Immigrant Workers and Post IKE

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chicagotribune.com
September 22, 2008

Immigration debate takes back seat as Southeast Texas looks to Latinos in rebuilding from Ike

By MONICA RHOR and PETER PRENGAMAN

Associated Press Writers
PASADENA, Texas (AP) _ All along the Texas coast, Latino immigrants are hauling away fallen trees, slashing through storm-tangled brush, patching punctured roofs.

On working-class corners, on ladders in front of Victorian houses, in the yards of ornate mansions, crews of men in dusty jeans, sturdy workboots and baseball caps are nearly as omnipresent in the post-Hurricane Ike landscape as blue tarps on rooftops.

These workers, who get picked up off the street by homeowners looking for quick, cheap labor, are helping to rebuild the devastated cities of southeast Texas.

Many of them are here illegally. Others are legal residents in need of income after their regular jobs were disrupted by the hurricane.

Ike brought a wide swath of destruction, and with it the prospect of more work, higher wages and a respite from the ever-present threat of deportation. In recent months, many day laborers say, jobs in the Houston area had started to dry up, and police and immigration officials had been cracking down.

"There's more work now," Teodoro Alvarado, 20, said Friday in Spanish as he stood on a corner in the gritty Houston suburb of Pasadena where day laborers regularly wait for work. "And I hope more work comes."

There's reason to believe it will: After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of Latino immigrants streamed to New Orleans for jobs in construction, carpentry and cleanup.

Since Ike struck Sept. 13, Gerardo Hernandez has been getting jobs lifting trees off driveways and houses, but he usually works as a roofer. A drive through the quaint bayside community of Kemah, where the hurricane lifted the roofs off dozens of boardwalk restaurants and private homes, made him confident there'd be need for his services.

"In the weeks that come, as people get insurance money, I think there will be more work," Hernandez, a Mexican immigrant who has been in this country four years, said in Spanish.

Along with the promise of fresh jobs, there are fears of abuse and exploitation of workers, and rumors that immigration officials will be poised at job sites to arrest the undocumented. After Katrina, many Latino workers in New Orleans reported cases of unsafe working conditions and employers who cheated them out of money earned.

"These people are going to be getting work, but they will also be the most exploited," said Annica Gorham, director of the Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center, which helps day laborers who have been cheated of wages, injured on the job or working in unsafe conditions. "Day laborers are some of the most vulnerable workers here and across the county."

In Houston, as in dozens of other U.S. cities, several police departments in the area have started to turn over undocumented immigrants for deportation. There have also been highly publicized workplace raids by federal agents, including one in June where 160 workers at a cluttered rag factory were arrested.

But this city's immigrants, who help make up the country's second-largest population of day laborers after that of Los Angeles, also provide a ready-made work force for the massive cleanup and rebuilding efforts.

"There are plenty of people asking for help," said Marco Ramirez, 50, a contractor who normally has a five-man crew. Since Ike, Ramirez has had to hire extra workers and will likely need more. All, including Ramirez, are Latino immigrants.

"The immigrant people, the Latinos, are the ones who really do the job," said Ramirez, who spoke outside a sprawling home where his men were using chain saws and chains to cut through fallen trees and splintered branches. "We are going to put the city back together."

Even in Houston, a city long known as friendly toward undocumented immigrants, many people see the use of such workers as nothing more than a shortcut around the country's labor laws.

In the storm's aftermath, however, Mayor Bill White said homeowners need to find help where they can.

"I like to see people doing it, rather than letting debris pile up and people not getting roofs fixed," said White, who has a reputation for welcoming immigrants.

Early on most mornings last week, many of the more than two dozen spots in Houston where day laborers gather had been swept clean by contractors and homeowners looking for workers. Most are paid about $8 to $10 an hour to install wallboard, clear driveways and yards, or repair roofs. So far, workers said, wages had not increased much from pre-Ike rates.

At a Home Depot in southeast Houston, where as many as 100 day laborers gathered well before dawn Friday to wait for work, dozens of men from Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador stood on the periphery of a parking lot.

Every few minutes, the drivers of cars, pickup trucks and SUVs would pull up and signal to the waiting men. It took mere seconds for the workers to converge on a vehicle, negotiate a price and jump inside.

The men left behind were both encouraged by the signs of burgeoning work and worried about the possibility of dishonest employers and immigration roundups.

"We're just looking for steady work to support our families," 45-year-old Antonio Velasquez, whose wife and nine children remain in El Salvador, said in Spanish.

When things are going well, Velasquez sends his family $500 a month. Lately, he barely has enough to cover his own expenses.

Velasquez protects himself from wage theft by only working for employers who pay at the end of the day.

"Un dia trabajado es un dia pagado," he said, quoting a refrain often used by day laborers: A day's pay for a day's work.

Stories of widespread employer abuse and wage theft following Katrina have left immigrants wary of accepting long-term jobs in other locations.

On Friday morning, the driver of a bus looking for a crew to work for a week in the Galveston area, saying the pay would come at week's end. He got few takers.

"They need us, but they also take advantage of us," said Alex Yovani, 26, a Honduran immigrant who also worked in Louisiana after Katrina. "Without us, how would they build Houston again? Without the work of our hands, there would be no way to move forward."

As Yovani spoke, homeowner Dale Emion eased his pickup close to the circle of men. It was immediately surrounded by over a dozen day laborers.

"I need two and will pay $7 an hour to clean up around my house," Emion said.

"You gonna give lunch?" asked one man in broken English.

Emion shook his head. No one got in the truck, but the men didn't walk away, either.

"OK. I'll pay $8," said Emion.

Two men got in the cab of the truck.

"I just need them to clean up my house," Emion said. "Where else am I going to find workers?"

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Hurricanes and deaths in the family

Hurricane IKE really slowed down our blogging.  For a few days neither one of us had electricity.  Then I had a death in the family and had to go to San Antonio - returning for a day to then leave for Washington DC (for an academic conference).  I was one of the co-chairs of the conference, so there wasn't much time for me to blog.... seems like forever.

Life is like that.  Things happen.  And sometimes, there is so much muddle in your mind you can't think straight enough to write a decent post.  That is why lots of our recent posts have just been articles.

I am home now.  Things are kind of normal again, at least for us.  I understand that there are still over 1 million people without electricity in the Houston area.  We didn't lose any trees.  We have five crepe myrtles that are about 100 years old, their roots were so deep, maybe that helped them stay in the ground.  We were lucky.

When I left for DC the plane was nearly empty.  I had a whole row to myself.  It seemed strange.  I hadn't seen such an empty plane in years and years.  Returning was different... the plane was totally full.  There were lots of people with children.  I heard people on cell phones talking about not knowing if they had electricity at home.  There was a concerned look on the faces of many.

