Post IKE Reports

Greetings to all, What I am looking for are reports from folks who have gone through the storm.

Lafayette, La - no significant damages.

Coastal Areas of South Louisiana - Very high tides causing a great deal of damages to the personal properties and infrastructure.

Again, I'd like this thread to stay focused on "Damage Reports".

I talked to Blast at around 10 am on Saturday.
He had lost power and there were trees down in the neighborhood, but he was okay. The wind was still blowing pretty hard.
The cat is okay too.

Hey guys, made it through fine here in Lake Charles. Lots of wind, a little rain, flooding in town where it floods. Thankfully, my apartment is in a pretty high part of town, so I don't even have standing water in my yard. I lost electricity twice during the night, but never for an extended amount of time. Just waiting for the stores to re-open now. I ran out of beer. Does that count as damage?

Truckergut

Call a buddy of my in DFW area about 11am this morning... Some wind but nothing major.

So it was supposed to be HUGE and was tiny?

More likely is that it was HUGE and he was lucky.

True.

We got some mild but steady rain and some light wind today in DFW, but nothing major.

I spoke with some relatives in North Houston today. They have some roof leaks, but survived well. They have no power, and are supposed to boil their water. Of course, their house is all electric... I asked if they had plenty of water, and they said they were fine, with three gallons (for 5 people). Sigh...

Things are improving here. The local corner with the ace hardware, mcdonalds, gas station, and grocery store has power, but thats really rare at the moment. So its packed with people.

There was a loud explosion around 12:30 this afternoon, I suspect that another transformer blew.

Not much structural damage here, mostly downed trees and fences.

Things are good, but of course, thats how it is for 48 hours. its not that hard to last 48 hours.

Fortunately, HEB has opened about 40 grocery stores on generators and so both perishables and non-perishables are available to anyone who can make it to the store. There is a line to get in the store of course.

Thanks to the fact that we have pressurized natural gas, and the water system is intact, we still have the built in grill and hot water, which is a huge help.

Of course, those who don't have a power inverter 12vdc to 110vac for the car and a large UPS (like I do), and a grill, are probably faring much worse. I'm nowhere near tapped out of resources, and it looks like I won't have to break into the emergency water, MREs, or canned goods.

I would say that if you don't want to get a generator, having a decent inverter and even a small store of gasoline is an inexpensive and prudent thing.

My sister who lives over on 1960 had knee deep water for 24 hours after the storm, but no water in the house. The water has since subsided.

POWER RESTORED

we have power here in Cypress at 2:30 pm Sunday.

Woo hoo!

Had a text message from blast. He is OK, but bored. No power in his area.

I asked him if he needed anything, he replied "cheerleaders". I told him 50 male cheerleaders and 200 kitties were on the way.

I'll agree with you on the gen.

I talked to my neighbor, who is with HPD. He said Saturday was OK, but today the worst is coming out of people. Fights at gas stations, people trying to steal things. Of course, he is uniquely situated to observe those things.

Stores that are open have people waiting outside to get in. Gas stations have half mile long lines.

His advice was to stay put and not go out to get anything if you don't need to.

I haven't been able to reach Blast, but I doubt he'll come when I do. You know how it is when you are super-prepared. He's probably doing just fine, as he told you, and doesn't really need anything.

Right now, I have my sister and her 2 kids here, along with my family of 5. He might be better off at home with his trees and his beer.

He is cat sitting, and bored.

If Blast's internet was up he could shop for a generator. . . which would arrive after the power was restored. He planned to be without a/c? Bet the cat is pissed.

If he's bored, he could probably use some of his stored water to bathe the cat.

Sue

If he does get that bored, I hope he had the chance to stock up on his "medicinal" alcohol before the storm hit.

- Eric

It's good to hear Blast is OK. I was going to give him a call but apparently I never transferred his number into my new phone.

The power in my part of town, near 610 and 290 for those familiar with the area, is back on! I have been deeply touched by the amount of compassion and fellowship that my immediate neighbors and others have demonstrated and I think it far outweighs the reports of looters that we've heard. Total stranger-neighbors that I struck up a conversation offered to let me come take a hot shower and use their grill to cook food if I needed. It was totally non-creepy and rather uplifting.

Damage to trees is extensive, which is probably to be expected considering how long it's been since we've had a big blow or ice storm, but it was still sad to drive past so grand old trees that have been totally destroyed.

