hurricane, the debate, Texas snow

Monday I was all ready to start going back to the yoga class twice a week in El Campo but I accompanied my friend undergoing cancer treatment to her appointment in Galveston for a liver scan, a two hour drive there and a two hour drive back, and didn’t get home until 3 for a late lunch after which I had about an hour before I would have to leave again. So I didn’t go but I am planning to go tonight.

Monday evening it looked like TS Francine was going to skirt the coast before making landfall somewhere around the border between Texas and Louisiana giving us two days of rain but yesterday it had moved farther away from the coast while it strengthened into a hurricane. This morning it’s already past us and landfall has moved farther east heading for New Orleans. For which I’m grateful since I’m still dealing with the damage from Beryl. As for rain, we got about a five minute shower around 5 PM Tuesday. 

So, of course, the debate was last night. We didn’t watch it. I just cannot tolerate Trump’s voice, his butthole puckered mouth, his accordion hands, and his constant stream of lies, conspiracy theories, and hateful rhetoric but now I kind of wish I had seen Harris’ masterful handling of Trump. I did monitor social media and my grandgirl Autumn watched it and we texted back and forth so the following is gleaned from what others have said and an article from NPR. Trump was Trump and he got played like a fiddle by Harris. Harris had clear answers to the questions while Trump, as usual, did not answer a single question, the closest he got was saying he had ‘concepts’ of a plan for healthcare which he did not elaborate on, but instead went off on his riffs though Autumn said he was a little more cognitive than he is at his rallies. While he tried to goad Harris, she never took his bait but she cleverly pushed every one of his buttons during her clear answers and then stood by while he reacted. The moderators gave Trump more speaking time and more chances to speak in rebuttal than they did Harris, which on the face of it was unfair and unbalanced, but it also seemed to be giving the man all the rope he wanted showing the world how unhinged and completely unqualified he truly is. And he really didn’t like that the moderators fact checked him. Harris’ prosecutorial style put Trump on the defensive and he wouldn’t even look at her during the debate. A poster on social media wrote that he practically ran off the stage when it was over. One commentator later criticized Harris for not controlling her facial expressions, her looks of humor and disbelief at Trump’s responses but did not criticize Trump for his facial expressions of disgust and distaste when Harris was speaking. Because we women are supposed to be pliant and demure I guess. In a call to Fox this morning Trump said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do another debate (I guess not) even though he previously tried to goad Harris into one on Fox and of course he thinks ABC needs to be punished. 

Even so, the media is still saying that this election is neck and neck and that Trump could still win according to the ‘polls’. I don’t give much credence to the polls especially this election cycle because people under a certain age don’t have land lines, over which most polls are conducted, and they don’t answer calls from unknown numbers on their cell phones. I know I don’t. We can’t get complacent though, we can’t assume a victory. We still need to campaign and get out the vote and most importantly, vote. Be sure to check your voter registration regularly because red states are removing millions of people from the rolls and in Texas and Florida, the governors are actively using the police to conduct raids and voter intimidation.

I finished my drawing of the tallow tree leaves but haven’t started on the watercolor yet. I may do another drawing of something else first before I put my colored pencils away. The page in my sketchbook is 8.5” x 5.5”.

Some pictures from the yard…yellow bells aka esperanza, porterweed, morning glory bush (one of my favorites)

and it’s cotton harvest time, the field at the end of my street.

recovery of one kind and another and another

I found this blooming in the ditch this morning totally out of season.

Today it is seven days counting the day of my surgery. The incision is still ugly but healing, the bruise is fading, what’s left turning yellow and brown. Yesterday I picked up the rest of the debris, all small stuff, in the little backyard adding to the big pile there. This morning when I let the dog out I cleared the front yard making a small pile on edge of the street. The county is supposed to be coming around and picking up storm debris starting tomorrow. I’d like to move some of the piles around here to the street before they get to our neighborhood but it probably won’t happen because I’m still being very conservative in my activity. Maybe the small one on the side yard, maybe the small one in the front yard but the monster in the side yard and the one in the little backyard will take much longer to move. And of course, the big backyard hasn’t even been touched. I tried to torch the burn pile yesterday but with all the rain we’ve been having it wouldn’t catch. Maybe Monday as long as the rain holds off. Unfortunately, it’s forecast to rain every day next week.

