Monday, September 15, was a bit of a milestone for those of use who keep track of the tropics. It marked the first day in exactly one month that no named tropical systems were roaming around the Atlantic Basin. No depressions, storms or hurricanes. No big headaches like Fay, Hanna, Gustav or Ike.
It doesn’t mean the 2008 hurricane season is over. After all, history tells us that tropical systems can form well into November. Still, it does give us a chance to take a collective breath after a very active four-week period in the tropics, culminating on Saturday with the landfall of Hurricane Ike.
Thanks to Direct TV, I was able to watch a Houston television station cover Hurricane Ike over the weekend. KHOU, the CBS TV station in Houston, did an excellent job tracking Ike as he crashed ashore early Saturday morning. Their team of meteorologist and on-site reporters covered all the bases as Ike hit. Their team did an equally excellent job covering the aftermath as millions of residents along the upper Texas coast pick up the pieces.
The images brought back vivid memories of Frances, Jeanne and Wilma, three storms that slammed into southern Florida just a few short years ago. Those memories and the pictures from Houston reinforced an important point about hurricane preparation; surviving the storm is easy, making it through the storm’s aftermath is something else entirely.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that conditions in Galveston “are degenerating, with stagnant water breeding mosquitoes, toilets overflowing, no operating sewage system, hardly any running water, no power, no gas”. The Post reports that the city has “no functioning hospital and that officials fear a health crisis will result from the worsening sanitation.”
Up the road in Houston life is a little bit better. The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that power has been restored to 700,000 customers. Still, more than two million customers are still in the dark and that electricity may not be restored for several more weeks.
As we know first-hand following Frances, Jeanne and Wilma, life after a hurricane is incredibly difficult. The power is out, the phones aren’t working, the kids are driving us crazy and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Stand in line for several hours for water and ice and the stress can reach a breaking point.
“Life after a hurricane is a test of endurance, patience and adaptability,” wrote Washington Post reporter Joel Achenbach on Tuesday. “When there’s no electricity, life is dark, hot and kind of mysterious — because no one knows anything other than rumors.”
Unfortunately, for folks along the Texas Upper Coast the facts say it will take some time to recover from Hurricane Ike.
