Some of you may have had to evacuate.
We are getting torrential rains and tornados popping up all around us. Fortunately none have touched ground - yet.
watching over us. Good luck to you all. Be safe. Post when you can.
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ElizabethB
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Hurricane Harvey
I hope all of you who are in Harvey's path are OK.
Some of you may have had to evacuate.
We are getting torrential rains and tornados popping up all around us. Fortunately none have touched ground - yet. watching over us.
Good luck to you all. Be safe. Post when you can.
Some of you may have had to evacuate.
We are getting torrential rains and tornados popping up all around us. Fortunately none have touched ground - yet.
watching over us. Good luck to you all. Be safe. Post when you can.
My heart goes out to these people, especially after dealing with all of what Hurricane Katrina threw our way here in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. It's a very disheartening feeling as the waters rise and there's nothing you can do about it but hope it stops before it destroys everything you have worked so hard for.
Then dealing with the clean-up and rebuilding that feels like it just won't end. It can overwhelm you if you let it.
Then dealing with the clean-up and rebuilding that feels like it just won't end. It can overwhelm you if you let it.
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ElizabethB
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Step Son and his family live in Katy, TX. They are fine. SS and Grandson are out rescuing people from flooded homes. Really bad situation in Houston and it's environs.
I know we have members in the Houston area and in or close to Cameron Parish. I hope they are alright.
I hope you and your loved ones are all safe.
Prayers
I know we have members in the Houston area and in or close to Cameron Parish. I hope they are alright.
I hope you and your loved ones are all safe.
Prayers
my son, his wife and daughter live in aranasas pass.....his trailer was in the eye when it came ashore.
fortunately, they had evaced to Austin, where she is from.... their trailer faired amazingly well...one broken window, wet rug from blown in rain, and a mid sized tree branch on the roof. so minor damage.
they will not be able to return home for at least a month, probably closer to two, due to lack of power, water, and all the businesses(jobs) rebuilding.
they have been blessed with temp jobs in Austin for as long as they need them...she still has lots of friends there.
their biggest concern at this time is looters....they have pulled all the important and valuable stuff, but there is still fishing gear, tools, and other $$$ item that would be hard t replace.
keep the prayers flowing, cause it ain't over yet.
fortunately, they had evaced to Austin, where she is from.... their trailer faired amazingly well...one broken window, wet rug from blown in rain, and a mid sized tree branch on the roof. so minor damage.
they will not be able to return home for at least a month, probably closer to two, due to lack of power, water, and all the businesses(jobs) rebuilding.
they have been blessed with temp jobs in Austin for as long as they need them...she still has lots of friends there.
their biggest concern at this time is looters....they have pulled all the important and valuable stuff, but there is still fishing gear, tools, and other $$$ item that would be hard t replace.
keep the prayers flowing, cause it ain't over yet.
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ElizabethB
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Xtron - so glad your son and his family were able to get out. Their lives and well being are worth more than stuff. Hopefully they have insurance.
My Stepson started his day intending to rescue a friend who was flooded in. He ended up spending the entire day rescuing people. Over 50 rescues.
My Grandson was in another boat rescuing survivors. The media picked up on him and featured him on the local news. The news clip is on Facebook. Connor Beridon. That's my boy!
So proud of both of my boys.
My Stepson started his day intending to rescue a friend who was flooded in. He ended up spending the entire day rescuing people. Over 50 rescues.
My Grandson was in another boat rescuing survivors. The media picked up on him and featured him on the local news. The news clip is on Facebook. Connor Beridon. That's my boy!
So proud of both of my boys.
ElizabethB wrote:Xtron - so glad your son and his family were able to get out. Their lives and well being are worth more than stuff. Hopefully they have insurance.
My Stepson started his day intending to rescue a friend who was flooded in. He ended up spending the entire day rescuing people. Over 50 rescues.
