The Rita Debrief

I FINALLY made it home last night at about 9:30p. I took my time leaving Ft. Worth and stopped in Temple to visit with my friend who graciously housed my cats and I on our way up to Ft. Worth. The drive down was uneventful and completed in normal travel time.

A few of my friends stayed and hunkered down for Rita. The worst I heard was a loss of electricity for about 12 hours. A few that I know did leave. One person ran as far as Spring, TX - a 30 minute drive that he completed in...30 minutes. (Boo him!) Other drive times & locations: 22 hours to Huntsville, 12 hours to Belleville, over 50 hours from Galveston to Ft. Worth, and one spent the first night in a nudist colony. This person didn't realize it was a nudist colony until they arrived (the person who housed them left that little bit of info out). That person, hands down, had all of us beat.

Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. We go back to normal show schedule starting tomorrow. We have now extended the show yet another week, so we close on the 23rd, barring anymore fires, hurricanes or other disasters, natural or manmade. We figured the next will be the plague of locusts, or down here in Texas, a plague of roaches.

A Small Rita Diversion

This is one of the quizzes Nemesis took and has linked in his blog.

What a letdown for my brother & parents!!!

You are a Social Moderate (55% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (26% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat

Happy, Nemesis???

Happy now, Joel???


How evil are you?

My Hurricane Update - pt.2

Just a few observations & musings while I've been on the run:

1) The traffic jam/parking lot I encountered on 290 & Hwy 6 up to Bryan/College Station was at least 10 times worse than ANY traffic jam caused by an A&M-t.u. game! (And if I complain about the next game-induced traffic up to B/CS, remind me of this evacuation.)

2) This is the first time I saw heavy traffic on a 2-lane farm road that wasn't caused by the local football game (FM 485 from Hearne to Temple).

3) I don't think I could live in the DFW metroplex - too flat, too suburban, too small-town mentality, no beach/oceanside within reach (in spite of hurricane season's best efforts to scare us away)...too blah.

4) Thank God for friends who reside in small, podunk Texas towns! She not only opened her house at 1:30 am, but her town was the 2nd spot I saw that had gas! (The first one had at least 40 cars lined up to enter the gas station.)

5) Who would have thought that something as mundane as D-cell batteries could be more precious than gold?

6) Non-Filipinos / non-Hawaiians combing the shelves for Spam - who'd have thunk????

7) For that matter, a run on Spam????

8) The land of big-hair still lives on in Ft. Worth!

9) The longest travel time I personal heard of (to date): OVER 48 hours from Galveston to Ft. Worth!!! (After hearing that, I'm not about to complain about my 14 hour trip on 1 full tank of gas. That family had to pull off and wait at least 3 hours for gas after they ran dry.)

10) I never imagined seeing both sides of an evacuation in under 1 week! Last weekend, I was helping settling Katrina evacuees; this weekend, I'm a Rita evacuee.

11) Now that I'm on this side of an evacuation, I'm not sure I like the moniker of "refugee" or "evacuee".

With any luck, the next blog will be from home!

My Hurricane Update

I finally made it to my destination! I'm at my cousin's place in Ft. Worth. I left Thursday morning with plans to stop off at my friend's place in Temple to visit, eat dinner and feed and water my cats. I ended up staying overnight because it took me 14 hours and almost a full tank just to get to Temple. Normally, Temple is a 3 hour drive. At least I wa able to gas up in Temple, the 2nd station I saw that had gas. The first was in Hearne and the lines were over a block long - in either direction. I'll probably head back home Monday or Tuesday. I want to avoid the 100+ mile parking lot.

This is my 2nd evacuation and it's getting a little freaky.

WOO HOO! I Found Water!!!!

I just came back from an early morning shopping trip. When I say early, I mean EARLY! 2 am early. That's when the grocery store by my place restocks. Earlier in the afternoon, I hit 4 grocery stores and the shelves were empty. No water, batteries or tuna to be found. The gas station I went to had lines at all of their pumps and 2 of the pumps were dry. I think everyone down here is a little freaked by Rita. Well, let's face it, Houston is WAY overdue for it's hurricane.

I'm encountering 2 very different responses to Rita. On one hand, you've got the people who are concerned (at the very least) and are prepping 5 days before her expected landfall. These tend to be the people who are natives to the coast or at least were here during Alicia (I fall in this category). Then there are the ones who are rather blasé about Rita. They tend to be non-natives. I just talked to a non-native friend of mine and he's doing nothing to prep for the hurricane. It's a little disconcerting. I don't think Rita will be as bad as Katrina (I hope not), but a hurricane is nothing to sneeze at. Even this far inland, she can cause trouble for us. I remember Alicia - no electricity, lots of water, damage to the house, trees downed, etc. Granted, our house was under renovations when Alicia hit, so the water in the house was due to the hole in our roof (we were getting ready to put a skylight in, so there was a big ol' hole over the living room). Still, Alicia was no picnic.

I'm not in panic mode...yet. I'll wait till the forecast models are a little more accurate before deciding whether or not to move into the panic stage. In the meantime, we're stocked on water, canned beans, tuna and snacks. I'll stock up on wine tomorrow. So if any of y'all are floating by the house when Rita blows through, come on in for a little hurricane party!

Good luck, Houston!

Another Day, Another Storm

Well, Mother Nature's been busy this hurricane season! We're at our 18th named storm. Does anyone know the last time we made it this far in the alphabet? Houston is packed with Katrina evacuees and the city/state is discouraging future coastal evacuees from coming here. I hope we ARE ready for this one!

It's About Time!!!

Brown's out.

Not "yay". Not a sigh of relief.