Friday night (19th) I received a phone call from an old friend -  we talked about the death of my family member... then my friend told me a story that came from a Houston fireman, that there are many many bloated bodies in Galveston.  That a family of 19 was found among the debris - all tied together, with their social security numbers written on their legs.  Today the Houston Chronicle said it wasn't true... yet some of the comments mention police officers talking about deaths on the west end of Galveston, emergency personnel reporting 40+ deaths in San Leon.  Most comments are ridiculing those who believe there could be more deaths but local governments are keeping it quiet.  Well, I would be doubtful too, but after the malicious story of "weapons of mass destruction" from our own president, vice-president, our venerable Secretary of State (Colin Powell) and many other national leaders, I realized that governmental leaders are capable of any kind of falsehood.

Post IKE: Will ICE Go After Undocumented who seek services?

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Undocumented workers fear asking for help after Ike
Many have lost everything but won't seek aid
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 19, 2008, 10:57PM

GALVESTON — Elmer Martinez, 22, lost all his possessions in Hurricane Ike's storm surge. The restaurant where he worked is closed, and it may be weeks before he finds another job.

That would make him like many Galveston residents, except for one important distinction: He is one of several thousand illegal immigrants living in a post-storm limbo, afraid they will be discovered by the squads of law enforcement officers now patrolling the streets and guarding the causeway entrance.

Some of the undocumented immigrants are hesitant to leave the island, worrying they will not be allowed back. While they wait for work to resume, the financial assistance for housing and personal losses offered by government agencies is not available since they lack valid U.S. identity documents.

ICE reassurance
Many would like to remain and work on what will surely be an extensive rebuilding effort along the length of the storm-ravaged island beginning when residents return sometime next week. Hundreds, if not thousands of homes, restaurants and office buildings will have to be gutted, and new Sheetrock installed and plaster and paint applied.

''I don't have papers, and it will be hard to stay," said Martinez, who sends home much of his wages to support five younger siblings in Guatemala. ''Since the storm, with no papers, you remain in your house. You're afraid you'll be deported."

The fear of deportation is pervasive in the immigrant community in Galveston despite public assurances by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, and local and county officials, that no enforcement operations are under way.

''We're not enforcing any immigration laws in the city. We don't have time for that," said Galveston Police Chief Charles Wiley. ''As long as they're not violating other laws, we don't have the resources to enforce immigration laws."

County Judge James D. Yarbrough said officers are not inquiring about immigration status at the entrance to the causeway or other checkpoints in the city.

City officials do not know exactly how many illegal immigrants live in Galveston, a city of 58,000 residents where roughly a third of the population is Hispanic, said public information officer Alicia Cahill.

''We don't have an official number, but an estimate would be 2,000 or fewer," she said.

Galveston residents receiving food, water and ice at distribution centers are not required to show proof of residence or identity, she added.

On Friday, Martinez was helping Bogar Nava and his two sisters clean out their flooded home off 57th Street. Mold was already evident on the walls of the soaked wood-frame house. Only the sodden clothes, airing on the chain-link fence, seemed salvageable.

''We lost everything, absolutely everything," said Nava, a 38-year-old Mexico City native who followed his older sister to Galveston five years ago. ''What we're doing is trying to save the little we could find, but really, it's been nothing — just clothes.

None of the family members have work documents, but all have at least one or sometimes two or three jobs.

Avoiding FEMA
By mid-morning Friday, Nava had drained water from the engine of a green Dodge Neon and got it running. As he turned to work on two other flooded cars, landlord Paul Zendeh-del arrived with water and other supplies.

He embraced Nava's sisters, and told them his own house had been flooded.

''These are very good people, and they're hard-working — some work two or three jobs, and their kids go to school here," Zendeh-del said.

The landlord said many immigrants, even those here lawfully, are reluctant to ask for help from FEMA and other agencies.

''They get scared to go and ask for help because the National Guard is out there," Zendeh-del said.

for link to article click here

Hurricane IKE: Services for Houston-Galveston Area Citizens & Legal Residents

DREAMers & other undocumented residents need not apply

Too bad this is only for people with social security numbers.  I guess only citizens are considered needy enough for support.  

Thursday September 18, 2008

Notice:

of a service being organized by Congressman Nick Lampson. In order to provide assistance to those affected by Hurricane Ike, a mobile congressional office will be opening today, September 18, 2008, at American Legion Post 490 located at 11702 Galveston Rd.(State Hwy 3), Houston, TX 77034 (across from Ellington Field).

The facility will be open from 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM and affected residents will be able to report claims of hurricane damage with FEMA, request loans from the Small Business Administration, and begin the process of receiving funds to repair damage. This truck will provide 225 laptop computers with internet connectivity and 225 cell phones. Congressman Lampson's staff will be on hand to help you through the FEMA claims process.

I encourage you to tell your friends and family throughout the Houston area about the availability of this mobile office. Many victims of Hurricane Ike are being told to call or go online to register claims, which is not possible in some areas due to lack of electricity. Please take advantage of this invaluable resource.



Please make sure to bring the following items to the mobile office:

- Social Security Number

- Description of losses caused by disaster

- Insurance information

- Directions to the damaged property

- A telephone number where you can be contacted



Helpful phone numbers and websites for affected residents:

If you need immediate assistance, call the Red Cross at 211 or Texas Operations Center at 512-424-2208.

For a comprehensive overview of the state's activity related to Hurricane Ike response and recovery, please visit the Hurricane Center on the governor's website at: http://governor.state.tx.us/hurricane/.

At the state's request, federal transitional housing assistance is now available to those Texas evacuees with inaccessible or uninhabitable homes. The list of approved hotels/motels can be found at: http://femaevachotels.com/. Please note that the number of approved hotels/motels is constantly being updated. To register for transitional housing assistance, visit http://www.fema.gov/ or call FEMA toll free at 1-800-621-3362 or 1-800-462-7585.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas has launched a feature on its website to allow customers to check power outages by entering their utility provider and zip code at: http://www.puc.state.tx.us/files/ike.cfm.

Texas residents who have been displaced by Hurricane Ike who evacuated to another state may call 1-877-541-7905 to reach the Texas 2-1-1 network and obtain information on how and where to apply for food stamp benefits or seek additional assistance.

For price gouging please call 1-800-621-0500 for the Texas Attorney Generals office. For instances of gas gouging please call 800-244-3301.

Texas residents displaced by Hurricane Ike who evacuated to another area of Texas may call 2-1-1 from any Texas landline or Texas cell phone to obtain information on how and where to apply for food stamp benefits or seek additional assistance.

BIG Hurricanes & Global Warming

see dreamacttexas post:   After IKE:  alive and well in Houston , September 15, 2008

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Storm Warning
Smithsonian Magazine
September, 2006, Sep2006, Vol. 37, Issue 6
by Madeleine J. Nash

Is global warming to blame for the intensity of recent Atlantic hurricanes?

While experts debate that question, they agree that more devastating tempests are headed our way

PLUNGING THROUGH A STAND OF POISON IVY, Jeffrey Donnelly wades into Oyster Pond and begins assembling a crude raft. He and two colleagues lash a piece of plywood on top of two aluminum canoes and push off, paddling their makeshift catamaran toward a fringe of scrub bordering this brackish pond in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Donnelly whips out a hand-held GPS receiver and takes a reading. "This is the place," he says. After setting out a web of anchors, the team settles into hours of monotonous labor. They push long pipes through nearly 25 feet of tea-colored water into thick layers of sediment below. The moans of foghorns drift in from Vineyard Sound, and mist rises and falls like a scrim.

