Here is a nice personal summary from someone who worked the disaster:
Well tomorrow is our last day at the JFO (Joint Field Office) in Austin, TX. The experience has memorable to say the least. As I stated earlier, we have over 1500 people working mostly for FEMA in a section of the mall that was vacated by J.C. Pennys. It actually worked out quite well what with the mall adjacent to us so as to provide us food anytime we wanted plus plenty of parking.
Hotels remain mostly full in this area what with FEMA and the supporting agencies. It doesn't help that football is a religion here and rooms are at a premium on weekends. The Texas Longhorns are the local team; many residents wear the dirt-colored t-shirts around town. Don't mess with Texas.
Austin is an interesting town to say the least. There is much history here, something you don't see in Pacific Northwest. The Broken Spoke Dance Hall from the outside doesn't look like much, but contains much history including hosting stars such as George Strait, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. The town is sorta a contradiction of sorts- country western is their history and their pride, but driving through 6th avenue at night, you see hundreds of twenty-somethings lining the streets waiting to get into nightclubs featuring the latest night scene music.
Much remains to be done in this area, but it is recovering faster than what I ever saw in Louisiana. Galveston Island, thoroughly trashed by Hurricane Ike, is recovering faster than most would think possible. Krugers, the local grocery store recently opened as well as some other retail shops; all necessary to faster recovery of a city. Residents are slowly being allowed back to their homes, but much remains to be done mostly with water and sewer services. Natural gas lines in a lot of areas cannot be turned back on until all homes have had their gas turned off, otherwise you face the risk of fires when the gas turned back on. One killer after the storm has been folks using generators in their garages; something we tragically learned in the Pacific Northwest last winter but continues to claim lives with each disaster.
Galveston is home to the most devastating natural disaster this country ever experienced. In 1900, a hurricane simply known as the hurricane of 1900, swept into Galveston killing between 6000 and 12000 people, depending on what news source you review. After 1900, a 15 foot 'sea wall' was constructed that was largely credited for keeping the death toll from Hurricane Ike low.
Houston is slowly recovering with the slow restitution of power in the city of 5 million. Much remains to be completed in this city as well and FEMA has just recently located a local office there to assist residents.
Due to the frustrations of many evacuees, many now claim they will not evacuate with the next hurricane alert. This obviously will claim more lives in the future.
The final death toll from the hurricane is still slightly over 50 but will climb higher as more of the missing are officially registered to the local authorities. Hundreds are still missing, but final accounting is lacking due to the unknown who evacuated vice stayed in their homes. As with Katrina, I believe many will never be located or recovered.
As with every, single disaster, there are 'lessons learned' or as the British say 'lessons observed'. The main issue I observed is that FEMA and state agencies must work together and share information. There is too much 'stove pipe' sharing (or not) of information; we must share information through the establishment and exercising of liaison personnel between each agencies as well as others. To not do so is fool hardy.
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Well tomorrow is our last day at the JFO (Joint Field Office) in Austin, TX. The experience has memorable to say the least. As I stated earlier, we have over 1500 people working mostly for FEMA in a section of the mall that was vacated by J.C. Pennys. It actually worked out quite well what with the mall adjacent to us so as to provide us food anytime we wanted plus plenty of parking.
Hotels remain mostly full in this area what with FEMA and the supporting agencies. It doesn't help that football is a religion here and rooms are at a premium on weekends. The Texas Longhorns are the local team; many residents wear the dirt-colored t-shirts around town. Don't mess with Texas.
Austin is an interesting town to say the least. There is much history here, something you don't see in Pacific Northwest. The Broken Spoke Dance Hall from the outside doesn't look like much, but contains much history including hosting stars such as George Strait, Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. The town is sorta a contradiction of sorts- country western is their history and their pride, but driving through 6th avenue at night, you see hundreds of twenty-somethings lining the streets waiting to get into nightclubs featuring the latest night scene music.
Much remains to be done in this area, but it is recovering faster than what I ever saw in Louisiana. Galveston Island, thoroughly trashed by Hurricane Ike, is recovering faster than most would think possible. Krugers, the local grocery store recently opened as well as some other retail shops; all necessary to faster recovery of a city. Residents are slowly being allowed back to their homes, but much remains to be done mostly with water and sewer services. Natural gas lines in a lot of areas cannot be turned back on until all homes have had their gas turned off, otherwise you face the risk of fires when the gas turned back on. One killer after the storm has been folks using generators in their garages; something we tragically learned in the Pacific Northwest last winter but continues to claim lives with each disaster.
Galveston is home to the most devastating natural disaster this country ever experienced. In 1900, a hurricane simply known as the hurricane of 1900, swept into Galveston killing between 6000 and 12000 people, depending on what news source you review. After 1900, a 15 foot 'sea wall' was constructed that was largely credited for keeping the death toll from Hurricane Ike low.
Houston is slowly recovering with the slow restitution of power in the city of 5 million. Much remains to be completed in this city as well and FEMA has just recently located a local office there to assist residents.
Due to the frustrations of many evacuees, many now claim they will not evacuate with the next hurricane alert. This obviously will claim more lives in the future.
The final death toll from the hurricane is still slightly over 50 but will climb higher as more of the missing are officially registered to the local authorities. Hundreds are still missing, but final accounting is lacking due to the unknown who evacuated vice stayed in their homes. As with Katrina, I believe many will never be located or recovered.
As with every, single disaster, there are 'lessons learned' or as the British say 'lessons observed'. The main issue I observed is that FEMA and state agencies must work together and share information. There is too much 'stove pipe' sharing (or not) of information; we must share information through the establishment and exercising of liaison personnel between each agencies as well as others. To not do so is fool hardy.
