Thursday (11 Sep)
Houston City Mayor issued a Mandatory Evacuation Order for residents living in the coastal area. 15 feet of storm surge predicted, 115 mph (miles per hr) wind, definitely enough to deal a life threatening blow to the region.
Work in office only lasted half a day so that the affected people have enough time to pack & evacuate their homes.
Friday (12 Sep)
Hurricane Ike predicted to hit Houston City at Sat morning 3am. City advised to stock up food, water ,necessities, maintain full gas tanks in cars.
Hotel staffs at Marriott assured patrons things will be fine, they have backup power generator, sufficient food & water to tide us through. " Fill your bathtubs with water, JUST IN CASE the water pumps are damaged, you can still have water." I did try... but guess what, water just drained off despite me putting that stopper.
"For the past two storms, our hotel are not affected at all, so you do not have to worry." That comforted the patrons (including me)
Sat (13 Sep)
Stayed till 2am, 'anxiously' awaiting for the storm to arrive. But everything seems normal, occasional strong gusts of winds accompanied with rain.. Went to bed..heard some noises from zinc plates or metal objects, didnt bother & continued sleeping...
6am.. Realised power is cut becos i left my toilet light on while sleeping, but my room is pitch dark.. Switched on the lights + TV, nothin happens..But corridor lights still on... Nevertheless, went back to slp..
10am.. Rise and shine. Still no power.. went to wash up.."holy shit!" No water from taps! Thankfully i bought a gallon of water for use.. Went down to check it out.. Hotel staffs just confirmed that they lost power & water.. & that also means NO Air Con... Went around to check the damage...
Zinc Roofs, steel chimneys went flying..
This is Ibrahim, a Sales Mgr in Dubai Office, went the storm with him. We were walking down the emergency exit since the Hotel elevators were down.. 9 storeys...
Realised that the ceiling of the hotel ballrom collapsed! Whole ballroom level was flooded, ankle level water depth.. The inital plan was to evacuate people into the ballroom in case storm was bad & shatter room windows.. Imagine how many would be killed if we were all gathered in the ball room..
The top level rooms are wet as well, as water seeps through the ceiling & soaked the floor... Imagine without Air Con, wet floor... that sure stinks...
The staffs are almost done scooping up the water..
Leaves were scattered all ard the ground
Windows of cars were smashed.. Thankfully my car survived.
Windows of the opposite office building were shattered, cant image the damage there
Trees uprooted..
Went to take a look at my nearby office.. This is prior storm...
This is a picture After... Noticed the big 'O' flew away, nowhere to be found, trees fallen...
Lamp post collapsed, dangling on the traffic light cables.. If it falls on cars....
Collapsed tress right outside the apartment I used to live in (last year)
Roofs & chimney parts landed on the ground...
'Jack in the Box' signs blown away~
Malfunction traffic lights
Picture of the week - Collapsed petrol station
Flooded roads.. this used to be underpass...
See the water level?? almost reaching top of tress!!
Americans swimming in flooded underpass.. One of them floated across, a woman was shocked as she tot she saw a body......
Depth of water - 14 ft = 4-5metres!
Flooded roads...
Ruins everywhere...
You thought the worst is over??? Nah... it just got started....
Drove around to find a foodmart to buy water & food.. None! drove all the way close to downtown, finally came across the mart at petrol station.. thank god.. Many were driving ard for a long time & were happy to finally found this.
Marriott hotel serving crappy food, ham & toast for dinner. Decided to drive all the way down to a restaurant that we came across in our aftnn recce. Apparently, it seems it's the only restaurant opened in the city!It still has power & water! But guess wat... it's FLOODED, not with water, but people!!!
Queue goes TWO ROUNDS in the restaurant.. 
Reach 645pm, ordered food at 830, started eating at 9pm!! Almost 3 hrs!!! faint.. But it's worth the wait.. good food with chocolate cake as dessert! Should be thankful we could find someplace to eat!!
Went back to hotel, still withou AC, Power & water! room is damn hot & pitch dark! Decided not to take the shit, went ard hunting for vacancies in other hotels. And guess wat, we still pay the same rates even though the hotel has no power & water... Went on waiting list in Hilton hotel & Bingo!!! Got a room at 12am!!! With power, AC & water!!! Woots. Super cold AC they got there!
Sun (14 Sep)
2nd day where most part of the city don have water & power.... Stayed in hotel all day to catch up on slp (long saturday dealing with the shit). Super marts are starting to open, people queuing for hrs juz to get water & food.. it's crazy... Went back to marriott to take a look, STILL no power & water, i wonder how the guests survived..
Went to search for dinner again..... hard time finding one, but eventually did. All the streets were dark.. pitch dark, except for car headlights. It's like resident evil, you're the only car driving on the empty,destructed streets; waiting for zombies & hounds to pounce on you...
Mon (15 Sep)
Just when i thought i'm in good hands...Hilton hotel drop me another shit.. say i'm due to check out TODAY! Wtf.. i told them i'm booked till tomorrow, but they said they're know they're full on monday even before i was given the room on Sat... WTF.. the reception guy screw me up big time... Gotta go in search for another hotel with power & water... Apparrently, alot of hotels are fully booked as alot of people have their home wrecked by the Hurricane & staying put in hotels...
Finally found a hotel to stay in.. Marriott courtyard.. Cant believe i have to stay in 3 hotels in 1 week!! wtf... Guess that's real bad luck, but looking at the bright side, i'm still safe & sound, roughing it out... & STILL, Marriott hotel is without power & water.. Lucky i made the right decision to move out instead of waiting for the power to come on....
TV news kept 24hrs live coverage on the Hurricane Ike, apparently, more than 50% of Houston is without power, 80% without water... Homes in Galveston were TOTALLY wrecked.. all that's left were wood, debris on the shores... Unbelievable.. Even in the city, roofs & ceilings were torn apart... Crazy shit man... People queueing up for food & water, living in darkness...
This left me wondering... why did Houston get such a huge damage??
1. Traffic lights were hung on cables.. power cables left exposed, dangling on poles...
-Obviously that made power vulnerable! any falling trees would have cut the cable & disconnect power!! Why don't they just install them undergrd??!?! Invest abit of money dude!
2. Houses are not made of solid concrete. Mostly wood, some with steel foundation but sealed with wire mesh & clay(or some weak stuffs) that LOOKED like concrete.. When you knock on it, you will feel it's hollow & vulnerable..
- Why use this?!?!?!? Even in lebanon, Dubai, Singapore & CHINA, we ALL use solid concrete. Why would you use wood & some weak materials!?!?! It's not like you don't know your country would experience hurricanes & tornadoes. Some people explained they did this because insurance would cover reconstruction.. & Reconstruction creates jobs, if destroyed, they just build again.. & again & again... what a way to boost employment rate huh... nice..... (not my theory though)
Nevertheless, it can be a good lesson for me... pampered Singaporeans like me never knew what's a natural disaster.. what is it like without power & water.. Never seen flooded roads, torn roofs, shattered cars... At least i realised how fortunate it is back home... Oh ,& thankfully i've Ibrahim as companion to tide over this shit.. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment