Maggie, my 2c, this is the best thread you've ever posted here. Good job. :o)
wasn't that a mighty storm?
wasn't that a mighty storm in the morning?
wasn't that a mighty storm?
that blew all them people all away.
leadbelly
yeah, i too knew the shame factor of poverty. in a lot of ways it was a little bit better on the rez because there wasn't anybody, except the folks who came in from the outside, who had jack shit.
i knew stuff like when my da gave me three 410 shells for my shotgun that meant i was expected to bring back 3 birds, 3 rabbits, or any combination. the rule was "shells cost money, money's hard to come by, one shot, one kill, or somebody else takes the shot."
last week, and i'll admit to a level of showing off here, i went out for my afternoon dove shoot with my old 410. i took 3 shells at a time, would come back to the truck with 3 birds, get another 3 shells, and so forth. old habits.
the blackout is the same thing republicans have been doing since for fucking ever. nixon didn't have a legal problem with watergate. he had a publicity and a press problem. the military didn't lose vietnam because they didn't recognise that they were in an untenable and unwinnable conflict, they lost the "public relations" end of things.
now, the economy is great. it's all just in our heads (i wish that just for today i had less in my fucking head and more in my portfolio).
it wasn't the failure of FEMA that was the shame of new orleans. it was improperly managed tv appearances and poorly controlled press in general. no pictures? no fucking story.
move right along folks. ain't nothing to see.
understand also that Harris County/Houston hates FEMA passionately. They were left holding a large bill after Katrina/Rita. Nevertheless, the gambles here all backfired - not advocating a larger evacuation, not anticipating greater outages (Centerpoint admitted that they thought it would be only 60% first day, instead of near total), and not expecting heavy rain the second day after Ike had cleared the area. that was when shit really started flying.
Maggie, thank you for a powerful and profound insight. I want everybody I know -- or at least everyone I've heard questioning the reasoning of Galvestonians who stayed behind -- to read this post, and maybe get some kind of understanding they've never had before. Thank you.
Peace, V.
I don't buy your defense of the residents who stayed behind, Maggie. Just 48 hours after the hurricane, people were complaining of lack of water. Only a dipshit refuses to stockpile water before a hurricane. Believe me, I know, having gone through direct hits by Frances, Jeanne and Wilma in a 13-month period.
A guy was pissed because authorities refused to drive to his flooded house and pull him out of his attic in 100 mph winds? Jesus, what a narcissist!
There's no excuse for residents of Galveston. Everyone who lives there should know what happened in 1900. Yes, they are idiots for remaining on the island.
After all of this terrible situation is over, I think the government needs to take a real close look at its mandatory evacuation policy.
As I write this, thousands of first responers are using their extremely valuable time and money (our tax dollars) evacuating people who were under mandatory evacuation. Some of these people were told they were facing "certain death" if they stayed.
If these people had evacuated when told to do so, then the time and money of these first responders could be utilized in other ways to help get the area back up and running sooner.
I think that when an area, zip code, etc. is told to evacuate that the people must do so. If they choose to stay, and want or have to be evacuated later, they should have to pay an evacuation fee to the governemnt to cover the tax payers's expense of evacuating them.
Harold Green
Your information about Bolivar Light is incorrect; the structure has no significant structural damage viewed from the air. See story from Sept. 15th on the KTRK blog:
http://ktrk.typepad.com/abc13/20...ar-
lightho.html
that link to the guy collecting all the photos is amazing and heartbreaking.
and to your school lunch story...
when we moved back to the usa after my parents divorced (I was 7) mom could not get a teaching job as there were a glut of teachers and being a divorcee was a stigma-- she waitressed for 50 cents an hour plus tips. We scraped and saved, moved in with my grandma and it was hard. Plus there was tons of shame involved- me, her, the whole deal.
I remember comments about me being a peyton place kid cause I had only a mom- and a suspicious story.... free School lunch was a godsend but it was tough on the ego.
thanks for sharing.
Great post Maggie. This blame the victim thing is just out of control. They are there now. Yes, if they stayed ...... and 40%!?!?! did... then they didn't do enough to get them to leave. There will always be people who stay in these events but that sure seems like a high number. Thursday I was watching the news and the reporter was saying people were not very informed and didn't think it would be that bad. "Certain death" should be enough though.
