Thursday/Friday September 18/19
If you hear that things are getting back to normal down here in the Houston area, don't believe it.
Sure traffic's picking up on the freeways, some people are going back to work, but that's the exception, not the rule.
In the last couple of days, FEMA's registered 400,000 people in the greater Houston area. These are folks who are looking for relocation help, housing assistance or some other kind of aid. A FEMA representative told me this morning that as of Friday morning, they had paid out $4.5 million in housing assistance and $434,000 in other financial assistance. I give you those numbers, not because I'm a journalist and we're driven by facts and data, but rather, for you to take them in and realize they're going to climb. 400,000 -- that's more people than in all of Toledo.
It's hard for people not in this part of the country to grasp what a lot of these people are going through. Many haven't heard from employers. They aren't working. And as a result, they're not making any money. No money, no food. And the contrary to what happened after Hurricane Katrina, the government isn't handing out vouchers (cash in hand). When Katrina hit, people were taking that money and buying things other than essentials. Now, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is taking that over. There is one line, one access point, and today (Friday) temps could be near 90.
None of these people down here can take that collective sigh yet. There are 1.21 million still without power. Today marks one week.
We'll be in Galveston tomorrow.
Jeff
Wednesday September 17
Yesterday, photographer Kevin Beining and I interviewed US Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters. She was in the greater Houston area announcing $5 million in aid for not only Houston, but also parts of Louisiana (Gustav relief). The money is to be used for damage assessments, clearing road debris and airport repair. That was in the morning.
The bulk of our day was spent at a Communications Center set up by the US House of Representatives. Crews from Virginia turned an American Legion post into a FEMA contact center. About 1,000 people went through the doors and sat down at long tables using one of 200 laptop computers or telephones. We could really see the stress on the faces of the people there. They keep hearing from people to take it day by day, but a lot of them say tomorrow can't get here soon enough. We talked to one family who lost their house, and they were having trouble getting back to the property. There's a huge police presence turning people away from dangerous areas and the family was worried about their four horses that were still there.
Another family rode out the storm on Galveston Island early Saturday morning and the girl, probably in her early 20s, a mother of a 2-year-old, broke down while she was on the phone with the FEMA representative. She just couldn't hold it together. I asked her over and over if there was anything we could do for them. She was just one of those people who was overwhelmed; the stress has been too much. I think KTRK is efforting a story today on the mental health aspect of all this. How do people who have been without power for nearly a week keep from going crazy, literally crazy?
This morning (Thursday) there are still 1.2 million people without power -- that's basically Toledo and Columbus combined.
I wasn't at Katrina relief, but I can't imagine what these families are feeling right now. Helpless, or just the help can't get here quick enough.
We'll be talking to more of those folks today.
Regards
Jeff
Tuesday September 16
I can't write anything or take a picture that would do justice for the things I saw last night on Galveston Island. Without a doubt, it was "one" of the hardest hit areas. On the interstate into the island there were large boats. Yes, you read that right. There were BOATS on the road and in the median and along the edge. There was pile after pile of debris that had washed up and wasn't going anywhere, not anytime soon anyway. One of the most telling sights that I and photographer Kevin Beining saw was a parking lot for people taking cruises out of the Port of Galveston. The cars were butted up against each other in every which direction. The storm surge picked them up and moved them around like one of those electronic magnetic vibrating football games. I think today (Wednesday) we might try to find where those car owners are.
Yesterday, as I reported on 13 ABC Action News at 5:30, we were at a POD (Point of Distribution) in the town of Pasadena. Pasadena is about 20 miles outside of Houston. It was a federally funded handout site -- the essentials: water, ice, food. FEMA was supposed to bring in supplies early in the morning, and people were lined up EARLY IN THE MORNING, but the semis didn't show until after noon. People were a little hot under the collar, to say the least. The only saving grace has been the weather. There's been hardly any humidity and temperatures have been in the lower 80s to upper 70s. I like to think WE were the ones who brought the comfortable temps with us. At its peak, the volunteers were handing out 500 meals an hour. They gave the residents 2 cases of bottled water, 20 pounds of ice, and prepackaged meal packs. It was really a well-oiled machine. The line was intimidating, but folks were moving through it in 30 minutes tops -- and they were thankful. A lot of them are going to have some serious rebuilding and the handouts are just one place they won't have to stick their dollars.
As you've probably heard, the power is still out for tens of thousands and a number of main intersections are still 4-way stops. So it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks.
We'll keep you posted.
Jeff.
Monday - September 15
On the flight in, I was reminded of the Van Wert tornado coverage from years back. There were homes that were untouched, others that had back yards filled with debris. And from the air, there was a lot of flooding…fields, swollen streams, lakes, etc.
On the drive in from the airport, it was eerie to see hardly any traffic on the highways. It was the middle of the afternoon in a town of 6 million. It was like driving on I-475 -- by that I mean it was a breeze. However, because of the power outages, every intersection was a four-way stop -- and they're still that way this morning.
Last night, I went out on a story with photojournalist Dean Smith from our sister station in San Francisco. I think we brought some of the cool, comfortable weather from northwest Ohio down here with us. We went south and east of Houston to Nassau Bay. It's a community near the NASA Johnson Space Center.
We met up with a guy named Napoleon Rossi. He used to live in Cleveland and rode out the storm. His apartment complex sustained a lot of damage. The roof of their carport was ripped back like a sardine can. Every time the wind kicked up, it would lift and bang down, lift and bang down, lift and bang down. I said in a script for our story last night that it was Mother Nature's twisted sense of humor. The high rise office building near his apartment had part of its side support wall ripped out. We're talking concrete, steel supports, insulation.
Through it all, the people we talked to, their spirits were high. Police were everywhere. There was a curfew in effect. Police were trying to prevent looting.
Finally, a Christian group called Committed Relief (www.committedrelief.org) was in Friendswood. They were from California, had been to Louisiana for Gustav support and were here now. They basically set up a huge meals on wheels and fed close to 1,000 yesterday. We're going to go back today and see how many people they feed on day 2.
Today, we're looking at going out to local nursing homes/senior centers -- they're all still without power.
More to come...