"One, two, three!" Donnelly brings up a five-foot-long core of sediment encased in transparent plastic. "Look!" he whoops, pointing to a thick deposit of yellowish sand bracketed by black-brown pond muck. "That's a hurricane!"

Donnelly, a geologist and paleoclimatologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has been prowling the lakes and marshes that dot the New England coastline for nearly a decade, assembling a record of hurricanes going back hundreds of years. The record takes the form of sand washed inland by monstrous storm surges.

What Donnelly is staring at now may be the gritty calling card of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, which lifted up a dome of water 20 feet high as it slashed its way from Long Island to Cape Cod with Katrina-class force, leaving at least 680 people dead and tens of thousands homeless. Or perhaps the sand is from the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635, which ravaged the fledgling Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, or the Great September Gale of 1815, which put Providence, Rhode Island, under more than ten feet of water.

Hurricanes that intense may not threaten Northeastern states as often as they do Louisiana, Florida or the Carolinas, but they aren't as rare as the people living along the coastline from Virginia to Maine might like to think. The sediment cores Donnelly has collected indicate that devastating hurricanes have slammed into the Northeastern seaboard at least nine times in the past seven centuries.

Understanding hurricane history takes on new urgency in the wake of the worst hurricane season on record. In 2005, the Atlantic basin produced more tropical storms, 28, and more full-blown hurricanes, 15, than any year in at least the past half century. Last year, memorable for its four major hurricanes, could also lay claim to three of the six strongest storms on record. And as bad as it was, the 2005 season was just an exclamation point in a decade-long hurricane onslaught, which will end--well, scientists can't agree on when, or even whether, it will end.

That's because late last year, around the time Hurricane Katrina stormed ashore in Mississippi, climate scientists were engaged in an urgent debate. According to one group, the increasing intensity of Atlantic storms comes from a natural climate cycle that causes sea surface temperatures to rise and fall every 20 to 40 years. According to another group, it comes from human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. (So far, no one has linked the number of hurricanes to global warming.) In the first scenario, the fever in the Atlantic might not break for another decade or more; in the second, it might last for the rest of this century and beyond.

Evidence from sediment cores collected by Donnelly and others hints that long before industrial activity began pumping the air full of heat-trapping gases, particularly carbon dioxide, naturally occurring climate shifts influenced hurricane activity, either by changing wind patterns that steer hurricanes toward or away from land, or by altering the frequency and intensity of the storms themselves. Cores collected by Louisiana State University geographer Kam-biu Liu from four Gulf Coast lakes and marshes, for example, show that major hurricanes struck that region three to five times more often between 3,500 and 1,000 years ago than in the ten centuries since. Donnelly, for his part, has pieced together a similar record in Vieques, Puerto Rico; there, the active hurricane pattern starts 2,500 years ago and ends 1,500 years later. But, Donnelly cautions, these are just a few scattered jigsaw pieces. "We have to collect a lot more pieces in order to put the puzzle together." And that is why he's out in the middle of Oyster Pond, coring his way through time.

I AM TO MEET DONNELLY the next morning at his lab. As a strong thunderstorm rolls through, Donnelly pedals in on a mountain bike looking like a sopping wet Power Ranger. Inside a cavernous room, chockablock with tools, the first core is standing on end, giving the slurry in the topmost foot or so a chance to settle. On the floor lie two long cores in aluminum pipes.

Using a hacksaw, Donnelly cuts the cores into shorter lengths, then uses a table saw to slice them in half lengthwise. Water puddles onto the floor, and we smell rotten eggs--hydrogen sulfide produced by microbes that live within the pond's deep, dark pockets of organic debris. Donnelly opens one of the cores, and I can see a sequence of sandy strips, the spoor of ancient hurricanes.

Later Donnelly takes me into a walk-in refrigerator filled with core samples from some 60 sites stretching from the Yucatán Peninsula to the Lesser Antilles and from the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Cod. In a few years, he says, he hopes to have enough data to put the present-and the future--into broader perspective. But he can't do that yet.

The control box for the earth's climate machine, he muses, has many knobs, and scientists are only beginning to identify the ones that dial the awesome power of hurricanes up and down. "The point is, we know the knobs are there," Donnelly says, and if the natural system can tweak them, so can human beings. It's a thought I hold onto as I prepare to dive into the maelstrom of the debate over hurricanes and global warming.

WHEN CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS arrived in the New World, he heard its native inhabitants speak fearfully of the storm god they called Jurakan. On his fourth voyage, in 1502, the Italian explorer and his ships weathered a hurricane that destroyed much of the settlement his brother Bartolomeo had founded six years earlier at Nueva Isabela, later rechristened Santo Domingo. "The storm was terrible," Christopher Columbus wrote, "and on that night the ships were parted from me." His ships reassembled afterward, but some 25 other ships in a fleet launched by the governor of Hispaniola foundered in wind-frenzied seas.

The scientific study of hurricanes leapt forward in 1831, when William Redfield, a self-taught meteorologist trained as a saddler, finally grasped their nature. In an article published in the American Journal of Science, Redfield described patterns of damage wrought by a powerful storm that had swept through New England ten years earlier, after passing directly over the New York metropolitan area. In one part of Connecticut, he noted, trees appeared to have been blown down by southwesterly winds; in another part, by winds from nearly the opposite direction. Redfield nailed down the rotary nature of a hurricane's eye wall, a churning cylinder of wind circling a calm center...

continued

for link to entire Smithsonian article click here

II BIG Hurricanes & Global Warming

continued:

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Storm Warning
Smithsonian Magazine
September, 2006, Sep2006, Vol. 37, Issue 6
by Madeleine J. Nash


...A systematic effort to understand these storms dates to 1898, when President William McKinley directed what was then the U.S. Weather Bureau to expand its rudimentary network for hurricane warnings. The impetus was the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. "I am more afraid of a . . . hurricane than I am of the entire Spanish Navy," McKinley reportedly said. In 1886, a record seven hurricanes hit the U.S. coast; one completely destroyed the thriving port city of Indianola, Texas. The year 1893 was almost as bad; six hurricanes hit the United States. One came ashore near Savannah, Georgia, overwhelming the low-lying Sea Islands off the South Carolina coast; another devastated the island of Cheniere Caminanda off the Louisiana coast. In those two storms alone, 4,500 lives were lost.

Over the next half century, forecasters relying on observations of winds and pressure taken by an expanding network of ship and ground-based weather stations struggled to provide hurricane warnings to vulnerable populations. They often failed. In 1900, a hurricane burst upon the unsuspecting citizens of Galveston, Texas, killing 8,000 to 12,000. In 1938, people stood along Long Island's Westhampton Beach marveling at what they thought was an approaching fog bank, only to realize, too late, that it was the storm-seized ocean heaving up. Twenty-nine people died.