So they stayed, for whatever reason, and now it up to the rescuers to do what we pay our taxes for them to do..... minus the fucked up attitude. I don't pay for that attitude and neither did those tax payers that did stay. Just rescue them then take a look on how you can better inform them next time. All you can do really.
And, I can understand your mother's pov as well. There's got to be a better way to assist without creating situations that cause people shame. Same scrimpting and saving went on in my home but I don't remember a free lunch program. I DO remember powdered milk though..... blech.
Yep, powdered milk sucks. And shared community/cultural poverty is much better than communities where the divide is noticeable.
I am greatly relieved to hear the Bolivar Light is all right after all. Thanks for the correction, Sara.
I also found out, for those of you who know Galveston, that Gaido's and Hotel Valdez appear to be all right. Gaido's chocolate bread pudding is something my taste buds have never forgotten.
Now I'm just hoping the hurricane season ends early this year.
BEST POST YET. FINALLY. WHERE IS THE MEDIA?
WHERE? WHERE?
We have zero information....
Very powerful, Maggie, powerful. Thank you.
Your story resonates for me in many ways and I appreciate your ability with words.
Why did people not leave? As many reasons as there are people. We had dinner last evening with three people from the area. My husband's cousin's wife, son and a friend of their's from Galveston. The cousin had to stay behind because he runs the power plant for one of the big hospitals in Houston. They live in Pearland. She told us that he'd been able to go to their house and it had some wind damage, but was otherwise okay. The friend from Galveston...He was an interesting story. He is one of those who stayed and ended up on a bus to SA on Sunday.
This man is probably early 60's. He stayed in Galveston for the curiosity of it. Told us the water was about a foot deep in his second floor apartment and when he found out that there would be no electricity for a month, that's when he knew he had to go.
He spent 12 hours on a bus with other medically challenged people and a woman died on the bus in the row in front of him before they got everyone off the bus at Kelly AFB.
Why did he not leave when his girlfriend ( the sister of the cousin's wife and her mother left?) he only would tell us that he wanted to see what would happen.
People. You just never know why they do the things they do. This man was an intelligent person and a world traveler judging from the stories he told us at dinner. Not an idiot and not someone who had financial challenges. He just wanted to see what would happen to the city.
Well, okay. Now what?
I lived in Galveston. I hauled ass.
The people who stayed stayed because they had nothing else. Better to die than be left like the Katrina refugees in some town they don't know. It's common knowledge in the Galveston black population how much the rednecks in Houston hate Katrina refugees.
Sweet irony for all the Hummer owners standing in line at a POD site.
And Houston is not all light and sweetness. The city is still mostly without power and gas is a big concern. Peoples ice is melting, no one knows when they can go back to work or in some cases if there is even going to be work.
And the bigger story is probably the towns around the east bay like Anuahac.
Not big towns, but each could add a couple of hundred to the death toll.
Also one wonders how much pounding the west coast of Louisiana can take.
I personally think this will be the most expensive clean up ever undertaken. It just might be the thing that bankrupts us.
No doubt they were looking at projected costs when they told Leahmans to get fucked.
Maggie, thank you so much... a co-worker, the other day, said flatly, "I have no sympathy for the people who were given enough warning to evacuate and didn't." I had no words, beyond "it's complicated."
I'm forwarding this to him.
Another gummint luncher.
It wasn't so bad after they told the lunch ladies who we were, so we didn't have to say anything. Before that the vice-principal
would go through the school each morning, call us out for class, and hand us the exact change. This was in New England in the 1970's tech crash, so I never felt singled out-except when Mr A called me out of class for my money.
My main gummint food memories-
who could eat that many prunes? by then I was shameless enough(with a friend's help) to hide prunes all over the classroom of a teacher I didn't like. The best one was when he unrolled the big map and you can guess what happened.
what's so great about great northern beans?
And cases of generic karo syrup, which we didn't use hardly any of. The lowest point of my lifelong sugar addiction was drinking that stuff straight from the bottle. It didn't even taste good the way cane sugar does. My throat burns at the memory.
