"Keith nuttle" wrote in message
...
Leon wrote:
The excitement could not be at a higher level, if you need proof of this
turn on the TV to any local Houston station and you will get 24 hour
around the clock coverage. We saw this during Rita 3 years ago and began
to see it last week. This week is different however, we are probably
going to have strong winds for the first time in 25 years.

For the last 48 hours we have witnessed "on the scene" reporters pointing
all the drastic changes that are starting to happen. Tides that would
normally be at a certain level are already 3 maybe 4 inches higher than
normal. With 105 mph winds this has become a "strong and dangerous"
storm as over the last 48 hours the winds have increased by 5 MPH! We
have been reminded over and over and over and over again what a Cat 5
storm could do although this one is barely a Cat 2 and expected to be a
Cat 1 at land fall. It could however magically be a CAT 4 if the media's
wishes come true. Hell, we are way behind everyone else in number of
storms, we need a bad one, we are due and we want what is due us. Oh!...
back to reality.

I cannot tell you how informative it is to see lines of people waiting
for buses to evacuate from Galveston Island. The news coverage there is
shockingly thorough. I have learned what a couple of teen age girls
think of the whole situation and that they are more behaved than the
reporters kids. I have learned just how important it is that a 10 year
old boy can take his little dog on the bus ride also. When asked for the
3rd or 4th time how important it was for him to be able to take his pooch
he finally came up with, "A Lot". And it only took 5 minutes to get the
answer that the reporter was apparently looking for.

Another exciting scene was from a street corner in Galveston where we all
witnessed cars going down the street in lighter than normal traffic.
Across the street we saw a boarded up fast food place and on our side of
the street we saw a Sonic that was open for business. An Exxon station
had cars filling up with gas! Oh! Be still my Heart!

If you were wondering, Home Depot has wood and generators, Good to know
and well worthy of round the clock coverage. I think I will run out to
Home Depot in a few minutes to pick up some stain and get in line.

Countless references and comparisons have been made of this storm to
Carla. Carla had its strong effects here 47 years ago and occasionally
there is a reference to the most recent storm Alicia, which hit here in
1983. To be honest with you I think we get snow more often than
hurricanes. Darn!

I know that soon we will have the relief of seeing our local reporters
changing over into their Kmart approved Alaskan King Crab fisherman gear
to weather the first sprinkles of precipitation preceding the storm. It
goes with out saying that all of them will be go out to the water to
stand ankle deep in water and describe how "treacherous" the water is.
They will point out that the water goes up and down the coast line as far
as the eye can see.
As the storm nears the reporters will seamlessly go in to "wind reporting
mode". Your apparently cannot really get a grasp of how windy it is
unless you watch a reporter do his thing, or go outside your self. Yes
the reporters put on a good show and it keeps your attention as you look
for the remote to find another channel. "Its really beginning to pick
up" yells the reporter, I can hardly stand up in the wind, watch me
squat and lean in to the breeze that is hardly strong enough to blow my
pony tails or my loose fitting cap. During this interesting display you
see a family of 4 from Oklahoma enjoying the beach in the back ground.
And for those of you that don't get out much there are countless shots of
boats tied up at the docks. I was surprised to notice that there were no
cars tied up at the docks.

ANY WAY...... I have personally been through 4 hurricanes in my 54
years, my first 3 were in Corpus Christi before I was 15 years old.
Houston has had 1 storm since, and I was in it also. My third storm in
Corpus Christi started out as a lot of fun as I leaned at an angle into
the early winds in our front yard, 3 hours later I believed that my
family and I would be killed. As we stick our heads out the front door
for the first time there was nothing quite like seeing an entire complete
roof sitting in our front yard and blocking the street. It came from the
house across the street . Looking to the left the apartment complex 1
block away is all but gone. Looking right and 3 houses down more houses
with walls but no roofs. All of these homes and the apartment complex
were less than 6 years old. That was 38 years ago and it still seems
like yesterday.
Typically a hurricane brings a lot of wide spread and varying degree of
destruction and for probably 90% of the people that experience one there
is not much to talk about except the reporters on TV. The loss of
electricity is typically the biggest problem to the majority.
Occasionally a storm is terrible beyond a reporters wildest expectations.
More often a storm is built up to be more terrible that it turns out to
be. IMHO reporters basically do a disservice to the community. They
let their excitement get in the way of facts. They scare most into a
panic with exaggerated adjectives that simply are not true. If the
reporters were to ever once experience a storm that is terrible I highly
suspect that they would cover their next storm from a few hundred miles
inland.


We went through the Hurricanes that hit Wilmington North Carolina in the
late 1990's.

We found it amusing to watch the reporters show the sea grass and discuss
how hard the wind was blowing. One of the favorite spot to show how bad
the flooding was, was to show pictures of an area of the county that
flooded in a heavy dew.

Another thing was the reporters who would go out on the areas of
Wrightsville Beach, which are only marginally suitable for building houses
in normal times, and show how the ocean was eroding the beach and
threatening the buildings.

I believe the highest spot in the county is only 24 feet above sea level.

I thing the solution to damage in hurricane comes from the bible. If you
build you house on the sand expect the wind and wave to wash it away. If
you build on a rock (Or high ground) you are not going to have a problem
in a hurricane with winds.

I live inland in an area hit by the remains of a hurricane in 1954, the wind
was not bad but it rained for several days straight after a week of earlier
rain, causing floods. Roads were damaged, trailer parks washed out and
houses were damaged. After that episode, the government declared ALL areas
that were flooded were to become permanent flood zone with no building was
to be ever allowed on the lands. It remains that way today. The flood zones
are all parks. Plus we have never had a repeat of the earlier hurricane
floods.

Why do other governments forget the past and allow houses to be built in
unsafe areas?