Yesterday Marc drove me down the county road I take to get to the grocery store. There were five enormous, 50 year old at least, pecan trees down, keeled over uprooted, just on that short stretch alone. I’m still astounded by how much damage that category 1 hurricane did.

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My sister’s sudden and completely unexpected death had a profound impact on me beyond just the loss of my best friend and main companion other than my husband. It really just took the wind out of my sails and, in retrospect, made me hyper sensitive to my own mortality which I see as the core cause of all the medical stuff I’ve been going through the last two months. Instead of recognizing an intense afib episode for what it was, I basically panicked which sent me to the ER which led to all those tests which led to the false aneurysm diagnosis and everything that followed that. Really, the only procedure I needed was the afib ablation because the medication was no longer controlling it. How many years have I taken off my life as a result of two months of panic, all that anesthesia?

It impacted me in other ways too. In my grief I lost all motivation to do anything creative. The broken water pipe at the studio has been fixed but I still haven’t bothered to get Marc to go over and turn the valve back on (I can’t get it to budge), I put away my colored pencils, sketchbook, and watercolors. I have the fabric to make a new skirt but haven’t gotten my sewing machine out, I bought all those new crystals and still haven’t hung them. Gardening, yoga, and SHARE have been my only activities and it’s too hot to garden now even if I wasn’t still recovering from all those procedures.

Well, one of my readers, David, has, unintentionally I’m sure, kicked me in the butt. I’m going to get my colored pencils, sketchbook, and watercolors and paper out and put them on the small work table. That may be as far as I get today but it’s a step forward.

Tuesday my niece and her husband will arrive. Our plan is to go through Pam’s old house and start clearing away some of the stuff. Nothing has been gotten rid of at this point and it’s time to pack up her life. The furniture will stay except for two pieces that have no real value, just taking up space in an overcrowded house. Next Saturday all the family will gather once again to scatter her ashes as she requested and when that is done I think I will be able to finally let her go. I need to start making again.

 

and then it was Tuesday and the aftermath

Read the previous post first.

Monday night I washed with the special soap, clean sheets on the bed, no pets allowed to sleep with me, got up at 3:30 AM, showered with the special soap again, put on clean clothes all as instructed, left the house at 4:30 and arrived at the hospital a little before 5:30 AM for the diagnostic cerebral angiogram. Checked in, told us to be seated and they would call me directly and we waited and waited as person after person who arrived after us got called back. About an hour later the guy comes and asked me for my ID, they are having trouble finding my account. He comes back after a while to tell me that my procedure had been cancelled and that was why they couldn’t find my account. No one notified me, who canceled it and why? Some night nurse canceled it last night but the head nurse on the floor was calling the doctor to find out what was going on and as soon as she talked to the doctor, he would have more information. 

So we waited again and after awhile the guy comes back and says I have two options, the doctor is willing to go ahead and do the procedure but I’ll have to wait until he does the other two scheduled after mine for today and no one could tell me how long the wait would be or I could reschedule. I’m here, I’ve had the pre-op, I've done all the preparation, I’ll wait especially since the neurosurgeon is leaving town again next week. Finally they call us back to the staging area where the attendant gives me a gown, tells me to get naked, climb into the bed with a puffy space type blanket that warm air is being blown into (much better than the warm blankets that cool off in 5 minutes), puts support hose on my legs that come up over my knees (to prevent blood clots she says) and again we wait. About 9 the nurse comes in to start prepping me, says I’m next, scheduled for 10, takes my vitals and puts in the IV. I questioned her about the cancellation, did a nurse have that kind of authority? No, she said, that no one really knows what happened, that Monday was totally chaotic with doctors and patients canceling because they couldn’t get to the hospital and somehow mine got sucked into that, that the hospital was running on generators right now, no wifi and the internet was sketchy, she had to write down all the stuff to enter it into the computer later but this area was fine and they would move me to the pre-op area soon, which they did about 10. 