My Grandson was in another boat rescuing survivors. The media picked up on him and featured him on the local news. The news clip is on Facebook. Connor Beridon. That's my boy!
So proud of both of my boys.
When Katrina hit New Orleans, several of my wife's extended family from Central La. ventured down with their boats and helped rescue people trapped by the floodwaters. They spent almost a week down here getting people to high ground and out of harm's way.
Good on your family members to help out like that. You should be proud.
It will take a long time for the area to recover. The damages can't even be assessed until the flood waters recede. I heard that the water was up to 5 stories deep in some parts of Houston. At least on the mainland it is easier for you to evacuate and for resources to come in to help afterwards. It will take a long time for things to get back to normal. Unfortunately, when people are desperate, there are always people who will take advantage of them too. Not only are the homes damaged, a lot of people won't even be able to pick up a paycheck depending on how hard hit their workplace was.
The company I work for has stores there that are under water and the people who work there are not getting a paycheck until the flood water recedes and they get called back.
The company I work for has stores there that are under water and the people who work there are not getting a paycheck until the flood water recedes and they get called back.
It is going to take a long time, that is true. I told my wife after Katrina hit New Orleans with all the flooding and infrastructure damage that it would be a good 10 years before things were back to normal. In some areas, it happened much quicker, but in areas like the Lower 9th Ward, it is still very much in a state of repair or better yet, disrepair, and that's putting in kindly. I'd estimate there are still about 25-30% of those properties still vacant, either needing to be torn down or needing serious repairs to make them habitable. There are no big grocery stores, drug stores, department stores, medical offices, banks, etc. that make an area appealing to prospective homeowners to want to invest money and their lives in that part of town.imafan26 wrote:It will take a long time for the area to recover. The damages can't even be assessed until the flood waters recede. I heard that the water was up to 5 stories deep in some parts of Houston. At least on the mainland it is easier for you to evacuate and for resources to come in to help afterwards. It will take a long time for things to get back to normal. Unfortunately, when people are desperate, there are always people who will take advantage of them too. Not only are the homes damaged, a lot of people won't even be able to pick up a paycheck depending on how hard hit their workplace was.
The company I work for has stores there that are under water and the people who work there are not getting a paycheck until the flood water recedes and they get called back.
In St. Bernard Parish, adjacent to New Orleans, it looks like every other house has been torn down in many areas of that community. I can't count the number of businesses that have moved away due to all the flooding and how that has affected the socioeconomic situation throughout the area.
They will have a long hard road to make a comeback and an untold number of folks forced to evacuate who have lost everything just may never return as did many New Orleans now former residents.
If you don't have a place to live or work and it may not be a while before you get either, you have to start over and going back may be hard to do. For people who owned property it will be worse because if they have a mortgage they either get foreclosed on or they have to make payments on a place that is unhabitable and still needs repairs. It took months before power was restored to Kauai after Iniki. The landfill peaked before its time and there wasn't anywhere else to take the garbage. It took a long time for the insurance companies to come in and make their assessments and you had to have good documentation or you would not get a lot of your losses covered. It still did not cover everything. Looters came afterwards to scrounge and people pitched tents on their property to keep and eye on it. Only people who had relatives on other islands or who had minimal damage had a roof over their head. It took months to get electricity on and stable and people lived on MRE's and it was hard to find clean water to bathe and do laundry. Everyone was anxious to get their house fixed before the rainy season and there were a lot of shyster "construction" people who came and took advantage of them charging more for shoddy work, or sometimes they took the money and ran. All the building materials, have to be shipped in along with most of our consumer goods and food. The airport and the docks had to be fixed first and the military helped spread the relief supplies.
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rainbowgardener
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I've been thinking about going to help. Being retired, I have way more time than money. I got a volunteer application from All Hands Volunteers. But I'm not sure what a 70 yr old lady with no construction skills can do. I may turn the application in anyway and let them tell me if there's things they think I can help with.