I've got a few Lessons Learned points that will be addressed next hurricane season, assuming this is the last storm we get this year. I "wisely" got a lot of ice on Thursday, by which I mean a whole two 8 lb bags, but I would have been more comfortable if I'd bought even more, and I would have been more comfortable yet if I owned, which I now do, a decent ice chest. On the other had, my refrigerator's freezer did yeoman's duty keeping what ice I did lay up and I still had a whole 8 pounds or so when the power came back on.

Above all, it has been really nice to be able to give my parents, who have given me so much over the years, an air conditioned place to sleep tonight. The icing on the cake is all the meat they brought with them, since Daddy had just received a fairly large shipment from Omaha Steaks that might have gone bad in the absence of my now-functional freezer.

My buddy lives at TC Jester and the 610, and is still without power. He has natural gas and water. He said a lot of trees down, but he had no damage. He has cases of canned soup and bottled water. His 3 freezers are plugged in to a large generator, so his extended family that sheltered with him are going to be there a while.

His old factory on 36th street near TC Jester has 1/2 power, but he is not opening. Had some tree damage to one of the buildings.

As far as I can tell, most of Galveston was destroyed.

IKE went through my area of NY early this AM, combining with a cold front. No rain, but tropical storm speed winds. A lot of power loss, and tree damage. Schools closed or delayed.

Remnants of Ike sped through Ohio on Sunday, with rain and 50-70 mph winds. One Ohioan died from a fallen tree and AEP reported that 270,000 customers in Ohio were without power.

Update: The latest news reports indicate over 1 million customers without power in Ohio. AEP is just one supplier of electricity in the state.

We had strong winds here in OH, I have some roof damage and need to buy a big ladder to reach it. I see seveal houses near me with shingles and siding missing. Power flickered a few times, out lines are underground so it must have been when other areas were going down and us getting the surges and such from them.

I haven't been able to get in touch with KMat or Librarian yet. Has anyone heard from them???

Greetings, I talked to kmat a few minutes ago. He has no power and just got his local cell phone tower restored.

He came through Ike with no damages and no casualties!!! Kmat is going to drive over to Librarian's residence & check on them.

Bo

Heard from Blast this AM, he is fine. He said he was cold, but otherwise ok. He does not need anything.

Shockingly, we had trash service today (as scheduled) and I saw the paper guy delivering papers. Infrastructure wants to return as soon as it can.

I was able to get gas last night, without waiting, at 10:45 pm after delivering ice to a family member (we are generating it in any container that can hold it). My sister tried this morning at 8:30am and was only 9th in line!

I know things are worse elsewhere, last night everywhere I went there was no power.

I think it would be worth considering. One thing that can be done in situations like this is to use text messaging instead of making voice calls. If infrastructure is down, or its capacity is severely limited, phone calls can fail altogether. Text messages, which use far less bandwidth, can be queued and delivered when resources become available.

Many photo's of Galveston after IKE

IKE DAMAGE

Yes, the store-and-forward nature of SMS can be very handy in many situations. And to veer off-topic to another thread for a second, it's also why we should hold off blaming the Metrolink train engineer and saying he was texting, just because that 15-year got a text message from the engineer just a minute before the crash. The engineer could have sent the text message quite a while earlier, when it was OK for him to be doing so, and by some bizarre coincidence, it was delivered just a minute before the crash.

I am glad to hear you take care of your parents. I am still waiting for the day when I can deploy my long term preparedness stuff to take care of my parent.

Talked to Merriwether. He is on day 3 of the big neighborhood block party. No power. No land phone. Spotty cell coverage. Intermittent tap water. Home supplies excellent. Encountered a possum. Spring Creek still over banks. It's good to be prepared.

The wethergirls are really missing their daddy, however, I'm glad that we don't have to be there, even though this single mom thing is tough.

Hey Supermom (aka: Kuovonne), When you talk to Merriwether, I have a message to pass:

John has plenty of goats, but no eggs. If he wants fresh meat, come and get it, but he has to clean them himself.

Thanks!!!!

Hang in there, being a single Mom is the toughest job in the world,,,and the most rewarding!!!! This is temporary, and it too shall pass. Be safe! I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa are really lamenting the extra time they get to spend with you and their grand daughters!!!!


Bo

Just the thought of that makes me ill.

He may have a while to go. Hope he has enough Cat Food! That kitten, if hungry, already knows what he tastes like.

