Hurricane Ike 2008 part 1

In September 2008, Houston was hit by Hurricane Ike. Thousands of homes and businesses were without power or water for several days. Galveston and Bolivar weren't so lucky. Many homes were destroyed- flooded, damaged, or washed out to sea. Entire neighborhoods literally disappeared. I was at my studio near Downtown Houston. I'm in a brick and concrete warehouse building. My studio loft is on the 4th floor. The building is old, but its 'higher ground' and compared to a wooden house- its like a bunker. All the same, rain water blew in from a few windows that broke, I mopped up almost 10 gallons of water at the back of my room. We were without power for a few days and without running water for at least two. I used candles, bottled water, and heated canned food on a small butane camp stove. I lost a few days of work- everything was closed! My ordeal seemed trivial compared to that of many families in town who went without power for 2 weeks to a month, and no running water for a week or more.-or who lost their homes altogether. When the water pressure returned, we had to boil it for the first week or so to make it relatively safe to drink. I took some video with my camera that shows the storm bearing down on us, and some of the damage afterward. It was stressful and a bit scary- I feel very fortunate that I made it through unharmed. Riding out the storm in the dark was the easy part- afterward it felt very humbling to know just how much we do depend on things like electricity, computers, phones, water, paved roads, and our jobs. It was an adventure I don't want to experience again any time soon!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Hurricane
• Ike
• Houston
• 2008