World War II propelled hurricane science into the modern era. In July 1943, Army Air Forces pilot Joseph B. Duckworth--on a dare, it is said--flew through the eye of a hurricane as it neared the Texas coast; he did it again a couple of hours later as weather officer First Lt. William Jones-Burdick took measurements at 7,000 feet, inside the storm's eye. In February 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff approved the first of a series of hurricane missions by Army and Navy aircraft. Later that year, military planes gave chase to a storm that came to be known as the Great Atlantic Hurricane, following it as it roared up the East Coast, taking aim at New England. All along the storm's path, radio newscasters blared out warnings. Of 390 deaths, all but 46 occurred at sea.

After the war, the U.S. Weather Bureau--renamed the National Weather Service in 1970--established a formal program of hurricane research. To study these formidable whirlwinds, flights continued to transport scientists through turbulent eye walls and the eerie stillness of the eye itself. In the 1960s, earth-orbiting satellites began providing even higher observational platforms. Since then, forecasters have progressively narrowed "the cone of uncertainty," the teardrop-shaped blob that surrounds their best predictions of where a hurricane is likely to go. At 48 hours, track forecasts are now "off" on average by just 118 miles; at 24 hours, by less than 65 miles, both significant improvements over 15 years ago. Despite these advances, hurricanes undergo sudden surges in power that are easy to spot once they start but dauntingly hard to predict.

LIKE A GIANT BUMBLEBEE, the P-3 Orion buzzes in from Biscayne Bay, dipping a wing as it passes the compact concrete building that houses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Miami-based Hurricane Research Division. The plane, a modification of the submarine hunters built in the 1960s for the U.S. Navy, is one of two that fly scientists in and out of some of the planet's mightiest storms, including Hurricane Katrina as its engorged eye neared landfall.

Among those on that flight was research meteorologist Stanley Goldenberg, whose third-floor office looks, appropriately enough, as if a hurricane just blew through it. Goldenberg is well acquainted with hurricanes blowing though. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew demolished his family's rented house in Perrine, Florida. A computer-enhanced satellite image of the hurricane, with its monstrous circular eye wall, now hangs on his wall. "The bagel that ate Miami," he quips.

Hurricanes belong to a broad class of storms known as tropical cyclones, which also occur in the Indian and Pacific oceans. They do not develop spontaneously but grow out of other disturbances. In the Atlantic, most evolve out of "African waves," unstable kinks in the atmosphere that spiral off the West African coast and head toward Central America. Along the way, these atmospheric waves generate ephemeral clusters of thunderstorm-producing clouds that can seed hurricanes.

At the same time, hurricanes are much more than collections of thunderstorms writ large; they stand out amid the general chaos of the atmosphere as coherent, long-lasting structures, with cloud towers that soar up to the stratosphere, ten miles above the earth's surface. The rise of warm, moist air through the chimney-like eye pumps energy into the developing storm.

Ocean warmth is essential--hurricanes do not readily form over waters cooler than about 79 degrees Fahrenheit-but the right temperature is not enough. Atmospheric conditions, such as dry air wafting off the Sahara, can cause hurricanes--along with their weaker cousins, tropical storms and depressions--to falter, weaken and die. Vertical wind shear-the difference between wind speed and direction near the ocean's surface and at 40,000 feet--is another formidable foe. Among the known regulators of vertical wind shear is El Niño, the climate upheaval that alters weather patterns around the globe every two to seven years. During El Niño years, as Colorado State University tropical meteorologist William Gray was first to appreciate, high-level westerlies over the tropical North Atlantic increase in strength, ripping developing storms apart. In 1992 and 1997, both El Niño years, only six and seven tropical storms formed, respectively, or a quarter of the number in 2005. (Then again, Goldenberg observes, the devastating Hurricane Andrew was one of the 1992 storms.)

For years, Goldenberg notes, scientists have been pondering why the number of Atlantic hurricanes varies from year to year, even though roughly the same number of African waves move out over the ocean each year. What accounts for the difference? El Niño explains some, but not all, of the variance. By combing through the historical record and more recent recordings from scientific instruments, Gray, along with Goldenberg's colleague Christopher Landsea, has found another pattern: hurricanes in the Atlantic march to a slowly alternating rhythm, with the 1880s and 1890s very active, the early 1900s comparatively quiescent, the 1930s through 1960s again active, 1970 through 1994 quiescent again.

Five years ago, a possible explanation for this pattern emerged. Goldenberg shows me a graph that plots the number of major hurricanes--Category 3 or higher--that spin up each year in the Atlantic's main hurricane development region, a 3,500-mile-long band of balmy water between the coast of Senegal and the Caribbean basin. Between 1970 and 1994, this region produced, on average, less than half the number of major hurricanes that it did in the decades before and after. Goldenberg then hands me a second graph. It shows a series of jagged humps representing the Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation, a swing of sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic that occurs every 20 to 40 years. The two graphs seem to coincide, with the number of major hurricanes falling as waters cooled around 1970 and rising as they began warming about 1995...

continued

for link to complete Smithsonian article click here

III BIG Hurricanes & Global Warming

continued:

Storm Warning
Smithsonian Magazine
September, 2006, Sep2006, Vol. 37, Issue 6
by Madeleine J. Nash


Scientists have yet to nail down the cause of the multi-decadal oscillation, but these striking ups and downs in surface temperatures appear to correlate--somehow--with hurricane activity. "You can't just heat up the ocean by 1 degree Celsius and Pow! Pow! Pow! get more hurricanes," says Goldenberg. More critical, he thinks, are atmospheric changes--more or less wind shear, for example--that accompany these temperature shifts, but what comes first? "We still don't know which is the chicken and which is the egg," he says. "The ocean tends to warm when the trade winds get weaker, and the trade winds can get weaker if the ocean warms. Will we lock it down? Maybe someday."

After leaving Goldenberg's office, I drive across town to the National Hurricane Center, a low-lying bunker whose roof bristles with satellite dishes and antennae. Inside, as computer monitors rerun satellite images of Katrina's savage waltz toward the Gulf Coast, top National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials have gathered to announce the agency's best estimate of how many tropical storms and hurricanes are likely to form in 2006. It's not an encouraging forecast: eight to ten hurricanes, fewer than last year, but four to six of them Category 3s or higher. (Last year there were seven.) The predictions are based, in large part, on the multi-decadal oscillation. "The researchers are telling us that we're in a very active period for major hurricanes," says Max Mayfield, the center's director, "one that will probably last at least 10 to 20 more years."

FROM HIS 16TH-FLOOR OFFICE on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, meteorologist Kerry Emanuel commands a crow's-nest view of the esplanade along the Charles River, the dividing line between Boston and Cambridge. In 1985, he remembers, the windows wept with spray blown up from the river by Hurricane Gloria, a moderately strong storm that, nonetheless, made a mess of the Northeast. A painting by a Haitian artist that shows people and animals drowning in a storm surge hangs on a wall near his desk.