Unbelievable.........wake up people! our government can not always help us all the time. So much is going on now. Look at the economy. We (the U.S.) can not afford this natural disaster. Survivors of Ike are suffering without proper aide. We have not invested in recovery programs because today the government decided to invest billions to bail out another failing business. On some levels the Galveston-Ike incident is worse than Katrina. At least in New Orleans the government tried to rescue and help victims. Immediately after the storm Black Hawk helicopters flew up and down the Texas coast in the pretense of saving Texans. Here in the damaged areas we were told by the media rescues were taking place. Lies..... Later on the 3rd day After the storm we were told search and rescues were just beginning! Media coverage has been suppressed.....officials have been putting the spin on EVERYTHING! Entire communities are been neglected! Charity organizations can not provide relief as roadblocks are everywhere! Fema relief efforts are a facade! We will Never know what has happened.........how many have perished..........on Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsular there are no Red marks to mark the deceased....only small stickers on the houses difficult for the media to see. These victims were not important they will not be missed.
Thanks for the photos/info. Like everyone else has said, I can NOT believe the lack of media coverage.
I have an old friend I've been out of touch with for years, but I know her address is (was?) 9019 Jamaica Beach.
One of the photos on here where someone has overlayed names on it, one of them is my friend's name... does anyone know if that's Jamaica Beach road?
I don't know the area well enough to know how close some of these photos are to where her house is/was.
Thanks for any info.
I would like to make a comment regarding the "first responders". I am the very proud wife of a fireman in the Dallas area. Let me tell you many are volunteering their time and traveling to Galveston to help because they choose to do so. They are paid to work in their respective cities, not in Galveston rescuing people who refused to leave. They are there helping because they are caring individuals.
They have left their families for weeks at a time to assist. I am very proud to know several who have been there helping. They are sleeping in the back of their ambulances/trucks and dealing with all kinds of things to be there to help in dangerous conditions.
The people in Galveston were told to leave how much clearer can you get than "certain death." I do understand some not wanting to leave, but heed the warnings you are given.
And yes your tax dollars pay their salaries, but let me tell you they are not paid enough -- they will never be paid enough. You cannot put a price on their lives. You people have no idea what these men and women deal with every day but you are so quick to complain about them.
Thank you to all of the "first responders" out there I appreciate everything you do and what your families sacrafice for you to do it.
So well written.
Thanks for this.
I will be sending this link to many people.
As far as those who satyed DUMB mistake I bet more are dead than we, will know. As far as those whao are there now, send them food and water for a few months but the rest is just up to them and there independent Wishes.
As far as Goverment lunches, I wish I had em when I was a Kid I went hungry, seldom had a lunch to eat, My daughter gets them so what! My Boy is Home schooled by my wife because the school doesent want to deal with a a.d.d. Kid, so were taking up the slack there.
Sad situation going on in galveston. America (lord knows no other countries are offering money) can afford to feed them for a few months clean up the streets get water and sewar back up... BUT THATS ALL.
The article was very good and gives a very good explanation to why people would stay in an unsafe situation. Now to those commentors who have no idea what they are talking about but just must voice their opinion like absolute morons! The damage that Ike would bring was underestimated from the start. Most mandatory evacuations were not even called until the Thursday before the storm because the forecasted track did not show galveston as a direct hit. The dangerous winds started on Friday morning, even though the storm did not hit until 2 am Sat morning, causing many victims who had planned on evacuationg to stay behind. Anyone who lives in a coastal community knows that Category 2 hurricanes do not call for mass mandatory evacuations. Please remember that Galveston is not a zoned community so when you see a beautiful 1 million dollar + home there were many less fortunate homes that were destroyed. The million $ + homes were built to handle hurricanes of this magnitude.
Read the Many books about the 1900's storms including the one written in 1901, and then call us "absoulute morons" mandotory evacuation means just that. What part of "face certain death dont you understand"?
The morons are the ones that stayed, help them? of course this is America.
No one knew what track it would take Its a Hurrican NO ONE DOES!! A cat 1 approaching the coast if you live on the coast means leave!!
Many million dollar homes were destsoyed, No one expected Bolivar would get it as bad as it did. (did you) would you have advised them to stay?? A fool faces death and says "bring it on" when they have a chance to run.
