fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2008-09-12 11:20 pm
some_stars) wrote2008-09-12 11:20 pm
(no subject)
one electricity flicker so far--everything cut out for a second, then came back. otherwise, nothing going on here, although apparently winds are way higher in neighborhoods like..a quarter mile away. which is weird.
mostly i am completely freaked about Galveston, because it's really not a well-off city AT ALL, and thousands and thousands of people's homes will be destroyed, not to mention all the businesses. plus the people who didn't evacuate--something like 20,000, 25,000?--which, yes, really stupid not to get off the island when a hurricane is coming, but there was such a FRENZY over Rita a few years ago and then so little came of it, and the whole culture when you live on the coast--in the gulf, at least--is just, you know. seen one cat 4 hurricane, seen them all. especially with people who've been living here for decades. plus see above re these are not people who have money, and--basically it's a really stupid thing to do but people are going to die and i really, really love that city and i don't know what's going to happen. people are being rescued from the second floor of their homes, and these are houses that are built off the ground in the first place.
it really is the Rita thing--everyone was so, so frightened from Katrina, and Houston/Galveston were UTTERLY unprepared for an evacuation on that scale--I am pretty sure there were more evacuation-related deaths than weather-related--and when all you see is "category 2", especially when so recently Gustav turned out not to be a second Katrina--i just fucking hate people making smartass comments about how they, being wise and hip and witty, have no sympathy for these people, and everyone who's been rescued should be charged to reimburse the national guard and so on and so on.
anyway, there've been power outages all over Houston proper, including way north of me, so we'll probably get cut off at some point. i'll try and phone post tomorrow morning if we lose power. also if you want to keep updated, chron.com is the houston chronicle website and seems to be doing a pretty good job. i have no idea how equipped the Galveston paper is to keep updating, though i imagine after Katrina all the mid-size local coastal papers gave themselves an upgrade in that regard.
--and there's at least three major fires in Galveston right now, apparently, and nobody can get to them to put them out. i hate this.
mostly i am completely freaked about Galveston, because it's really not a well-off city AT ALL, and thousands and thousands of people's homes will be destroyed, not to mention all the businesses. plus the people who didn't evacuate--something like 20,000, 25,000?--which, yes, really stupid not to get off the island when a hurricane is coming, but there was such a FRENZY over Rita a few years ago and then so little came of it, and the whole culture when you live on the coast--in the gulf, at least--is just, you know. seen one cat 4 hurricane, seen them all. especially with people who've been living here for decades. plus see above re these are not people who have money, and--basically it's a really stupid thing to do but people are going to die and i really, really love that city and i don't know what's going to happen. people are being rescued from the second floor of their homes, and these are houses that are built off the ground in the first place.
it really is the Rita thing--everyone was so, so frightened from Katrina, and Houston/Galveston were UTTERLY unprepared for an evacuation on that scale--I am pretty sure there were more evacuation-related deaths than weather-related--and when all you see is "category 2", especially when so recently Gustav turned out not to be a second Katrina--i just fucking hate people making smartass comments about how they, being wise and hip and witty, have no sympathy for these people, and everyone who's been rescued should be charged to reimburse the national guard and so on and so on.
anyway, there've been power outages all over Houston proper, including way north of me, so we'll probably get cut off at some point. i'll try and phone post tomorrow morning if we lose power. also if you want to keep updated, chron.com is the houston chronicle website and seems to be doing a pretty good job. i have no idea how equipped the Galveston paper is to keep updating, though i imagine after Katrina all the mid-size local coastal papers gave themselves an upgrade in that regard.
--and there's at least three major fires in Galveston right now, apparently, and nobody can get to them to put them out. i hate this.