We Don't Like Ike

I had a lovely post about the trials and tribulations of finding a nanny (first requirement being no MySpace tongue ring photo on your nanny profile if you want any chance of being my child's nanny), but then Hurricane Ike came in and bitch slapped Houston, so I'll write about that instead.

We don't live in Galveston, or even the south part of Houston, so I know that things could be a lot worse, and my heart breaks for the people who lost everything in the storm. Our neighborhood had a lot of downed trees, which in our little part of the neighborhood isn't too bad, seeing as they leveled all the native 60-70 foot pine trees in our development before they started building. I guess there is a positive side of living on "the moon", as we put it. We lost our gate and our new landscaping is kind of shot to hell, but we consider ourselves very lucky. In other parts of our subdivision, the 60 foot majestic pines were snapped like twigs, or simply uprooted. They were on houses, IN houses, in pools, across roads, on power lines and through fences. House after house had a tree on or in the roof. Although we had monstrous amounts of rain, there were no real flooding issues in our neck of the woods, except the ones attributed to the shitty drainage in the neighborhood next to us. So all in all, we were really lucky. Down in Houston and Galveston, they weren't so lucky.

I could go on and on about the craptastic job I feel the mayor of Galveston did with calling the evacuation, but what's the point? I could also bitch about the people who made ridiculously stupid choices and required rescue, tying up resources that could have been used to help people that really needed it, but I won't. It will just piss me off.

For the people still in Houston and the surrounding areas, at this point, most everyone has no power. No power = no pumps at gas stations. The few gas stations that are open have lines that snake down the street and around the block. People are getting squirrely. Even if you CAN get gas, in areas of town that don't have debris-covered streets, there are no traffic signals, which make driving anywhere (even if you could find gas) a scary proposition. Add to that all the issues in our area of town concerning food, ice, supplies, heat, mosquitoes, and we decided enough was enough. We came to Austin last night when we learned that most of our county will be without power for two to four weeks.

I realize that I am whining about things that are really inconsequential in comparison to the devastation that Galveston and other coastal communities are dealing with. I may be bitching, because that's what I do best, but I realize just how incredibly lucky we are.

To find out how you can help, visit Texas Responds or Network for Good.