Seabrook Texas is between Clear Lake and Galveston. There are

[Ilsa]

boats scattered along the main roads, debris everywhere, waiting for the sewer system to function. There have been horrible thunderstorms overnight because of a cool front that has blown through texas. Red Cross help from San Antonio and other places is supposed to arrive later today.

The airports are closed. Intercontinental has damage to jetways and buildings.

Houston is a horrible mess.

[mike_c]

1. are you there? Stay safe!

:hug:

[Ilsa]

2. Thanks, no I'm southwest along the Tx coast in the clear of the hurricane.

But I have family on the SE side of houston and north side near the airport. They are miserable. My sister didn't do squat to get ready except load up on water. She didn't even get a radio to listen for news reports. Ugh. It embarasses me that she was so unprepared.

[mike_c]

3. glad to hear she's fine and maybe learned a lesson from the experience!

[alarimer]

5. I live in Corpus and I dithered for a long time about leaving.

I finally decided that I would leave if it became apparent that it would hit here or south of here. For the future, I have decided never to stay if the storm is anywhere close.

I realize it's a calculated risk to live anywhere but, being a marine scientist, I know maybe better than many the affects of such a storm. Sometimes I wish I didn't have that knowledge, that I could enjoy going to beach resort areas without thinking about what will happen in a storm. But I can't shut my mind to that. We as a society have done a lot of bad urban (and suburban) planning all over the country. I don't know what to do about it. The society is pretty much in denial about all the risks.

I think your sister was probably somewhat in denial. Most people are a little bit. Local officials there may have been caught off guard. Here, the response was overkill. There is a danger in being too alarmist as well as in not being alarmist enough. People here may well ignore the next warnings. I hope not. It might be the only good thing to come from this tragedy- a good sense of what these storms can do.

[Igel]

4. Pretty much.

The areas really trashed are near bayous or the coast, though. Most other areas are just digging out from falling trees, minor flooding and wind damage. Power's coming back, mostly westside first.

Water, of course, was the thing that didn't completely go out. It's probably safe to drink, although they had a "boil before drinking" alert out that, I think, hasn't been lifted yet.

Some of the pictures are stunning. Might try to get out later today and see if we can drive anywhere and get a different, probably no less biased, impression of the overall damage. And to see the Reliant Center damage (it's just a few blocks away), and if any stores are open yet. For what it's worth.