Last year, right after Katrina hit, Emanuel found himself in the media spotlight. A few weeks earlier he had published evidence in the journal Nature that hurricanes in both the North Atlantic and the western basin of the North Pacific had undergone a startling increase in power over the past half century The increase showed up in both the duration of the storms and their peak wind speeds. The cause, Emanuel suggested, was a rise in tropical sea surface temperatures due, at least in part, to the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Even scientists who would expect hurricanes to intensify in response to greenhouse warming were stunned by Emanuel's suggestion that global warming has already had a profound effect. Computer simulations of a warming world, notes climate modeler Thomas Knutson of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, suggest that by the end of this century, peak sustained wind speeds could increase by around 7 percent, enough to push some Category 4 hurricanes into Category 5 territory But Knutson, along with many others, did not think that the intensity rise would be detectable so soon--or that it might be five or more times larger than he and his colleagues anticipated. "These are huge changes," Knutson says of Emanuel's results. "If true, they may have serious implications. First we need to find out if they're true."

Emanuel's paper raised the ante in what has grown into an extremely intense debate over the sensitivity of the earth's most violent storms to gases spewed into the atmosphere by human beings. In the months since the dispute began, dozens of other studies have been reported, some of which support Emanuel's conclusions, others of which call them into question. The debate has grown so impassioned that some former colleagues now scarcely speak to one another.

As Emanuel sees it, sea surface temperatures are important because they tweak a fundamental dynamic that controls hurricane intensity. After all, storm clouds form because the ocean's heat warms the overlying air and pumps it full of moisture. And the warmer the air is, the more vigorous its rise. For their part, Emanuel's critics, Goldenberg and Landsea among them, don't utterly discount ocean warmth. They just put far more emphasis on other factors like wind shear as the main determinants of storm intensity.

Sorting out the differences between the two camps is not easy Goldenberg and Landsea, for example, grant that greenhouse gases may be contributing to a slight long-term rise in sea surface temperatures. They just don't think the effect is significant enough to trump the natural swings of the Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation. "It's not simply, yes or no, is global warming having an effect?" says Landsea, the science and operations officer for the National Hurricane Center. "It's how much of an effect is it having?"

Emanuel, while respectful of Landsea, is not backing down. In fact, he has now stirred up a second storm. "If you'd asked me a year ago," Emanuel says, "I would have probably told you that a lot of the variability in hurricane activity was due to the Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation. I've now come to the conclusion that the oscillation either doesn't exist at all or, if it does, has no perceptible influence on the temperature of the tropical Atlantic in the late summer and fall"--that is, in hurricane season.

Emanuel says that much of the cooling in the tropical North Atlantic in the 1970s can be traced to atmospheric pollutants, specifically to a haze of sulfurous droplets spewed out by volcanoes and industrial smokestacks. Global climate modelers have recognized for years that this haze in the atmosphere acts as a sunshade that cools the earth's surface below. Emanuel says that now that this form of air pollution is on the wane (and this is a good thing for all sorts of reasons having nothing to do with hurricanes), the warming influence of greenhouse gas pollution, and its effect on hurricanes, is growing ever more pronounced. "We will have some quiet [hurricane] years," he says. "But unless we have a really big volcanic eruption, we'll never see another quiet decade in the Atlantic in our lifetime or that of our children."

Is such a grim prediction warranted? Scientists on the periphery of the debate aren't yet sure. For now, says meteorologist Hugh Willoughby of Florida International University, the points of agreement among experts are more important than the differences. Whether a natural oscillation or greenhouse warming is to blame, the odds of a major hurricane striking the U.S. coastline are higher than they have been for more than a generation. And the dangers such storms pose are higher than ever...

for link to complete Smithsonian article click here

IV- BIG Hurricanes & Global Warming

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issue/September_2006.html
...
I drive down Brickell Avenue, the heart of Miami's financial district, past bank buildings with windows still boarded up, then wend through residential neighborhoods where a smattering of rooftops remain covered with blue tarps, a reminder that even a glancing blow from a hurricane like Wilma, which slammed into Miami last October as a Category 1 storm, can pack a wicked punch.

I continue south 65 miles to the Florida Key called Islamorada, crossing over a series of bridges that connect one low-lying coral islet to another. It's the route along which automobiles crawled in the opposite direction last year as some 40,000 people fled the Lower Keys in advance of Hurricane Dennis in July. It's also the route on which an 11-car train was washed off its tracks in the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.

The train was en route from Miami to rescue a Depression-era work crew composed largely of World War I veterans, many of whom had participated in the Bonus March on Washington in 1932. Encamped in flimsy Civilian Conservation Corps housing, the men had been working on a bridge-building project. The train got to the Islamorada station shortly after 8 p.m., just in time to confront an 18-foot-high storm surge that washed over the Upper Keys like a tsunami and knocked the train off its tracks. In all, more than 400 people died, among them at least 259 of the veterans. In a magazine piece, an enraged Ernest Hemingway, then living in Key West, lambasted Washington politicians for the loss of so many lives. "Who sent nearly a thousand war veterans...to live in frame shacks on the Florida Keys in hurricane months?" he asked.

Hemingway's veterans are long gone from the Keys. In their place are 75,000 permanent residents, supplemented during the year by more than 2.5 million visitors. The Labor Day storm, it is worth remembering, didn't look like much just a day before it hit; it exploded from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane in 40 hours, about the amount of time an evacuation of the Keys might take today. As the storm bore down, sustained winds in the eye wall reached 160 miles per hour, with gusts that exceeded 200 miles per hour. The winds lifted up sheet metal roofs and wooden planks, hurling them through the air with lethal force; in some cases, as one writer described, "pounding sheets of sand sheared clothes and even the skin off victims, leaving them clad only in belts and shoes, often with their faces literally sandblasted beyond identification."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issue/September_2006.html

Don't Drink the Water in Houston

Mayor Bill White announced that we still cannot drink the water in Houston - unless we bring it to an active boil for 2 minutes.

Mobile Morgue en route to Galveston, Search Continues
Houston Chronicle
September 15, 2008

...White said today that he cannot officially lift the city's ``boil water'' advisory tonight, after one test of water purity came back with slightly elevated levels of contamination.

He also said that a pumping station at Lake Livingston that supplies water for East Side neighborhoods, Baytown, and the Ship Channel refineries, has failed.

The same pumping station failed during Hurricane Rita three years ago.

White said the pumping station still has no power, although the city is working with CenterPoint Energy to get power on a back-up transmission line...

for link to complete Houston Chronicle article, click here

-----

INFO on Curfews and Drinking Water

from Houston Chronicle

Returning home: Power, water, curfews and mandatory evacuations

To find out whether your neighborhood has power, check for reports from other Chronicle readers in our interactive electricity reporting database.

Houston:
Water: The order to boil before drinking is set to expire Monday afternoon continues.
Evacuation: The mandatory evacuation order for designated ZIP codes remains in effect.
Curfew: 9 p.m. - 6 a.m. until Sat., Sept. 20.

Angleton
Water: Boil two minutes before drinking.
Curfew: Dusk - dawn.

Baytown
Water: Continue to boil water as of 11:45 a.m. Monday.
Evacuation: Residents who have evacuated are encouraged to remain where they are.
Curfew: 7 p.m. - 6 a.m.

Bellaire
Curfew: 9 p.m. - 6 a.m. until September 20.
Evacuation: Residents who have evacuated are encouraged to remain where they are.

