Kurt

I live a few blocks from the water. Yesterday, I was looking at a map in the local paper, pointing out where the risk areas are, and my neighborhood was included in the "moderate risk" zone for coastal flooding. I'm several blocks from a coastal estuary and tidal river that can overflow their banks in a heavy rain during a full moon, and the harbor/coast is just a short way beyond there.

A hurricane the size of Katrina or Rita would easily put areas of my (and neighboring) communities under water.

Mike near Brenham TX

My Oldhamii lost the tops of a few new culms, but nothing serious. Everything else should be OK. Thanks everyone, for the concern.

Kt

Here alone, in two separate incidences, gunshots were exchanged between evacuees over gasoline here in town. Even before this new Texas law, which makes it legal to carry a loaded gun in your vehicle(which, by the way, I think everyone here did anyway), no such thing ever happens like that in this small town. Crime happens, but not at that severe of a level. Most people here still settle things with the exchange of a few harsh words or maybe a fistfight at worst, but leave the tire irons, knives, and guns at home.

People fought over gasoline like hungry wolves over a dead rat. I know that people get desperate, and that tempers get tried, especially after spending 27 hours on the road and only driving 65 miles, but you would think they would be a bit more civil about things.

Another sad note, is of all of the pets that suffered. We are still hearing stories of all of the dogs, in particular, that died of heatstroke. In some cases they were inside campers, others were on back of pickups, and some in pet carriers. Yesterday, I drove 9 miles on I-10 toward Houston, and counted 39 cars on the side of the road that were abandoned from lack of gas, and 4 deceased dogs, at least that is all that I saw.

Evacuees were caught stealing gas from peoples yards/cars/lawnmowers. I saw people fighting over a garden hose to use to siphon gas with. I heard on the news yesterday, that tanker trucks, on their way back into Houston, were stopping and putting 5 gallons of gas in all of the abandoned cars on the side of the road. They left a note on the windshield stating that they did so, but right behind the tanker, came some of the returning evacuees, siphoning it right back out and putting it in their vehicles. Crazy, isn't it????

Hopefully, they will learn from this experience, and realize that there needs to be a more safe and organized plan of evacuation.

I could go on all night rambling about the stories of things that I saw and things that I have been told about the evacuees, and some are just unbelievable, but these people were desperate.

Sorry for the long rant on this, but I just thought people might like to know how wild it really got here.

To keep this post in order with this forum, once again, my Oldhamii took a hit from some of the dry winds here. The leaves got really dried out and both clumps have lost about half of their total leaves. Temperatures reached 111F in some areas here yesterday, and 109F today, although the official temps were around 102F.

The heat alone is not bad, but with the very high humidity, it makes it hard to breathe. That is why so many animals died from heatstroke. I have a hard time keeping up with watering. My mountain bamboos are looking really bad. Weird weather for this late in September.

Kt

I found this in The Book of Bamboo seems fitting...

Hold tight to Quiet and, of ten thousand things,
there's not one you won't handle.
I've seen them go back. Look:
whatever grows, goes back at last to its root.
Return to the root means "Quiet."
Quiet means accepting destiny.
Accepting destiny links us with "Always."
Knowing Always means "Lit Up."
Not knowing it means plunging darkly
from chaos to disaster.

--Lao Tzu

Probably doesn't translate well. There's your fortune cookie for the day. :)

I guess you can replace "four meals" with "one tankful of gas" etc etc.

All the best to all with damp feet. ;-)

It also took four armed officers of the law to help close one store. The owners tried to regulate how many people entered at a time, and they knew there was shoplifting going on, but once people just started taking things off the shelves and eating it right there, and drinking drinks and throwing all the garbage on the floor, and none of it being payed for, was when it got way out of control. It just became one big free-for-all here. Come and get it, what's yours, is mine...

Kt

Kt

Homes, vehicles, and businesses, were literally covered with garbage, and that is something that I can accept, since it can be picked up, but cars were keyed, for no apparent reason other than for the sake of vandalizm. The worst is all of the feces left in peoples yards and driveways of businesses. You would think they would at least go behind a tree or a bush and not smear it on peoples property or go on their front porches.