So now we’re in the pre-op waiting for the doctor, anesthesiologist, and the surgical nurse to come talk to me and while we are waiting we hear more horror stories about yesterday from the nurses who are very chatty. About 11:30 the neurosurgeon stops by, assures me that all is well, did I have any questions. Yes, how tired are you and have you eaten lunch? Says he’s not tired and he’s going for lunch now and they will do the procedure right after. The anesthesiologist comes by and the surgical nurse who stays with me explaining minute by minute what’s going to happen. I will be awake because the doctor will be talking me asking me at times to hold perfectly still while he takes pictures of my brain but I won’t feel a thing, which I didn’t, that she would be by my side the entire time. Once in the operating room and in place on the table and all the prep done getting me in place and immobilized she asked me what music I wanted...Stevie Ray Vaughn. So I lay there with my eyes closed listening to music, being completely still and not breathing when necessary and about 15 minutes later it was over and they wheeled me out to post-op recovery and after a while the doctor came by with the results. 

No aneurysm he says. He showed me a picture of my basilar artery and the junction that the MRI identified as an aneurysm but it was normal and the reason it looked like an aneurysm is because the artery that branches off to the right is sort of twisted around (but perfectly fine) and so didn’t show up on the fuzzy MRI image. So he says you don’t need to see me again and he left. I stayed there for about an hour and then they took me to a different recovery area where Marc joined me again and where I had to stay flat on my back for another two hours. And then they discharged me and we got home about 6 PM.

Still no power at home but we were able to get dinner at the other restaurant which was now open and then spent a miserably hot and humid night. Wednesday morning, still no power so we went out for breakfast and then I called my friends at the end of the street and daughter who also had no power to tell them if they wanted a hot shower or to fill up water containers to come here because while everyone else is on a well which doesn’t function with no power, we are on city water and have a gas water heater. I talked to Rocky about finding the shingles and he came down and climbed up on the roof over there. The entire ridge line of shingles was either off or loose and had to be replaced, all 77” of it. The man is an angel. He had already been sealing another neighbor’s roof who he looks after and he took care of it right away, getting his helper up there to take off the row of shingles while he went to get new ones, working up there in the sun and heat and got that roof repaired while his own roof suffered damage from a tree scraping it when it fell, but since he rents he had to get the OK from his landlord so he would get paid. My daughter also had several trees uprooted, one right next to her house but instead of crushing her house it fell away and demolished the chicken coop (all of the chickens are fine).

Finally we got the power back on about 6 PM yesterday, got take-out for dinner and slept well in the nice cool house last night. Still recovering from my procedure, having to stay off my feet the rest of this week while the incision in my femoral artery heals so I can’t get out there and start cleaning up the yard. And then I have the last procedure on my heart on Monday with another five days or so of recovery. So it’s going to be a while before I’m able to start cleaning up around here and emptying the refrigerator and freezer is the first big task anyway.

and then all hell broke loose

When I posted last Saturday, Beryl was bearing west and generally going to miss us and Houston except for a little wind and rain. Hahahahaha. Then it shifted west and hit us nearly dead on. Even so, only a category 1 storm. Hahahahaha. We got all our hurricane prep done Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning and then waited for it to come through Sunday night. It didn’t bring much rain, only about 4 or 5 inches but it did bring high winds that spawned a record number of cyclonic tornadoes in a short period of time that uprooted and splintered trees all over the place and did all kinds of damage. I heard that Houston lost 5 transmission towers, but I don’t know how true that is, but 3 million people there lost power and about a third still haven’t had it restored.