Brazoria County
Evacuation: Residents who have evacuated are encouraged to remain where they are.

Chambers county
Evacuation: Residents who have evacuated are encouraged to remain where they are.
Curfew: 8 p.m. - 6 a.m.

Clute
Water: Residents are asked to conserve; drinking water OK.
Curfew: 7 p.m.-7 a.m.

www.cityofconroe.orgConroe
Water: Safe to drink.
Curfew: Dusk - dawn.

Deer Park
Water: Cleared to drink.

Dickinson
Curfew: Dusk - dawn.

Friendswood
Water: Safe to drink.
Evacuation: Residents who have evacuated are encouraged to remain where they are.
Curfew: Dusk - dawn.

Galveston County
Evacuation: Residents who evacuated must stay away from the area until further notice.

Jersey Village
Water: Boil drinking water until further notice.
Evacuation: Ok to return.
Curfew: None.

Katy
Water: Safe to drink.

La Porte
Evacuation: City officials ask that residents do not return to the city.
Curfew: Dusk - dawn.

Lake Jackson
Water: Available. Sewer service is limited.
Mandatory evacuation: Expires Tues., Sept. 16.

League City
Water: Boil water.
Curfew: Ended.

Liberty County
Curfew: Dusk - dawn.

Manvel
Evacuation: Residents will need photo ID to return.
Water: Boil drinking water.
Curfew: Dusk-dawn.

Missouri City
Water: Residents utilizing the Harris County WCID-Fondren Road Water System (the Fondren Park subdivision and North and South Garden Streets] South Main Gardens] should boil for two minutes before drinking.
Curfew: 9 p.m. - 6 a.m. through Sept. 21.

Montgomery County
Water: Available.
Curfew: 11 p.m. - 7 a.m.

Nassau Bay
Evacuation: Residents who have evacuated are encouraged to remain where they are.
Water: Boil drinking water. Do not flush toilets.

Pearland
Water: Drinking water is safe
Curfew: 6 p.m. - 5 a.m.

Seabrook
Evacuation: Residents may return, except for the following areas: Lower Todville (South of Hammer), all of Old Seabrook, and The Point.
Water: Boil water.

Shenandoah
Curfew: 11 p.m. - 7 a.m.

Stafford
Curfew: 7 p.m. - 7 a.m.

Sugar Land
Curfew: None.
Water: Safe to drink, but conservation is encouraged.

Surfside Beach:
Curfew: No one allowed on the island after 7 p.m.
Evacuation: Residents with photo ID will be allowed on the island 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.

Tomball
Curfew: 10 p.m. - 6 a.m.
Water: Safe to drink.

West University Place
Water: Boil for two minutes before drinking.

The Woodlands
Water: Safe to drink.
Curfew: 11 p.m. - 7 a.m.

After IKE: Alive and Well in Houston

Dear Blog Readers

Thanks to everyone for their concern. The first couple of days were tough for us. But I think we had it easy, compared to so many others.... no trees on our house or cars, no rising water on our street. Today I saw a video of Bolivar Peninsula (Galveston Island) -- WOW! it looks like the MIssissippi coast after Katrina... a town was totally wiped out.

One thing that stays on my mind is the idea of these increasingly destructive storms. How much can we prevent these in the future? How about if we start driving less, riding our bikes etc. There are thousands of things we can do to help ourselves not have to deal with this again. Maybe there will be more storms, but if we implement some real sustainability soon, we could decrease the intensity of the storms....

A few simple suggestions - some have short term, other have long effects

1. When you are in a building with an elevator, walk if you have only 2 or 3 or 4 floors to go.
2. Turn off your lights when you are not using them.
3. Drive 5 miles less per hour on the freeway! And don't speed!
4. Consider buying USED items. The clothing re-sale shop is an adventure. You never know what designer clothes you will find. The less NEW clothes manufactured the less energy used.
5. Consider a USED car - the world has too many cars..... or hold on to your car longer...
6. Ride your bicycle for short trips.
7. DON'T East MEAT! (see our post on UN recommendation "Vegetarians are going to love the U.N."
8. RECYCLE! and encourage your employer, apartment complex, or community to recycle

more suggestions later.

our condolences to all who lost family members, and/or their homes as a result of Hurricane IKE

After IKE: From U.S. Rep. Gene Greene

---
From the office of U.S. Congressman Gene Greene

1. Emergency Assistance:
Local Points of Distribution: These centers will all have food and some of
them will have water and ice.
* Greenspoint Harvest Time Baptist Church, 17770 Imperial Valley
* West Town Mall, 4100 Decker, (Baytown)
* Baytown Courthouse Annex, 701 West Baker, (Baytown)
* Raul C. Martinez Annex, 1001 S. Sgt. Macario Garcia (East End)
* Football Stadium, Center@San Augustine, Deer Park (outside TX-
29/nearby)
* Ripley House 4410 Navigation (East End)
* Greater Jerusalem 8901 Jensen (Northside)
* Jim Fonteno Courthouse Annex 14350 Wallisville (Channelview)
* San Jacinto 604 Highlands Woods (Highlands, outside TX-29)
* PAL Gym, 2910 E. Southmore, (Pasadena)
* New Life Fellowship Church, 2104 Underwood, La Porte (nearby TX-
29).

Emergency Numbers:
The American Red Cross: For Shelter and Service Locations: 1-866-GET-INFO
(1-866-438-4636) or 1-800-Red-Cross (1-800-733-27677).

The Salvation Army: For Shelter and Service Locations: 713-752-0677

Access to Health Care: Harris County Hospital District's Ask Your Nurse
Program: 713-633-2255 (24 hours a day)

To Register for Disaster Assistance (FEMA): 1-800-621-3362 and TTD 7-800-
462-7585

County Emergency Management: Harris County (hotline): 713-368-2741

Special Needs: State of Texas: 211

Debris Removal: The federal government assists local governments with debris
removal costs following a federally-declared disaster like Hurricane Ike. Local
government-approved contractors are working on debris removal across the
area. Please look for debris removal instructions from your local government
for resident-cleared debris, which generally include separate piles of vegetation,
lumber, appliances and household hazardous materials placed curbside in a way
that does not blocking traffic or drainage.

Electricity: CenterPoint Energy is the private utility company responsible for
most of the Houston area's power lines, with Entergy Co. responsible in some
areas of east Harris County. According to these utilities, several thousand
workers are in the area working to restore power with several thousand more on
the way. Congressman Gene Green has been in contact with utility providers to
urge the quick return of electric power to North and East Houston and Harris
County:

* CenterPoint Energy (electricity): 713-207-2222
* CenterPoint Energy (gas): 713-659-2111
* Entergy (electricity): 1-800-368-3749 (1-800-ENTERGY); power outages:
1-800-968-8243 (1-800-9OUTAGE).


Fuel: Gasoline station pumps are electrically operated so restoration of power
should increase the number of operational gas stations and fuel producers are
moving additional supplies into the area. Suspected fuel price gouging, maybe
reported to the U.S. Department of Energy at 1-800-244-3301 or the Federal
Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).