There's going to be a whole lot more demolition needing done in the initial phases of the cleanup than construction. And take it from one with experience doing that type work, it is very hard, nasty and at times hazardous work. So much of that water flowing in Houston is now full of chemicals from households that were flooded, gasoline and engine oils from vehicles flooded and untold amounts of commercial waste that can be of hazardous nature. Not far from my house when Katrina hit was a shop that stripped and plated metals, and the chemicals they used to do their work are very caustic. All their tanks and inventory were compromised in the flood.rainbowgardener wrote:I've been thinking about going to help. Being retired, I have way more time than money. I got a volunteer application from All Hands Volunteers. But I'm not sure what a 70 yr old lady with no construction skills can do. I may turn the application in anyway and let them tell me if there's things they think I can help with.
Where your skills may come in is helping with services like helping to distribute meals, water, donated materials like clothing, diapers, etc., or possibly working in a center set up to help with financial aid for those affected.
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ElizabethB
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RBG - good for you. You could definitely volunteer at a rescue center. Or work with the Salvation Army or Red Cross distributing necessities.
Prepare yourself for heart break. Also be prepared to be disgusted. After Katrina an emergency shelter was set up at the Cajun Dome and Civic Center. At the time my BIL was the general manager of a well head company (oil field service company) He went to the Cajun Dome and offered $20 per hour, transportation to and from the job site and a meal to anyone who wanted to work. NOT A SINGLE TAKER!
Friends who volunteered to assist at the centers were appalled by what they saw. Women refused to go to the restroom unescorted - they were afraid of being raped. The food provided was basic nutrition. The workers heard repeated complaints and were even cursed because the survivors were not given a menu to order form.
On the good side. People all across Louisiana and East Texas opened their homes to survivors. My Sister and BIL raise quarter horses. There is a farm house on the property. They had five families staying there for 2 months.
I was working at Lowe's when Katrina hit. The store was located near the I10 I49 intersection. Distribution centers all over the country were sending storm recovery supplies -batteries, lumber, generators, gas cans, grills and cookers, cleaning supplies, mold test kits, safety gear. Trucks lined up at the loading dock.
I will never forget - a man came in looking for gas cans. We were out. He blew up "You people have no idea what we are going through!" I touched his arm and told him no - we had no idea. He burst into tears.
Lowe's Associates from the NOLA area were guaranteed a job where ever they landed for as long as they needed. Oil companies in the area moved their employees to wherever they wanted to go and paid for meals and lodging. Many other companies either guaranteed jobs or actually re-located their employees.
My brother and his family were living in Lake Charles when Rita hit. His company offered to move their employees to Shreveport and provide them with meals and lodging until they could return home.
Disasters can bring out both the best and the worst in people. Thankfully there is more of the best and less of the worst.
Step Son and Grandson were out again yesterday and rescued over 100 people. If George were healthy we would have been out there with our boat.
Whenever disaster strikes you hear the doom and gloom from the media. OK - they do feature a few, good, human interest stories but their attitude is generally negative. The average Joe is resilient and generous. All of the areas and their citizens damaged by Harvey WILL recover.
Prepare yourself for heart break. Also be prepared to be disgusted. After Katrina an emergency shelter was set up at the Cajun Dome and Civic Center. At the time my BIL was the general manager of a well head company (oil field service company) He went to the Cajun Dome and offered $20 per hour, transportation to and from the job site and a meal to anyone who wanted to work. NOT A SINGLE TAKER!
Friends who volunteered to assist at the centers were appalled by what they saw. Women refused to go to the restroom unescorted - they were afraid of being raped. The food provided was basic nutrition. The workers heard repeated complaints and were even cursed because the survivors were not given a menu to order form.
On the good side. People all across Louisiana and East Texas opened their homes to survivors. My Sister and BIL raise quarter horses. There is a farm house on the property. They had five families staying there for 2 months.