Urine on front doors of houses and on car windows is also something that I can't reason out. What kind of people do such things? I can't imagine a hurricane caused these actions, it has to be part of their psyche.

Our business parking lot, has room for up to 10 vehicles and we found at least seven diapers among the garbage. Other items of personal hygeine, that I won't mention, were also found among the broken glass and other garbage.

This uncontrolled littering of our driveway, and many others for that matter, all took place within a few feet of a half-filled city dumpster. Yes, I guess littering is not very high on the list of illegal actions, especially after stealing, trespassing, vandalism, and public urination, etc.

However, The Good News IS, that the two different kinds of bamboo that I have planted in our garden at work, were both untouched. Now THAT probably would have made me mad!! You can take a poo, but Don't Mess With My Boo.

Kt

Many of the evacuees got mad when people tried to close their doors and go home. They apparently wanted everyone to stay open all night, or let them sleep inside businesses throughout the city. Hardware stores, liquor stores, auto parts stores, beauty salons, and so on, and so on, were not made to house people over night. First of all, it is too easy to shoplift, which is what they were already doing in broad daylight and in plain veiw of the stores owners. When people tried to go home to their families, it became a free-for-all, at least in some cases, and that is when, in my opinion, they started with the feces/urination acts.

I talked to a friend of mine today that said she could not get into town to pick up her daughter last Thursday night since traffic was backed up several miles passed her driveway. She lives only a couple of miles out of town but off from the road a good ways, and when she did try to leave, she caught several people in her garage looking for gas.

Her husband couldn't get home to help her and police were already over worked and spread thin.

Since when does needing something, give people the right to trespass and take what they need? Hey, if Godzilla was coming up the road and stomping on everything and breathing fire, burning everything to a crisp, then I wouldn't have trouble understanding this situation, but there was still plenty of time to get where these people needed to go.

Just two miles out of town, three poor little old ladies' car broke down in the middle of the road. The driver was the only one who could walk very well, and she tried to get help for her two passengers, and no one would help. They hollered obsceneties at her as they passed by. Some driving through the ditch to get around them, and others throwing garbage out as they drove by. Civilized people?

Someone finally stopped after an estimated 40 minutes to help them cool down and push their car to the side of the road.

Every business owner that I have talked to so far, has had nothing but bad things to say. Hey, we tried, but it obviously wasn't good enough.

I have been in many many bad situations myself throughout the years, and have never, ever run into such a frenzy of uncontrollable people.

One last note, neighbouring towns were not quite as damaged as ours was. Other than Sealy, about 25 miles east of here, most towns did not have much of a problem. We must have been at the pinnacle of the uncontrolled madness. Being situated at the crossroads of two major highways is probably what brought the situation to a head in our town.

Kt

If you treat someone nicely, with a smile and with kindness, it will get you a lot further than bulldozing your way into town and taking what you need, without(in some cases) putting out an effort to ask nicely.

Most of the 'nicer' people were the ones who prepared and got out of town early. Those that waited, were unprepared, and left at the last possible moment, seemed to be the ones who were a problem to others. Most were probably of lower income households, and/or didn't have the means to leave early. I feel sorry for them in this aspect, but not when they think that everyone has to help them because they consider themselves less fortunate.

Spiros, the Houston stations had videos of the some of the fights and looting that took place there and in surrounding areas. They couldn't get here, other than by helicopter, to do any documentation. It seemed they were more involved with trying to make the hurricane come our way, as if they wanted it to, in order to have something to report, even when it was obvious that the hurricane was turning north. For a few days afterward, they did show dozens of the cars abandoned along the Interstate, and some spots where garbage was dumped and scattered around.

Our local weekly paper had some of the events that took place in it, but that was it. I talked to people in two more neighbouring towns, and they said it was not as bad as we had it here, so we seem to be, for the most part, an isolated case, as to how severe the unruley got here. As I mentioned above, the crossroads here made it a bottleneck, which added to an already out of control situation.

Kt