You don't know how right you are, Izzy:
http://intotheborderlands.blogspot.com/2008/09/hurricane-ike.html

I'm looking forward to reading how the block party went down when he gets back online.

Thanks for updating, Kuovonne!

"When you get home you're going to find your husband standing on the roof in his underpants with a tin foil hat on and a bottle of whiskey in one hand and knife in another."

Considering that his board name is 'Blast', the above scenario may be the BEST that she can expect. Like, still having a roof is a GOOD thing.

So, Blast has a new 'kitty', eh?

Sue

Having known a few people with tinfoil hats, it makes me laugh...

Glad to hear our TX brethren are fairing pretty well. It'd be interesting if you could post any observations after things settle down - what worked, what didn't, etc. If equipment failed, why and what brand... those kinds of things.

Anyway, apparently in Detroit we had 5" of rain and some wind. I, however, was in Minneapolis, getting a flight back home after Cinncinati airport closed (only later did I find out about the 75 mph winds there). So once again, I got lucky and missed "all the fun."

Stay safe everyone.

Well, with the tiny taste of Ike we've had, I'll pass on a full hurricane, thanks anyway.

The tail end of Ike blew through Northeast Ohio on Sunday night, and it's been said that up to a third of all traffic lights in the state were knocked out. Trees and branches down in a lot of areas. Power is expected to be out for a fairly large number of residents until Saturday or Sunday, and several schools were or have been closed.

Dave

I once heard it said that the Houston area has the highest concentration of Tigers per square mile any where in the world.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,423504,00.html

Some guys have all the fun.

My wife won't let me wear my tinfoil hat...

Here is a post ike report from Houston.

Things I was glad I had (other than your typical things):
1) 2 computer UPS s. They make good backup batteries. Each one lasted a day and was used for small electrical jobs (ummm coffee grinder). These are good because you can use them when the weather outside is bad and you aren't sure you want to go to your car and set up your power inverter.
2) Candle Lantern . I had gotten this about 8 years ago as a gift and its really best for LONG backpacking trips. Which I don't get to do. We hung it in the kitchen, nothing flammable nearby. It worked great and I preferred it to using a battery powered solution. Very long lasting.
3) Cheap power inverter for the car. 200w will power a laptop and another small item (like a DSL modem). Your cigarette lighter is only good for 90W. To get more then 90w you have to wire it directly to your battery.
4) Probe type thermometer. There are many kinds of probe thermometers out there, I just happen to have a Center 304 Type K which I use for my work. Why you ask? Because the CDC recommends that you throw out food that has been over 40 degrees F for 2 hours. This document caused a lot of controversy between my wife and I, because some foods keep longer at warmer temperatures. Of course, getting a case of botulism or salmonella would be problematic after Ike hit. The thermometer helped us with our food management. The nice thing about the probes is that we didn't have to open the refrigerator to check the temps. Sunday morning, my freezer was still at 38 F. We were able to keep it under 40 until the power was restored in the afternoon.
5) I had been hoarding empty plastic bottles for various projects, and used all of them to make large blocks of ice. Large blocks of ice keep longer than ice cubes, although they cool less effectively due to the lower surface area. Regardless, they kept our freezer below 40F for 36 hours, and would have lasted longer but the power came on.
6) The cheap-asp headlamp Merriwether traded to me. It has amazing battery life, and was great for leaving on all night in the bathroom so that people didn't get hurt on the way to the bathroom (I have small children).

I'm not recommending anyone go out and buy anything, thats just what I had that performed better than expected.

In addition, I had MREs, bottled water, battery powered radio, etc... but I think its too mundane to list it all.

Things I wasn't so keen on:
1) My Zebralight . It developed a short and failed very early on.
2) Cheap princeton blast flashlight. These were the kid's flashlights. Really bad battery performance.

Something the wife wishes we had:
Small fan, battery operated or low-power 110v, to help keep the baby cool.

