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no power, week three
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2008-09-29 23:49 UTC
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| three days into the third week without power, there are some electricians in a bucket truck in my back yard. Here's the guy replacing some big fuses between the high voltage lines and the transformer below, which must have blown during the storm. That alone hasn't restored power, but they went off to do some more stuff, so hopefully the end is in sight. |
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still no power
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2008-09-24 03:08 UTC
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Still no power... Weather's heating up, too. Bethany's back in school, and has cross country practice, which puts her home not long before sundown. No time for dinner - she managed to get some stuff done. She had one *#!*(*%# teacher who was insisting on a typed term paper, even though the school closed its library (where the open access computers are) and we don't have power. I talked to the principal, and she was sympathetic. Tonight, we drove around in the minivan, with the macbook charging on one of those cigarette lighter -> AC plug adapters, with internet via bluetooth in my Treo (that's what I'm using now at home, with the residual battery charge from the van). We thought we'd find a Starbucks with WiFi, but all the nearby ones were closed, so we just drove around in lighted parking lots (Sophie and Josiah (also doing reading/written homework)) in the van, too. She got some of the paper typed into Google Docs, and can hopefully pick it up in school tomorrow if they open the library.
More and more people are getting power back, so hopefully we'll get it soon. The (normally 24 hour) grocery store closed at 9PM, just as I was walking up to get milk for Soph, so I went to Walgreens - the cashier lived nearby and said she got power today. Both of us are on the list for "before Thursday", so hopefully it won't be long. Also, trucks came by today and picked up most of the tree debris in the front yard, leaving what they couldn't reach (with their mechanical picker uppers) - hopefully they'll be back after we move the leftover stuff closer to the street. Next, we finish the cleanup, then start on the repairs - the fences (and then the dogs, who are not housetrained, can go back outside), the glass storm door that Josiah accidentally smashed when unpacking from the return trip from Kerrville, a bunch of other little stuff, finding replacement trees, etc. - hurricanes suck, and we got off easy compared to most.
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no power, week 2
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2008-09-22 19:09 UTC
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Enough with the Ike posts, you say? Same here, except that without power at the house, there's not much else going on, except for clearing vegetation and waiting for the power to come back on.
Our local grid maintainer's website says we can expect for power to be restored by this Thursday, which could mean about 2 weeks without the happy electrons. Still, we made out much better than our neighbors who had trees fall on their houses, and our other neighbors who had ocean fall on their houses.
I've now logged several hours with a chain saw and still have all four limbs (but more due to luck than skill). I almost think I should have been required to take a class.
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chase tower
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2008-09-18 18:47 UTC
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| Most downtown Houston buildings had a broken window or two as a result of Hurricane Ike, but for some reason the Chase Tower, the tallest building in Texas, had a whole bunch of broken windows, but mostly just on one side, and only up the 40th floor or so (it has about 75 floors). |
why? |
flying saucer? Or flying glass? |
Also, other, much shorter buildings in the area show significant damage, but pretty much all facing inward toward a block that's adjacent to the Chase tower and to each of the other buildings. (note, the picture to the left shows the Flying Saucer bar/pub kind of place (who knew it was a chain?) - a popular downtown drinking establishment. I guess you can't see the sign in the picture :( ) |
| Most (but not all) glass has been swept off the streets and sidewalks, but some areas still have a lot of debris |
glass, glass, and what else? |
Doh! |
your investigative reporter could not gain access to the roof of this parking garage, which inhabits the block that is facing the damaged buildings, but sources say that it was paved with loose gravel. (edit: the same sources say that it may have been a different parking garage in the same area) |
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