I moved the car over to the shop yard across the street late afternoon on Sunday since we park it here under a big oak and a big crepe myrtle. Beryl started blowing into Wharton that evening. I was up most the night listening to the wind and the sound of branches thudding to the ground and limbs creaking as they were torn from the trunks. At one point I heard a train (there’s a track that runs parallel to the road at the other end of the street) and could not believe they were running a train during  hurricane. The little dog was in full on panic mode. The power started flickering about 4 AM Monday morning and went out completely at 4:30. The wind started to abate some after that and the little dog finally settled down and I guess I got a couple of hours of sleep. We woke up as it got light, still very windy but the rain had stopped and looked out the windows to see the yard totally trashed…leaves, twigs, branches small and large, and limbs carpeted the ground. 

I looked out the back window into the big backyard to see that two of the pecan trees had lost major limbs, some on the ground, some still hanging from at least 20’ up or higher, topped by the tornado that had bounced around (the sound of the train). 

We finally ventured out around noon to get a closer look at all the damage. The spot where we park the car looked like this. We cleared that area and the rest of the driveway so we could get in and out. 

The maple next to the front of the barn lost three limbs which fell next to it and the pecan tree that was closest to the garage got topped

but the magnolia between them was relatively untouched, just some small stuff. The second pecan that lost major limbs is by the back corner of the barn but they fell away from it so no damage to the barn. 

The third pecan furthest from the house was untouched and the dead tree at the back of the property is still standing. In the front one of the photinias lost one of its three trunks.

Fortunately nothing hit the house except for small stuff covering one section of the roof.

Later I went over to see what if any damage there was over at Pam’s/Robin’s house and found five or six shingles on the ground but couldn’t see any obvious damage to the roof.

The radar at this point showed another band of wind and rain that was supposed to hit about 2 PM but it never materialized and so about 3 we got in the car and drove around. It looked like the whole town was out of power. We only saw one place open, the Walmart which was running on generators. Everything else was dark and closed. The contents of the refrigerator were still cool enough for us to have cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch but by dinner time none of that was an option. So we got back in the car to see if anything had power restored and was open and found that the business district around the square had power and the Italian restaurant was open so we had dinner there. Coming home we passed the other business district with another restaurant that served breakfast, lunch, and dinner had power though everything was still closed. That night was hot but not horribly so because it was still overcast and still a little breezy. Marc had called the hospital earlier in the day to make sure my procedure was still on for Tuesday even though something like 80% of Houston was without power (so had we gotten a hotel, we’d have been in the same shape). 

continues next post…

 

medical stuff so if you're as bored by this as I am you can just skip it and, of course, a hurricane

Well, just fuck all! Fuck, fuck, fuck, and dammit all to hell. Finally the diagnostic cerebral angiogram to tell me what, if anything, is in my brain and what the doctor plans to do about it, is just a few days away and a fucking hurricane is supposed to hit Houston the very same day. Will the procedure still be on, especially considering I went through the pre-op yesterday? I don’t know, it’s the fucking weekend and I wouldn’t know who to even ask. The doctor’s office? The hospital? If it’s still on, we would have to leave here at 4:30 in the morning to get there by the arrival time of 5:30, in the dark, in the rain and high wind of an approaching hurricane. Really karma? Have I been that bad? Just…fuck.

I spent this morning searching for hotels within two miles of the hospital. Three options and I’m all for going in the day before even if there wasn’t a hurricane.

So I actually had the pre-op for both procedures yesterday. For the angiogram it consisted of bloodwork and instructions, a breath measuring contraption that I have to suck on 10 times in one hour three times a day every day until the procedure, 

special soap and sponges to wash with the night before and the morning of, brush my teeth two times a day and use mouthwash, change my sheets after my evening shower and close the door so the dog and cat don’t come sleep with me. Really extreme measures. For the Watchman procedure I had to undergo another transesophageal electrocardiogram (from now on TEE) to look for blood clots and measure the appendage in my heart they intend to block off so another bout of anesthesia and another sore throat. It’s much better today but I could barely eat last night. Plus, they went ahead and checked me in for the 15th so I have to wear this

for the next 10 days. Don’t take it off, the nurse said, because it will delay your procedure.