Other observations:

1) "Cold boot" your cell phone, by removing the battery. While carriers and phones may vary, this is what made my cell phone find a signal. Like most modern devices, cell phones are never really "off". They just go into a hibernation state, and the power button is usually a momentary switch which tells a latching relay whether the phone status should change or not.
2) Infrastructure returns VERY quickly.
3) The most important thing after the storm... that we told our kids... was to NOT GET HURT. We were very careful about what we let them do, because it wasn't a good time to have an accident.
4) Only 3 people in my neighborhood of 300+ boarded up windows. Not one home sufferred any damage from projectiles. We live in an area where there are many fences and mature trees. Fences tended to fall in sections, and when pickets fell off separately, they did not become projectiles as people often describe. They just laid on the ground. For a mid-cat 3 or higher I would board up the windows.
5) FEMA will pay for your generator!
6) Expect to go back to work before life returns to normal. My sister's employer actually set up a temporary day care on the 7th floor of her building so that employees could come to work without having to worry about child care. She doesn't have power at home.
7) Automated gas stations are empty at 11pm at night!
8) After the hurricane passes, put as many containers as possible outside to capture rainwater. We used this to flush the toilets (not the tub water). I shaved with rainwater, and the kids shampooed their hair in it. Soon after collection you will only want to use it for flushing.
9) Neighborhood kids are starting to play after dark... on other people's property. Boys will be boys. But with the fear of looters, and other concerns, its really foolish. Someone is going to get accidentally injured or hurt by a property owner.

Thanks for that report! I'm disappointed to hear about your Zebralight. I've been meaning to buy one for a long time.

And regarding your comment about 3 of 300--are you in Houston proper? Or somewhere outside of Houston? I only ask since I was under the impression that folks in Houston weren't advised to evacuate.

Edit: I just reread your post--boarded up isn't the same as evacuating. So I assume that most of your neighbors were actually around.

I spoke with my parents last night, who live in Kingwood. They were still without power, but were running the generator and doing ok. No major damage at their place but apparently there were lots of trees down in the Greenbelts. Their neighbors have all banded together and work well together, so they are doing fine. Once power comes back everything will be back to normal for them.

I sent my battery operated TV to them for their neighbors without generators. In a few months it won't work for me anyway, and I feel like I need to do something to help my home state.

Greg

Found this link on another forum...

Pictures people have sent me

-john

How long do those glo sticks keep in storage?

I'm outside of Houston, but have Houston water. Cypress is the name of the city. Its what some folks call a "sleeper community".

I'd say less than 5% of my neighbors bugged out. We saw winds of 74-80mph.

I'll go into a bit more detail for you...

I actually bought all three models about 3 months ago. On my expense report, it was as a way to quickly test the efficacy of the CREE LEDs for use in a cell phone product I am working on. In real life, I wanted to see how they performed otherwise. I usually get to keep any samples for personal use.

The H30-Q5 has problems cycling through its 3 brightness phases correctly. Often it skips the brightest phase. It also comes on accidentally. That little rubber push switch is too sensitive.

The H50-Q5 works well, but twisting the cap to cycle the phases is not preferable to me (it leads to a lot of twisting!).

I think the switch is a better concept, but it needs some refinement before it works well.

And, whether they have a switch or a twist cap, it would be nice if there were a memory feature on it where if I was using it on "high" it would restart on "high" instead of going back to "low" every time.

Your original post linked to the H50, but is the Zebralight problem you're referring to with the push button switch of the H30 skipping the high setting?

Regarding the first issue, contact whoever you purchased from and point them at this post on CPF. It appears that it is Zebralight's intention to make this right for people who purchased lights with the UI problem. They have also have had the fix for quite a while.

Regarding the second issue, while it doesn't happen to me all the time, I have had this happen. Obviously it is best stored in a way that decreases the chance of the button being pressed by accident.

Note this thread where CPF user nekomane made a ring to protect the button. While he doesn't have any for sale, nor plan to build any more, it appears this modification has been brought to the attention of Zebralight (note post#9). Hopefully they will include this option at a later date.

-john

H50-Q4: Shorted out. Doesn't work any more.
H30-Q5: Touchy switch, doesn't cycle correctly. Turns on accidentally.
H50-Q5: No problems yet, not entirely pleased with the cycle mechanism.

Recommendations:
H30-Q5 needs a recessed switch. Also uses CR123A which is not a convenient battery.
H50 series needs to go through the industrial design process again before its really good.

Actually I prefer the 123A. Allows for a very compact and powerful power source, resulting in a very compact light.

I still think you should contact who you purchased from and ask them to make it right.

I agree about the need for a recessed switch. I recall the H51 is coming which will be clickie also.

-john

I got them directly from Zebralight. I'll contact them shortly about it, but I think I'll opt for a refund if they will allow it. I don't think the products are very solid, but they do have some good attention to detail and I believe as a company they will get it right... eventually.