I was working at Lowe's when Katrina hit. The store was located near the I10 I49 intersection. Distribution centers all over the country were sending storm recovery supplies -batteries, lumber, generators, gas cans, grills and cookers, cleaning supplies, mold test kits, safety gear. Trucks lined up at the loading dock.
I will never forget - a man came in looking for gas cans. We were out. He blew up "You people have no idea what we are going through!" I touched his arm and told him no - we had no idea. He burst into tears.
Lowe's Associates from the NOLA area were guaranteed a job where ever they landed for as long as they needed. Oil companies in the area moved their employees to wherever they wanted to go and paid for meals and lodging. Many other companies either guaranteed jobs or actually re-located their employees.
My brother and his family were living in Lake Charles when Rita hit. His company offered to move their employees to Shreveport and provide them with meals and lodging until they could return home.
Disasters can bring out both the best and the worst in people. Thankfully there is more of the best and less of the worst.
Step Son and Grandson were out again yesterday and rescued over 100 people. If George were healthy we would have been out there with our boat.
Whenever disaster strikes you hear the doom and gloom from the media. OK - they do feature a few, good, human interest stories but their attitude is generally negative. The average Joe is resilient and generous. All of the areas and their citizens damaged by Harvey WILL recover.
Yeah Elizabeth, we heard lots of horror stories about ungrateful people who felt they needed to be treated extra special because they were displaced when Katrina hit and they found themselves in shelters in other towns. One of my wife's cousins is a registered nurse living in Central Louisiana and she assisted many people in shelters and she related quite a few incidents of outright rudeness and contempt by some of the refugees she was trying to help. She said it wasn't enough that she was trying to help them, but some acted like they were the only ones needing help and acting like she was there to wait hand and foot on them.
But overall, they were far outnumbered by the folks that genuinely appreciated what others were trying to do for them to help.
There is so much stress imposed on you when your whole life is turned upside down in the matter of a couple days. Folks that are facing flooded houses, jobs that may not exist for a while or maybe totally gone, kids needing to find new schools, all your clothes, furniture, personal papers, keepsakes,-----the list is almost endless.
Much of my family went through it with Katrina and I'd not want to ever go through something like that again.
But overall, they were far outnumbered by the folks that genuinely appreciated what others were trying to do for them to help.
There is so much stress imposed on you when your whole life is turned upside down in the matter of a couple days. Folks that are facing flooded houses, jobs that may not exist for a while or maybe totally gone, kids needing to find new schools, all your clothes, furniture, personal papers, keepsakes,-----the list is almost endless.
Much of my family went through it with Katrina and I'd not want to ever go through something like that again.
my son and his wife are in Austin, as I said, and both have found temporary jobs. the bills don't stop because of a hurricane. their daughter is in school, which is good for her as it establishes some normalicy to her life.
they got to go look at their trailer today...it's worse than they had been told. the roof was compromised, and there is extensive water damage inside. mold is already an issue. there are several tree limbs on the roof which the landlord will remove at sometime. the trailer has also appearently settled unevenly, so that is a major issue. it's an older trailer, so the cost of repair may be more than it is worth.
whether they qualify for FEMA loans is still unknown, but they did the paperwork yesterday. either way, they WILL rebuild and they WILL survive.(their words, not mine)
thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts. keep them coming cause it ain't over yet.
side thought......bet you by next Monday you have a hard time finding any new reports on Houston or any other texas disaster area as reported by the "main stream media". any takers??
they got to go look at their trailer today...it's worse than they had been told. the roof was compromised, and there is extensive water damage inside. mold is already an issue. there are several tree limbs on the roof which the landlord will remove at sometime. the trailer has also appearently settled unevenly, so that is a major issue. it's an older trailer, so the cost of repair may be more than it is worth.
whether they qualify for FEMA loans is still unknown, but they did the paperwork yesterday. either way, they WILL rebuild and they WILL survive.(their words, not mine)
thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts. keep them coming cause it ain't over yet.