And I hate mouthwash. It burns my mouth and I don’t like whatever chemicals they use to make it whatever color, in this case blue, being absorbed by my mucus membranes and it turns my tongue blue.

So, yeah, fun and games. 

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I wrote all that this morning but didn’t get it published. The current track of the hurricane/tropical storm has it being a little more west of us about halfway between Austin and Houston but closer to Austin by Monday evening, well past us by Tuesday morning so shouldn’t be a problem. The local paper is predicting about 5” of rain which we could use. So now I have to decide if I want to bring the big plants in pots into the garage. A big wind has blown up just now with maybe some rain.

 

rain, repairs, and resist

Hurricane Hanna made landfall Saturday afternoon/evening just south of Corpus Christi at Padre Island. It's far enough down the coast that all we got is rain which we got off and on all day Saturday, 2 1/2” total. Some bouts of hard rain but mostly not as the bands swept through with pauses in between in which I got out there with a shovel or hoe trying to direct the accumulating water away from the part of the house on slab. Of course, the lowest part of the property is right around the slab.

I've been pondering lately my complete disinterest and lack of motivation in making art. No drawing, no watercoloring, no model making or glass casting. It's not like I don't have plenty of time and opportunity though I have been blaming it on the remodel of the bathroom, then the remodel in the shop, then the house hunting and preparation for it to be delivered but the truth is, I just don't have the interest these days. As if finishing the heron box last December was the cap on my career. Apparently. My colored pencils and watercolors stay spread out on the small work table as I studiously ignore it all. I tried to do some sketches at one point for a new piece that's been floating around in my mind but after three days of zero progress I gave it up since I do have some pieces I can offer the gallery for their anniversary show in September. If this keeps up I'm going to have to change the description of my blog.

Although, the more I look at the picture of the begonias on my Friday post the more I think I might draw them. I even went so far as to print out a couple of images and even opened my sketchbook to a clean page but that's as far as I got. Maybe tomorrow. I'm trying to finish the book I'm currently reading but it's gotten tedious here towards the end and not holding my attention. But then nothing seems to be holding my attention.

And so yesterday it was tomorrow and I did not draw but I did go to the grocery store and I did finally mend my skirt. You might remember last spring when I made three skirts. I wear two of them all the time around the house and on my walks, when one goes in the laundry I wear the other. As it happened, a couple of weeks ago I looked down to see that I had caught my skirt on something and there was a big tear, two sides of a square, each leg 2 1/2”. My first attempt was a total failure. I lined everything up and put cellophane tape over the tear on the inside and then zigzagged over it on the outside thinking all the little holes would perforate the tape and I could just pull it off when done. Wrong. So seam ripper and scissors in hand I ripped out all that zigzagging making the frayed edges even worse but I remembered I had some lightweight interfacing, the kind that you can iron on, so I got some of that out, cut it into an 'L' shape and pressed it on over the tears on the inside and then stitched around it and then zigzagged in the middle and I think it did a fine job.

Another rainbow formed as we were coming back from yoga last night (is it night if it's still light outside even though it's after 6 PM?). It started at one end, then started at the other end until it arced across the sky. Short lived and not very strong, nevertheless a picture was got through the windshield.

My sister and my daughter think all I do here is rant, rant about things I can't change and I'm working myself into a heart attack but they are wrong. Things don't change if no one speaks out, if no one observes, if no one shares what they see and learn, if no one resists, if no one confronts, if no one puts their body on the line, if no one informs why it is essential to vote, if we turn a blind eye to the subordination of the constitution and the rule of law and allow a would be dictator supported by a compromised Senate to rise. I resist. I resist by refusing to stuff the anger. I resist by shining a light, however small, on the evil that is this administration. I resist by communicating with the people and our political representatives. I resist because there is no guarantee at this point that we will have a fair election with all the voter suppression perpetrated by Republicans or even have an election. When the Justice Department is compromised and the head Attorney General of the United Sates has become the fixer for a corrupt president supported by his corrupt political party with his own militarized secret police force which is right now being sent into the cities and states governed by the opposing political party to suppress the demonstrations and 1A protests against police brutality and inherent racism in our judicial systems, there are no guarantees, there are no guarantees this same brutal force will not be deployed to prevent people from voting.