Many are dead with your reasoning friend.
Ok Albert Patty, you are an exact example of what I consider an absolute moron who knows nothing about hurricanes.
First off, the hurricane of 1900 was a category 4 hurricane which today would probably wipe out all of Galveston and most of the Houston area. When you live on or near a coastal community you become very familiar with the category of hurricanes and what their level of damage and danger is predicted to do to your area. For example, hurricane Rita was projected to be a category 5 hurricane with a direct hit to Galveston. Because of the severity of this storm, mass evacuations were ordered for the entire Galveston, Houston, and surronding areas. We are talking about areas that are 150 miles inland trying to evacuate on the same freeways. Unfortunately, there were more people who died in that evacuation than from Rita itself. Secondly, when you try to scare people by saying things like "certain death", you had better mean it so people will take you seriously. Obviously if so many people stayed and the death toll is so low they did not face certain death. More people die in any given day from traffic accidents. "Certain Death" was just a media ploy to get people to watch the hurricane coverage. Although I am sure we do not know the exact death toll from this storm, right now the numbers are fairly low considering most of the deaths occured in areas that were not under mandatory evacuation orders.
"The death toll from Ike rose to 28, but many of those were far to the north of the Gulf Coast as the storm slogged across the nation's midsection, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction."(Foxnews.com, 9/15/0
We make choices everyday that are threatened to cause "certain death", such as unhealthy foods, smoking, and not exercising. I personally evacuated for this hurricane and we live 20 miles inland and were not in a mandatory evacuation zone. We were lucky and did not have any damage to our home even though we are surrounded by those who substained substantial damage. We know we would have been fine if we stayed during the hurricane but we were not willing to take that chance. We ignored our city leaders who told us it was safe to stay just as those who ignored their leaders who told them to leave. You are in charge of your own decisions even if those around you do not understand them. I am not sure about what the media coverage is showing in your area, but over here you see more people complaining about not having power, internet, or cable while they sit in their nondamaged home. I have yet to see people in Galveston who chose stay so they can pick up the pieces that are left of their homes and try to make sense of it all. Oh by the way you may not want to get out and drive on the roads today, you may face "certain death"! Go save the intelligence you have left and blog about something you know about!
Ok Albert Patty,
First off, the hurricane of 1900 was a category 4 hurricane which today would probably wipe out all of Galveston and most of the Houston area. When you live on or near a coastal community you become very familiar with the category of hurricanes and what their level of damage and danger is predicted to do to your area. For example, hurricane Rita was projected to be a category 5 hurricane with a direct hit to Galveston. Because of the severity of this storm, mass evacuations were ordered for the entire Galveston, Houston, and surronding areas. We are talking about areas that are 150 miles inland trying to evacuate on the same freeways. Unfortunately, there were more people who died in that evacuation than from Rita itself. Secondly, when you try to scare people by saying things like "certain death", you had better mean it so people will take you seriously. Although I am sure we do not know the exact death toll from this storm, right now the number of deaths occured mostly in areas that were not under mandatory evacuation orders.
"The death toll from Ike rose to 28, but many of those were far to the north of the Gulf Coast as the storm slogged across the nation's midsection, leaving a trail of flooding and destruction."(Foxnews.com, 9/15/0 More people die in any given day from traffic accidents.
I personally evacuated for this hurricane and we live 20 miles inland and were not in a mandatory evacuation zone. We ignored our city leaders who told us it was safe to stay just as those who ignored their leaders who told them to leave. You are in charge of your own decisions even if those around you do not understand them. Oh by the way you may not want to get out and drive on the roads today, you may face "certain death"! You seem like a fairy intelligent person but you should stick to blogging about things you know about!
Well Im Brave enough to post my name, I know of hurricans friend.I lived 40 miles inland of Galveston most my life. By your reasoning the folks on Bolivar were right for staying, I wonder how many are lost, and how many stayed on Gilchrest, That area wasent expected to get the brunt of the storm at all.
This was expected to be a cat 3 long b-4 friday.
Many are missing and you cant confirm a death on a missing person.