2. Federal Recovery Assistance:

General Eligibility Rules: To apply for federal Recovery Assistance, residents of
Harris County must first make a claim for any insurance coverage that may
apply to damage or your evacuation costs, such as homeowners, flood, auto, or
other insurance. Federal assistance can only cover non-insured disaster-related
losses.

Homeowner's Insurance: Usually coverage includes wind and FALLING water
damage. Residents should contact their insurance agent or company promptly
and follow immediately with a written claim. If homeowners need information,
have a complaint, or cannot locate their company, call the Texas Department of
Insurance at 1-800-852-5246. If they can't find their policy, they can ask their
agent or company for a copy.

Flood Insurance: Coverage includes damages from RISING water. They can call
the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Hotline number at 1-800-427-
4661, or visit www.floodsmart.gov. In cases of repeatedly flooded homes, NFIP
may provide for home buyouts.

Information Needed to Apply:
* The street address of your damages property
* Current mailing address and a telephone number if you have been
forced to relocated
* Your Social Security Number
* Your household's approximate gross income at the time of the flood or,
the gross income of the business (if business damaged)
* Information on all types of insurance coverage you have.

Small Business Administration Low-Interest Loans:
After filing a claim with any insurance company, the next step in the Federal
Assistance Process is applying for a low-interest loan from the Small Business
Administration. If an applicant does not qualify for SBA loans, they are eligible
to apply for Individual Assistance from FEMA. Renters and homeowners both
may apply for up to $200,000 for non-insured losses to residences, and up to
$40,000 for personal property such as clothing, furniture, cars, etc.

For applicants unable to obtain credit elsewhere the interest rate will not exceed
4 percent. For those who can obtain credit elsewhere, the interest rate will not
exceed 8 percent. SBA determines whether an applicant has credit available
elsewhere. SBA offers loans with long-term repayments in many cases up to 30
years. Terms are determined on a case-by-case basis, based upon each
borrower's ability to repay. For more information about SBA disaster assistance
for businesses, call toll-free 1-800-659-2955.

FEMA Individual Assistance Program:
There are two major categories of FEMA Individual Assistance, Housing
Assistance and Non-Housing Assistance.

Housing Assistance:
To be eligible for Housing Assistance, the applicant must (1) be a US citizen,
non-citizen national, or qualified alien; (2) usually live in the damaged house
and lived there at the time of the disaster; (3) be unable to live in the home now,
be unable get to the home due to the disaster, or the home requires repairs due to
damage from the disaster. Housing Assistance is not eligible for costs due to
precautionary evacuation when the resident can return immediately and there is
no damage.

Regarding repairs, Housing Assistance can only cover repairs that are not
covered by insurance that are necessary to meet the FEMA standard of "safe",
"sanitary", or "functional." The standard means repairs needed to make the
house livable are most likely to be covered, as are shelter costs for people not
able to return due home to damage to their house or the area.

Non-Housing Assistance:
Non-Housing Assistance from FEMA primarily covers: (1) medical or dental
expenses due to the disaster, (2) disaster related funeral/burial costs, (3)
clothing, household items (room furnishings, appliances), tools (specialized or
protective clothing and equipment) required for a job, necessary educational
materials (computers, school books, supplies) that were damaged in the disaster
or are needed due to longer-term evacuation; (4) clean-up items (wet/dry
vacuum, dehumidifier); (5) disaster damaged vehicle (non-insured damages); (6)
moving and storage expenses related to the disaster; and (7) other serious needs
as determined by FEMA.

3. Disaster Unemployment Assistance:

The Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) program provides
unemployment benefits and re-employment services to individuals who have
become unemployed because of major disasters. All unemployed individuals
must register with the State's employment services office before they can receive
DUA benefits.

To file an application, go to http://www.texasworkforce.org or call the
commission's call center during business hours at (800) 939-6631. The deadline
is October 15, 2008. Payments range from a minimum of $57 a week to a
maximum of $378 a week depending on past earning history and may extend up
to 65 weeks if the applicant has not claimed benefits in the past year. To file for
benefits individuals need the following: Social Security number; copy of their
most recent federal income tax forms or check stubs; documentation supporting
they were working or self-employed at the time of the hurricane.

Disaster unemployment payments are available to those who: (1) were working
or self-employed or scheduled to begin work or self-employment; AND (2) can
no longer work or perform services because of hurricane damage to the
workplace OR due to a hurricane injury; AND (3) can establish that their work
or self-employment was their primary source of income OR became the major
supporter of a family because the head of the household died. Note: Disaster
unemployment payments are not available to anyone already receiving
unemployment benefits from Texas or another State.

4. Social Security Benefits:
Individuals who receive their Social Security payments by direct deposit will
receive payments as usual. Beneficiaries who experience difficulties receiving
their payments may visit the nearest open Social Security office or call 1-800-
772-1213 to request an immediate payment.


5. Legal Services Assistance:
FEMA arranges for disaster legal services are provided to low-income
individuals who, prior to or because of the disaster, are unable to secure legal
services adequate to meet their needs as a consequence of a major disaster.

FEMA-arranged legal assistance to low-income disaster victims may include:
(1) assistance with insurance claims (life, medical, property, etc.); (2)
counseling on landlord/tenant problems; (3) assisting in consumer protection
matters, remedies, and procedures; (4) replacement of wills and other important
legal documents destroyed in a major disaster.r

6. IRS:
For assistance with Special Tax Consideration call 1-866-562-5227


Sources: FEMA, SBA, Houston Chronicle

Sincerely,
Gene Green
Member of Congress

Dream Act Texas is OK, Coming back to Blog soon!

Major intersection on Houston: Westheimer and HWY 6
by JR







Hello fellow bloggers!

Just sending a quick greeting to fellow bloggers across the nation to let you know that we are ok.

I was able to get a hold of internet and a plug in to charge my phone, but major parts of Houston are still working to restore electricity. Water and gas are working in a lot of places, but it is estimated that it will take weeks before power can be restored to the entire city.

I have heard from a few DREAM Act bloggers and everyone seems to be doing fine, except the lack of electricity that keeps us from blogging at this point, but we will be back.

For more recent updates of what is going on in the city keep in touch with our friends at Houston Indymedia.

We will be back soon!

Peace.

National Weather Service: Hurricane IKE

link to latest announcement from National Weather Service:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/audio/200809121022.mp3

Hurricane Ike Info. for Houston Area

From Congressman Gene Greene


Hurricane Ike is projected to make landfall on the Texas
Coast early Saturday morning (the 13th). On its current path, this
strong Category 3 hurricane (winds of 110-115 mph) will bring
severe winds and potential flooding if bayous are backed up from
the storm surge. I strongly urge you to monitor television and
radio for information on this storm and follow the advice of local
emergency management.

Here is a link to a map of our area's storm surge areas and
floodplains http://www.khou.com/weather/
and attached is a map of the evacuation routes. Below are some
useful numbers.