This blog was never meant to be about fluff though I have published plenty of fluff. It was and is a chronicle of my life through memories and current activities and what catches my attention, and, to a lesser degree, a history of the time in which I live and my place in it. It's the good, the bad, and the ugly; mine and the world's. And while I don't consider these essays rants I will continue to write them as long as events demand.

crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good

fair warning...this is long.

timeline:

Thursday Aug. 24^th – prepare for the hurricane

Friday Aug. 25^th – rain off and on with wind and gusts

Saturday Aug. 26^th - light rain off and on during the day

Sunday Aug. 27^th – light rain off and on during the day

Monday Aug.28^th – heavy rain and high wind all day and into the night

Tuesday Aug. 29^th – clear sky by sunset

Wednesday Aug. 30^th

The Colorado River crested at about 5 AM at an historic 50 1/2' but the day dawned with a clear blue sky. Our grandson who had been staying with us while he worked on his truck getting it street legal asked if he could take our truck to Houston to help with rescue and clean up efforts and so he did and my sister and I went to look at the river about 10 AM.

Riverside Park completely underwater as well as Elm St. that runs along the park, and the next block towards town.

Around noon our neighborhood lost power and word on the street was that it was a shut off by the power company rather than damage to lines somewhere but it came back on around 3 PM. By that time we were watching as our neighborhood started taking on water.

There are 6 streets in our neighborhood and our house is on the most southern street. About the time we lost power one of the neighbors told us the most northern street, Engbrock, was flooded and the water was coming our way. By the time it was halfway to us and people were packing up and leaving, the neighborhood was already surrounded by water we didn't think we would be able to get out in the car and didn't know where we could go even if we could have. My sister's house in town was surrounded by water though with about 12” before it flooded her. I moved the car over the shop which is on higher ground than our house and hoped for the best. At some point after the water started coming into the neighborhood we learned that Peach Creek and Boughman's Slough, into which the Colorado River drains into during flood stage, banks failed or were just overpowered by 50.5' of water and a wall of water engulfed the Peach Creek neighborhood flooding houses up to the roof line and then moved on into Peach Acres, our neighborhood.

I'm standing on the corner of our street and the road on the east end looking north. Our shop is on the northeast corner and our house is across the street from the shop.

The west end of our street (that's Richmond Rd. at the end where we were dropped off a little further up later) was underwater while we were still dry but the ditch completely full.

By about 4 PM, the water had circled around from the west and the field behind us was filling fast coming at us from the south and from the north. 

Water was just starting to come in the house. If I had had any sense AT ALL, I would have closed the garage door.

By 4:30 PM we had 5” in the part of the house on a slab. I waded through the knee/thigh deep water in the yard and street to check on the car which was sitting in about 3” of water. Tripped on debris I couldn't see on my way back and lost my prescription glasses that I had tucked in my shirt front because sometimes I can see better without them. Luckily I still had a pair of readers from before I got my glasses.

I made sandbags with wet towels in plastic bags and put them against the door into the lower part of the house and also against the front door but we knew we had to get out as the water was still rising and was now even deeper in the lower part of house. I went back out to get the canoe and paddles when the water was about 3” from coming in the upper house but Marc was afraid the strong current would sweep us away so about 6 PM he called the sheriff's department for a water rescue as we could hear the airboats somewhere in the neighborhood. “OK”, they said, “we'll put you on the list” so we packed up some clothes, dog and cat food, the cat in her carrier and the dog on her leash and waited.

About an hour later the sun set and it was almost full dark when we heard an airboat with a light shining our direction and Marc shined our flashlight back through the dining room window (we had lost power again around 5:30) and the airboat came right up to our front door where the water was about an inch from coming in under the door. These two men, an ex-Marine and his helper, got us into the boat and then went back to the other end of the street to pick up our neighbors and their two young granddaughters and dropped us off on a high spot surrounded by water on the road at the end of our street that takes you into town where there were already a bunch of people, telling us that there were other rescuers in high water trucks ferrying people from this spot to the shelter and in fact, a loaded truck was just then leaving for the shelter, while he went out to rescue more people in our neighborhood.

