will be literally wiped off of the map.

This might be really bad.

Just seen it on the weather report the storm is the size of the gulf it dont look good at all. I hope you guys arent effected by it.

Looks like a bad one alright.

--A

This morning, according to the news article I just read, they are expecting to have to go into ravaged areas and rescue about 100,000 people who did not heed the mandatory evacuations. The emergency services received thousands of calls last night, which they could not respond to because of the terrible conditions. Supposedly there are people on rooftops in coastal towns under six feet of water.

Supposedly yesterday there was a pocket of immigrants (Spanish and Vietnamese speaking) who were not leaving a mandatory evacuation area. The mayor of Houston personally drove out to beg them to leave. It turned out they were confused and frightened due to the language issues and lack of money. The mayor called for three city busses and had them carried off to a shelter. They say that the mayor saved dozens of lives doing that.

Supposedly at least some of the people who stayed thought that God would protect them.

To those people I say this:
God knows that we have modern science to issue storm warnings. He knew that you were seeing and hearing the warnings, and He knows that local emergency services and policitians came to your door to beg you to leave.

God - AND the state of Texas AND the lcoal communities AND the US government - did their best to protect you and your family with these warnings!

In refusing to heed the warnings, you clearly put your own will above God's.

The storm is still a category one hurricane and heading north to Dallas, Oklahoma, etc. It is moving pretty quickly for such a huge system, and should be nuking us way up here with rain (but not winds) late this weekend (in the Detroit area we should be getting 6+ inches of rain over the course of the weekend between the storm system already here, which will combine with the Ike remnants then sweep east).

I guess we will all know how many people they pull out of devastated areas in the next few days - and how many of them will be needing intense medical care. And whether or not they will start pulling federal employees out of their regular jobs and deploying them to the disaster area shortly after that.

Ike, fortunately, did not have the storm surge that was predicted. So far, there have been very few deaths reported, thankfully, though many have realized the stupidity of having stayed in mandatory evacuation zones that are now flooded. And there is a big clean-up mess for the coastal communities, and millions of dollars worth of damage.

A few hurricane seasons ago, there was a story of a man who decided at the last minute not to evacuate his beachside condo in the Florida panhandle. His wife and children were safely in Jacksonville. He woke up to find water around his feet and ran upstairs. He reported that the water did not creep, but rushed up the stairs. He was able to escape to the roof and make use of a neighbor's boat to get to safety. Stories like this always impress me with the importance of evacuating if you are in an area that can be affected by storm surge (as we are).

Ike is passing through lower Michigan right now in its destination of eastern Canada. It started pouring while I was driving to work, but it should stop raining about the time I drive home. The wind should be pretty strong by then, though - with 45 MPH winds expected.

It had been raining like crazy all weekend - between Friday and Monday we could get more than 10 inches of rain.

We wanted rain because of the drought in August, but this is silly.

Damn, that's intense. A whole town. Haven't seen much about the damage that the hurricanes did, beyond that it was valued at billions.

--A