Any one that claims to know Hurricans is not to smart. They are unpridectable and can escelate 2 times in a few hours, This one stayed a 2 but grew in size. No one predicted that. it traveled 80 miles east of projected landfall in 24 rs no one predicted that.
If you wanna tell folks a cat 1 or 2 is safe (b-4 it hits)go for it. But I have seen them both fall and escelate just b-4 landfall as well as move along the coast with little weakening. The 1900 storm was barely a tropical storm when it left Cuba. A great example of thier unpredictableness.
You calling folks Morons is what's causing tension here. If you live on the coast on the Beach and stay in a cat 1 your taking your chances, Your neighbors house brakes loose smashes your house and your probaly gone also.
I lived in Downtown alvin when we had over 20 inches of rain in less than 24 hrs (still a world record) from a tropical depression. a storm surge from a cat 2 the size of ike is as bad as a smaller cat 3.
Maybe I misunderstand or your just trying to show how educated you are. But you seem to be advising folks in galveston that a cat 2 is no big deal. We will never know how many of those homes on gilchrest were occupied during this storm. I dont know if Gilchrest was under mandatory evacuation or not, But that just adds to my point. I wouldent stand infront of a speeding VW and say ohh its just a little car. I hope your not calling those that left morons cause it seems you did. I will say only a (using your word) Moron with a suicidal wish trys to predict a hurrican 15 hrs b-4 landfall while standing on the beach.
Ok Albert, let me explain my reasoning a little more throughly. I actually think we see eye to eye with evacuating for a hurricane. I evacuated for this huricane and tried encourage my friends in Alvin and Friendswood to evacuate too, however, they chose not to. If something had happened to them or their family during the storm because they chose to stay, I would never pull the I told you so dumb ass, I have no sympathy card after the storm. They had their reasons for not evacuating that were just as valid as my reasons for evacuating. Many of them were traumatized after evacuating during Rita. Several actually ended up evacuating to East TX and LA which in the end is where Rita actually hit. Some even had family members that died during the evacuation. I was actually surprised to read that you were local to the area. You were actually watching the same coverage of Ike before the storm as I was. Do you remember on the Wed before the storm, the mayor of Galveston announced that they would not be calling for evacuations for Ike because they projected the storm hitting Corpus? Do you remember on Thursday, Harris County actually announced mandatory evacuations before the mayor of Galveston did. I don't remember Texas City or Dickinson being in a mandatory evacuation zone, but communities in Houston, much further inland were. The city leaders did not make much sense when it came to the evacuation of this hurricane, therefor it does not surprise me that citizens of Galveston did not follow their leaders direction in the end. That does not mean that I don't think folks should evacuate for any hurricane coming their way, but that we should not shun them after the storm when they are powerless and need our help more than ever. I'm sure most of them do regret their decision to stay and have learned their lesson the hard way and do not need people telling them I told you so. So I am sorry I mistaken you for a moron who knows nothing about hurricanes, when in fact you probably know as much as I do. I am just surprised that you would be contributing to the bloggers who live in areas that are never effected by a huricanes and make statements like we should evacuate everyone on the Gulf Coast from LA to Galveston, which we both know would be impossible.
Thanks guy, This makes more sense, This was a pretty unpredictable storm 4 sure, I dont blame any one after the fact, But I cant imagine anyone staying on beachfront property, (Mandotory evacution or not) when a tropical anything is approaching. Thier are factors to staying of course, you know them, How far inland, whats the storm doing, sea wall protection vs open beach, High ground, brick structure, etc etc...
I belive the evacuation for galveston was called late but I wouldent blame the gov either, Folks just got to know what thier up agienst in a hurrican surge on open beaches.
ABC had a great post about a guy that ended up on pelican Island after the storm, what a nightmare.
There is a link on Abc with a missing person contact list, there are over 400 right now, Im sure some will be found in shelters but many will not and I am sure they were uneducated or just plain stubborn Beach dwellers. SAD
I totally agree with you. There was this one guy in surfside who was diagnosed with colon cancer before the storm and figured that if it was his time to go oh well. He rode the whole storm out on his 2nd story patio with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He was still there when the media came after the storm asking if they had brought him any beer. I just don't get it, but you're right it's definitely sad. I did not realize there were so many missing persons still. I'm surprised we don't see that on the news!
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