* American Red Cross: For Shelter and Service Locations: 1-
866-GET-INFO; For Emergency Financial Assistance: 1-
800-975-7585

* Special needs evacuation: 211 or 311 for City of Houston,
713-837-0311 for Harris County

* After the storm, if your home and/or property are damaged
and you need assistance you can register for FEMA
assistance at: 1-800-621-FEMA

This is an emergency notification email, please do not
respond by email. If you have difficulty regarding your recovery
after the storm, you may contact our North Office at 281-999-5879
and East Office at 713-330-0761. I hope you find this information
useful, and I wish you and your family well during this potentially
very dangerous storm.

Sincerely,
Gene Green
Member of Congress

Mandatory Evacuations for areas in Southeast Texas for Hurricane IKE

Harris County Mandatory evacuations begin at 12 noon Thurs, 9-11, for

zip codes 77058 77059 77062 77520 77546 77571 77586 77598

ALL of Galveston Island

Brazoria County, INCLUDES Angleton and Manvel, but minus Friendswood, Pearland, Alvin, 

Chambers County

Orange County

Jefferson County

Matagorda County, Blessing area and south of Hwy 35

Hurricanes

Path of Hurricane Carla in 1961.

In 1961, when I was eight years old, Hurricane Carla hit Matagorda Bay, about 96 miles down the coast from Galveston.  We lived in a town of 9,000 people named Rosenberg, thirty-three miles southwest of Houston. I remember being fascinated and scared at the same time.  My brother was only five months old, so we had to get all his baby stuff together, along with canned food, water, flashlights, and pillows.  We lived next door to an ancient gas station, probably built in the 1930s.  It was really solid so we planned to move into the bathroom of the station if it seemed like our house didn't hold up.  

We ended up not moving that night.  I don't remember the force of the wind, but I recall trees that were four or five inches in diameter were bent to the ground with the strong winds.  The next day there were branches everywhere, broken glass, pieces of buildings.  We had made it through OK.  The worst part for the Houston area had been the numerous tornadoes spawned by the hurricane, there was lots of destruction in other cities nearby.

This is when Dan Rather became famous.  He was a reporter for the CBS affiliate in Houston at the time.  He stood out there in the wind and rain and everyone was impressed.  He went on to national news after that.

The experience of Carla left an impression on me.  Twenty years later, when Hurricane Alicia came through, I couldn't sleep that night.  I had two young children, ages five and ten months.  They slept on pallets on the floor of the kitchen while I sat there listening to the news on the radio. The kitchen of our suburban house was the room with no windows nearby.  The hurricane knocked down our fence.  The Lutheran Church on Highway 6, a few miles from our house, was destroyed by a tornado.  That is where my sons had been going to summer bible class. Downtown Houston was a wreck, broken glass was scattered everywhere.  The windows from the high rise buildings had not held up.  The city of Galveston was also trashed.  Few people were hurt, but the property damage was significant.

Twenty-three years later came Rita.  My husband, who grew up in Illinois, said he wanted to stay.  I was for leaving, but now I'm really glad we didn't go anywhere.  He boarded up the windows of our little frame house (we don't live in the suburbs anymore).  I took my car to a parking garage in the medical center (we don't have a garage) and we brought in all our plants.  Our house was so tight it felt like a bomb shelter, no light coming in... only one door could be opened from the inside.

It was just us and one set of neighbors that stayed around.  The place was deserted.  Rita took a turn, so the worst for us was that our back porch was almost ripped off by the wind, but it was my mandevilla that suffered the most.  I had to cut the vines that had twirled around the banister of my front porch.  Five months later we drove through east Texas where Rita hit land and found the landscape really torn up - lots of buildings were destroyed, trees had fallen.  Not much had been put in order even though it was already February and Rita came in September.

So here we are again, three years later.  I guess Hurricane Ike could change course, but thirty minutes ago the Houston Chronicle reported that it looked like landfall in Freeport.  Not good for Houston.  We will be on the dirty side of the storm.

Tomorrow we will board up again.  We saved the 3/4 inch plywood from Rita, so the trip to Home Depot or Lowes won't be so expensive.  My mandevilla will have to be cut -  but it will grow back in time.  Our neighborhood doesn't flood (because of very little new construction) -  and this time I have one of the those wind up radios.

I'll let you know how it goes.

link to photo

Fleeing From IKE: Watch Out for Those Immigration Check Points

"...in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a van load of illegal immigrants." -AP

Texas officials weigh evacuations as Ike nears

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 10, 2008; 1:16 AM

McALLEN, Texas -- With Hurricane Ike steaming into the Gulf of Mexico, Texas emergency officials Tuesday stood ready to order 1 million people evacuated from the impoverished Rio Grande Valley and tried to convince tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that they have less to fear from the Border Patrol than from the storm.

Emergency planning officials were meeting all day to decide if and when to announce a mandatory evacuation for coastal counties close to the Mexican border.

With forecasts showing Ike blowing ashore this weekend, authorities lined up nearly 1,000 buses in case they are needed to move out the many poor and elderly people who have no cars.

Farther up the coast, officials in the county surrounding Corpus Christi planned to begin busing people who have special medical needs inland on Wednesday.

Federal authorities gave assurances they would not check people's immigration status at evacuation loading zones or inland checkpoints. But residents were skeptical, and there were worries that many illegal immigrants would refuse to board buses and go to shelters for fear of getting arrested and deported.

"People are nervous," said the Rev. Michael Seifert, a Roman Catholic priest and immigrant advocate. "The message that was given to me was that it's going to be a real problem."

One reason for the skepticism: Back in May, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the Border Patrol would do nothing to impede an evacuation in the event of a hurricane. But when Hurricane Dolly struck the Rio Grande Valley in late July, no mandatory evacuation was ordered, and as a result the Border Patrol kept its checkpoints open. Agents soon caught a van load of illegal immigrants.

It would be the first mandatory large-scale evacuation in South Texas history. State and county officials let people decide for themselves whether to leave a hurricane area until just before Hurricane Rita struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Now county officials can order people out of harm's way.

Hidalgo County Judge J.D. Salinas said if an evacuation is ordered this time, county officials will visit immigrant neighborhoods and forcefully urge people to clear out.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav, "there were a lot of immigrants who said, `I'm not going to go,'" said Salinas, the county's top elected official. "It's going to be hard."

In Washington, Rear Adm. W. Craig Vanderwagen, assistant U.S. health secretary for preparedness and response, told reporters: "In storm events, if people are trapped it doesn't particularly matter to those of us in the humanitarian assistance world which side of that border they come from. We will do what we need to do to evacuate the people who need to be evacuated."

At 11 p.m. EDT, Ike was about 120 miles west of Havana, Cuba, moving west-northwest near 9 mph with sustained winds near 80 mph. It was expected to cross the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening to a Category 3 with winds of up to 130 mph.

Forecasters said that it could hit on Saturday morning just about anywhere along the Texas coast, with the most likely spot close to the Corpus Christi area.

Areas from Matagorda Bay to Corpus Christi and south to Brownsville _ about 250 miles of coastline _ were told to prepare for possible mandatory evacuation....
___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan in Washington, April Castro in Austin, Texas, and Jeff Carlton in Dallas contributed to this report.
© 2008 The Associated Press

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