After the cold front pushed IKE east of Austin, I figured it would be just another ONE DAY of 'cool-ish temps.' and then back to 90+ degrees in the waning Dog Days of Summer which usually last until Christmas. Indian Summer is putting it lightly. Yet it is still cool today!
Today was the first morning I got to ride the Vectrix into work and I had to zip my jacket up to the neck and I was thinking I need to either find the glove my Son lost or buy new gloves...
I was sortta thinking I would be able to just wait and put it on my Christmas Wish list, but now I don't know...
Other event: Went to Sargent, TX to see if the house was still there. We had heard reports about Sargent Beach having sustained the worst damage in 100 yrs, so we weren't sure what to expect... Luckily the house only lost the cable tv dish which we found on the side of the house and the down stairs was probably under about 2 inches of water the best we could tell and this house is one mile from the beach...
There was a lot of 'flotsom' from trees, piers and houses scattered in the yard so you could tell about where the water line was...
We drove to the beach and any house that was not on a bluff lost the first floor if not more. The storm surge must have pushed the walls and garage doors out... in those houses the top story usually survived. If the land the house sat on was 'beach level' there usually was more damage...
The beach is another story... there is no sand. It is all gone...much like they saw at Galveston. Before: About event 50 yards there were picnic cabanas with 'really' heavy cement tables and benches that had little driveways to park a couple of cars on... well, use to have a little driveways... now they are even smaller - if there at all - maybe get one car on and is four to six feet about the surrounding ground. The surge ate the dunes and excavated about 4 to 6 feet of beach sand down to the clay base. The beach use to extend about 30 - 50 ft from the Cabanas to the water, now is maybe 15-20 ft.
What's that bible verse about building houses on shifting sand!
We noticed that most of the tables survived, but may be moved, most of the benches might still be there, but no longer in the cabana.
Just lucky...thank God! yet, even here, there is going to be a lot of clean up - 45 miles S. of Galveston.
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3 comments:
Glad to hear that the house is relatively ok. My brother-in-law and his family ended up leaving houston and going to a friend's farm in Austin. They have two babies and the generators weren't enough. As for the weather, be glad it's here. I know I am!
That is so sad what happened to Galveston, Texas. I hope it can recover in a few years.
As for all the long power outages, I just don't understand why they can't bury more powerlines. I just don't understand it.
RookieRuggerLSU
Probably was a wise decision to leave Houston with two small babies...what a mess it would be trying to take care of them without electricity...people are not exactly setup to be like 'Little House on the Prairie' today
Brett
It's all Mother Nature now... They could truck sand back in to build up the beach, but would just be a band-aid to what is visible. Besides just wiping out homes and businesses, the coastal topology was altered. The natural protection barriers - dunes and vegetation are gone and that will take years to recover even with help. Like New Orleans, I sure much of what was lost will eventually be rebuilt - hopefully a little better, a little stronger.
It just sad that some of the natural (and manufactured) beauty of the area is going to be lost for long time.
Good question about burying power lines... I guess only the 'hoity neighbors' do that...
Probably afraid a farmer would get lit up on his tractor if he inadvertently plowed over the lines. But in the Urban and Suburban areas it does seem a bit 'retarded' to not bury the cables... That would also help when we get those Jan/Feb Ice Storms that cause the lines to snap under the weight of the ice on the lines...
must be unions - lol - you'd put the Pole Climber union out of business.
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