side thought......bet you by next Monday you have a hard time finding any new reports on Houston or any other texas disaster area as reported by the "main stream media". any takers??
xtron, take it from someone who's been there, it is a long tough road to recovery. It is doable if they have the desire to remain in that community, but it will be a long, slow process. It is hard to remove yourself from a community, especially if you've invested a lot of time, money and energy in making it work for you and you have seen your future in it
When Katrina hit N.O. it happened just as our daughter was starting her second year of high school. My wife found a place to live 60 miles outside N.O. and a school for Kristan to attend to keep her in as normal a situation as possible while we dealt with the day to day things to help us get back home. I invested a ton of time getting the house back in shape to move home, and when we finally did, we were only one of 2 families on the block to do so. Fast forward to about 5 years down the line and all homes in my area were pretty much occupied or being repaired. But it does take time.
To be perfectly honest, I'm going through a lot of remembering what that was like, and even now, it is a bit unsettling to recall all we went through before any semblance of normalcy set in. Like I posted earlier, I'd not want to go through that ever again.
When Katrina hit N.O. it happened just as our daughter was starting her second year of high school. My wife found a place to live 60 miles outside N.O. and a school for Kristan to attend to keep her in as normal a situation as possible while we dealt with the day to day things to help us get back home. I invested a ton of time getting the house back in shape to move home, and when we finally did, we were only one of 2 families on the block to do so. Fast forward to about 5 years down the line and all homes in my area were pretty much occupied or being repaired. But it does take time.
To be perfectly honest, I'm going through a lot of remembering what that was like, and even now, it is a bit unsettling to recall all we went through before any semblance of normalcy set in. Like I posted earlier, I'd not want to go through that ever again.
People will just have to help each other rebuild, one house, one life at a time. Those who have skills and less damage will be able to get their homes up first. It will be the poor, elderly and those who really don't have a lot of skills or resources to help them, that will have to wait the longest.
On Kauai, habitat for humanity helped get a lot of people back in their homes. They knew how to organize unskilled volunteers and get the materials donated or affordable and they were able to build sturdy structures and restored lives one house at a time.
On Kauai, habitat for humanity helped get a lot of people back in their homes. They knew how to organize unskilled volunteers and get the materials donated or affordable and they were able to build sturdy structures and restored lives one house at a time.
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ElizabethB
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ElizabethB
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Does anyone even know about this? It did not happen in the USA so most news sources do not even talk about it.ElizabethB wrote:Xtron -
......bet you by next Monday you have a hard time finding any new reports on Houston or any other Texas disaster area as reported by the "main stream media". any takers??
That's a "Sucker Bet".
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/worl ... ml?mcubz=3
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/8/30/162 ... -1000-dead
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ElizabethB
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If what happens there is anything like what happened in New Orleans after Katrina, then folks needing repairs need to be extra diligent in picking a contractor to do the work.
We had a huge influx of men that touted themselves as carpenters/contractors and in reality, all they thought they needed was a pickup truck, power saw, ruler and a few other hand tools and they were going to make a killing. These types cost many people untold thousands of dollars in things that needed to be fixed by a competent contractor when all was said and done.
I wound up helping out a couple of friends once I had my house back in order and the shoddy workmanship was incredible. I went to a friends house while the guy was there doing the trim work and my friend called me to come by to take a look at it. All it took me was to look around the entrance foyer and I told the guy to pack up and leave.
We had a huge influx of men that touted themselves as carpenters/contractors and in reality, all they thought they needed was a pickup truck, power saw, ruler and a few other hand tools and they were going to make a killing. These types cost many people untold thousands of dollars in things that needed to be fixed by a competent contractor when all was said and done.
I wound up helping out a couple of friends once I had my house back in order and the shoddy workmanship was incredible. I went to a friends house while the guy was there doing the trim work and my friend called me to come by to take a look at it. All it took me was to look around the entrance foyer and I told the guy to pack up and leave.