Post-Ike update
Here at my friend’s house in central Houston, we now have water, power and Internet access. That’s the good news. The bad news is that part of the ceiling at my place collapsed, making my condo uninhabitable. Take a look:
The condo complex itself also sustained heavy damage and remains without power.
Here and there, you can find gas and dry goods in Houston, but you’ll wait in long lines to buy them. And while the waters have receded and the weather is beautiful, allowing recovery to get underway, most of the city’s homes and businesses still lack electricity. Consequently, our commerce is disrupted, our schools are closed, our roads are hazardous and our residents are under curfew. Meanwhile, Galveston is changed forever.
What the people of the Texas Gulf coast are experiencing is no worse than what many victims of natural disasters have experienced. But that makes our community’s burden no lighter, and its recovery no speedier. It will be months until the nation’s fourth largest city is normal, and years until Ike is just an awful memory.