More on Houston after Ike, and Electrical Power

Here are some thoughts on what I've seen here in Houston.

It's very surreal and a little unnerving to see the changes in traffic here. Most of the traffic lights are not working, so you must stop at every light and do the "blinking red light" drill. As an non-resident, it means I have to concentrate very hard when there's not traffic around me, so that I don't run through a light that's not on! Some of the lights are twisted and not facing the wrong direction, so that is also weird.

Even more eerie is the power situation. Huge chunks of the Southwest part of the city are black at night. Driving along the street, everything is normal, and then you reach a stretch where the power is off. The houses are completely dark, and no street lights. It looks abandoned. I wonder: "where are all the people?" There are whole shopping centers with no stores open. Meyerland has a small group of shops with power generators, so the stores are open, including the only restaurant for a few miles. Just across the parking lot, Target is completely dark. Strange, and very unsettling. Life as we know it, and the familiar, is totally different, and out-of-sync. I can't help but think about what it all means when what you take for granted is turned upside-down and sideways.

The question of the day, every day, in Houston is: "Do you have power yet?" As of Tuesday night, there were 580,000 people in metropolitan Houston without electricity! And that's not all, because that is only the people served by the largest power utility company.

It's a cause for great joy when you get the news that your power is back on! Tracie's (my daughter) neighbor called the church Wednesday afternoon and left a message that hers was on. He lives across the street, but he was still without. It was Thursday evening before his power was restored. Tracie and I were very happy to go home and clean up the house that has been vacant for over a week! (Note: She stayed with friends and with Gary Long's family; he's Tracie's boss at Willow Meadows Baptist Church. I stayed at the Longs on Tuesday night.) That meant getting the trash ready for pick-up and cleaning the refrigerator to make ready to re-stock it, cleaning the bath tub, sinks, toilets, ... And, the air conditioning was back on! Yippee!

I'll post some pictures in another blog entry later today. That's another difference in what you see around town.