While all this was happening we learned that the official rescue operation stopped at dark and this man and other private citizens were out in their own boats rescuing the people the official authorities had abandoned til the next morning. I wish I had gotten this man's name. He was so angry that the official operations quit at dark and that the game warden even tried to prevent him from going out. He was having none of it.

Anyway, eventually he was satisfied that he had found as many as he could and loaded up his boat and headed into town. So 23 of us including old people and very young children were stranded on this spot of dry ground surrounded by water that we didn't know if it had stopped rising or not. Us and mosquitoes and about a million fire ants. Someone had parked their SUV and left it on this high spot so I put the cat carrier on the hood and climbed up with the dog and one of my friend's grandgirls but everyone else was standing in the road.

And we waited and we waited and we waited and no one came back for us. We had been there about an hour and a half when we finally saw lights approaching from the north and from town in the south and they basically arrived at the same time. The lights from the north was a National Guard troop carrier that is stationed in Katy (about 60 miles away). They had received a call that they were needed to rescue some people, took them about two minutes to get on the road but an hour to get to us. The lights from the south, from town, was our same rescuer, even more pissed. He had learned that they were not coming back for us and so he returned to cram us all in his truck and boat to get us to a shelter. “This ex-Marine is not leaving anyone behind”, he told us.

So the National Guards helped all 23 of us along with our dogs, of which there were many, and a few cats and all our baggage into the troop carrier and drove us through water to dry land on one of the main roads in town, the road to Boling. It was an eerie drive as there was water in every direction as far as we could see. When we got to dry land, they stopped and conferred with someone about where to take us. The one and only shelter, the Catholic Church, was already full and they were refusing to take animals anyway. The city had tried to open the junior high school and the civic center but both had taken on water. Fortunately, a new shelter, the American Legion Hall, had just opened and were accepting animals and they took us there. 

We were dropped off and they went out to continue to bring people in and that is where we spent Wednesday night.  Wish I had thought to grab a couple of pillows and a blanket.  It was a long sleepless night.

The way this shelter opened was totally a citizen effort. The husband and wife, who own the building that the American Legion rents, had flooding in their house and they got out with their two young grandchildren and their disabled son and their dogs and went to the official shelter at the Catholic Church who turned them away because they weren't accepting animals and this couple refused to abandon their dogs. They knew the American Legion Hall was dry and so since they own the building they went there and opened it up to people and their pets and then throughout the night continued to accept people and animals and got with the city and the Red Cross to become an official shelter. During the night, they called everyone they knew that was dry and could get there to bring whatever food they could and they cooked it there to feed the 70 some odd people that were eventually brought in until the Red Cross could get there the next morning and take over, which they did just about the time we were leaving.

Next: another rescue of sorts

Harvey part 3

I wouldn't have thought that there were more tree branches medium and small that would drop after Friday night but we had more torrential rain last night (Saturday night) and it looks like the amount of debris has doubled or at least half again as much. Still no big limbs though so that's good. We got 3 1/2” last night but parts of Houston got 14” in just about 3 hours. All the bayous are out of their banks and it looks like the whole city is flooded to more or less degree. Having lived there for 64 of my 67 years, I've seen it flood many times and more flooding more frequently as the city has grown but this is the worst and most extensive. Unrestrained building and concrete coupled with the anti-regulation attitude around here has done Houston no favors. Houston spreads with no thought to the loss of the crucial wetlands that help drain and absorb the 5 or so main bayous and all the smaller branches.

Have I mentioned how glad I am I don't live in Houston anymore?

Monday - I wrote the above yesterday. Sometime last night it started raining again and was still raining this morning and has been raining the entire day with varying intensities. I checked the rain gauge after I got up...an additional 2 1/2” from yesterday so that's 14” in the last 72 hours as of this morning. Now since it hasn't stopped raining since sometime last night all the low spots around the house have standing water. We're on pier and beam so the whole area has to flood before we are affected and the ditches are higher than the previous post's picture but still flowing.

We are probably experiencing our worst day because along with the constant rain, we are having high winds. We've had these gusts on and off but today it's pretty much sustained. We're mostly worried about the oak tree next to the house. It's an island surrounded pretty much by water.

A couple of hours later it is still raining but the wind has died down some, still getting gusts.

You want to see what 9 trillion gallons of water looks like?

Just one of the many in Houston...

OK, it can stop raining now.

And re my opening sentence? Hahahahahahahahaha. You should see it now.

Harvey part 2

Harvey did not, in the end, come directly to Wharton. Most of the day Friday it was headed in our general direction but then it started drifting to the west and south of us finally coming to shore Friday night around 7 PM between Corpus Christie and Rockport, about 80+ miles further down the coast from us. By the time it made landfall, it had strengthened to a class 4 storm. I've never been in a class 4 hurricane (actually, in retrospect, that's not true, Carla in 1961 was a class 4 hurricane). A category 4 hurricane has sustained wind speeds of 130 – 155 mph. Harvey attained sustained wind speeds of 130 mph an hour or so before making landfall. These are the winds that enclose the eye, making this the most dangerous part, to be in the path of the eye. As it spirals out, the winds lessen, sometimes throwing out tornadoes. Being in the path of the eye of a hurricane means being in the whole thing, as opposed to just getting the edges like we did/are with Harvey. When the eye passes over you, the rain stops, the wind stops, and it can even clear up a bit briefly. We always venture out during the eye to view what damage has been wrought so far. Then the breeze will begin to pick up and it's time to get back in shelter and hunker down and wait for the other half to pass.

These were my updates on FB Friday:

10 AM It's been raining lightly here with no wind while other areas are getting hard rain so I hear. filling containers with water to freeze in case we lose power later. supposed to come ashore late tonight or early tomorrow and then just sit on the coast, one foot in the water, one foot on land, throwing all that water north and west.

1:30 PM been raining lightly and still since we got up but now it is starting to get a little windy and just heard the first rumble of thunder.

2 PM getting a little windier now though still not raining hard.

3:15 PM looking out the window noticed the lowest branches of the oak intermingled with the power and cable lines to the house from the pole now that the wind is picking up and they are heavy with the rain. Mikey got up on the 14' ladder with the long handled nippers and cut them all down just now. a 20 yr. old grandson is handy to have around. so glad he is out here with us.

3:30 PM in between bands of weather. stopped raining and wind has died down some.

4 PM heavier rain and wind has picked up again coming from the NNE. last projection I saw put it making landfall between Corpus Christie and Port O'Conner sometime around 7 or 8 PM tonight as a category 3. that puts it further west and south of us. All around us is getting hammered with heavy rain but Wharton is in some kind of weird weather warp where storms split and go around us.

6 PM Harvey is now a category 4 and will make landfall in about an hour or two at Port Lavaca. this is even further away from us though we are getting some pretty heavy rain right now but not too much wind.

3 AM Saturday woke up to torrential rain

This morning it was still raining lightly, has rained off and on all day, light to moderate, a little breezy at times. Allen's rain gauge over by his shed said 6” this morning. Marc dumped it out. The field behind us was covered by standing water, 

the ditches out front doing their jobs, 

the low side yard is under water but that's usual with any hard or continuous rain. The Big Backyard is littered with branches small and large, leaves, and green pecans. I tried to get a picture but it just doesn't convey what the eye sees, a covering of tree debris.

one of the larger branches that fell

This pattern is supposed to continue through to Friday. This storm is supposed to loop around on itself and travel up the coast before heading inland again, one foot in the water and one foot on land, hence the high estimations of rainfall for the next week. And Tuesday, the Colorado River is expected to crest at 50' so only the low west end of town is preparing to flood.

Really coming down out there now.