It's about d*** time!

Oh, and here's a novel concept - replacing him with someone who HAS experience in emergengy response and management.

Doesn't FEMA stand for Federal Emergency Management Agency?

Domestic Problems

No Coffee Left!!!!! Waaaahhh!!!!!!

Let me restate that...no GOOD coffee left!!!!

The coffee I'm referring to is the stuff that is personally hand-carried from the Philippines. This stuff (at least in our family) is worth it's weight in gold. We don't trust ANYONE with this coffee - especially our own family members! My uncle is still bugging me about the coffee I was "suppose" to have delivered to him - 3 years ago! (Nevermind that his freezer has just been restocked with a few kilos of the golden beans.)

Roomie came in this morning and asked me if we have a grinder at the house (which we don't - but I plan on rectifying that problem this afternoon). She then told me that there was ONE teaspoon of (ground) coffee left, then took cover behind the BF as I screamed and wailed. I NEED MY COFFEE!!!

Brief recap on Saturday's events.

The original plan was to meet up in the morning with a friend who I've been assisting with the Katrina relief efforts. We were going to phone some organizations in town to gather info and post them on a central message board. Instead we met with one of the city councilmen at City Hall and then proceeded to check out apartments that the city has targeted as longer-term housing options for the evacuees. The mayor's plan is to empty out the big shelters by (we think) end of next week. We then scouted out possible neutral meeting spots for a last-minute meeting between one of the mayor's staffers, one of the councilmen and heads of organizations that provide services to the various Asian communities in town. The problem that we're seeing is a lack of communication between the groups. The groups tend to be very territorial and that's causing a breakdown in communication and expeditious dissemination of information to the evacuees that are being assisted by these various groups. The big question on everyone's lips is information about FEMA - what are the aids and services FEMA will provide to the evacuees, the voucher programs FEMA will provide to evacuees and vendors who are donating their resources, etc. FEMA STILL hasn't set up shop yet here in Houston! They should be acquiring a location tomorrow. That's ridiculous!!!!

On the artistic front, we opened our show last night and it went off without a hitch. No fireworks or anything! After the theater's opening night party, my director, her husband, 2 of my actors and I went out back to BW3 to eat. The talk quickly turned to events caused my Katrina. One of my actors is currently playing host to her baby sister and her family (that consists of her sister, husband, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat and a parakeet). It's a regular zoo at her house, but she doesn't mind. In fact she's thrilled her sister is there. And relieved. The conversation then turned to the government and THAT'S when the verbal fireworks started. The actor (who's a native of New Orleans) is a staunch Republican (a rarity in my field) and my director and her husband are staunch Democrats (the norm in my field). When I left, they were still arguing about the Bush administration, the federal government, the Louisiana state government and the New Orleans municipal government. I wouldn't be surprised if they were arguing until the restaurant kicked them out at closing time.

1 positive note: the general consensus is that everyone has been impressed with Mayor Bill White's actions, both reactive and proactive. I heartily agree. He and the non-governmental organizations are at the very least steps ahead of the federal government in this situation!

Long-winded

After reviewing my last blog, I realized that I never fully explained the 5 points I listed at the top of the blog. I might talk about them at a later date. I also realized that my past few blogs have been rather long, but my brain has had quite a bit to process over the past few days. It's been an unusual couple of weeks, to say the least.

What Day Is Today???

Craziness still ensues down here in Houston.

The Cliffnotes version of the past 3 days:
1) Going to work on Labor Day only to find out I DID have the day off (they just failed to tell me of the change)
2) My car had to go into the shop because it wouldn't start
3) An unexpected day off due to #2
4) We CAN move back into the theatre, but our schedule for this week and next week are a little wonky
5) What started as a FEMA trainer session (to assist victims in the enrollment process) resulted into a seat on an emergency relief committee

All of this in the past 72 hours. Whew! So much has happened, I can't even remember what day it is.

Ok, I have to rant before I explain the 5 points listed above.

I think the federal government's (particularly FEMA) response to Katrina is SHAMEFUL & APPALLING! As of Labor Day, FEMA had yet to establish a central point of operation here in Houston. The fact that Texas is currently hosting about 1/4 million evacuees is not news to anyone. We've been playing host since before Katrina made landfall. Houston the closest large city to New Orleans and a stop on one of their evacuation routes. This should not be a surprise to FEMA. It is now about 1 1/2 weeks since the hurricane and we're still waiting for FEMA to do more than just show their face. While the federal government is still scrambling, the bulk of the work (at least down here) has been done by the city and private organizations. Red Cross is taking care of the Reliant Complex while the George R. Brown is being run by CenterPoint Energy. Yes, you read that right, CenterPoint Energy.

I know that all of the media focus is on the small city now dubbed Reliant City, but very little focus on the other evacuees that are not being housed at Reliant or G.R. Brown. Boat People SOS, a non-profit organization that provides assistance to the Vietnamese community, has been working with (at last count) about 8,000+ Vietnamese evacuees. They are SWAMPED! I just got a call from them today looking for volunteers to help them with the FEMA enrollments. The Filipino community has identified about 120 Filipino evacuees. I've talked to a few of them, making sure they are aware of the FEMA enrollment and trying to identify their needs. It's absolutely heartbreaking! I didn't think I'd make it through my first phone call. One gentleman I talked to is being housed by his son's girlfriend. One of his neighbors just went back to their parish (it's one of the few that's accessible from 6a - 6p) to check on their house and gather some belongings. His neighbor was shot & killed as he was leaving the neighborhood. His son is in Iraq (due to come home within the next 2 weeks) and his family (his mother, 3 sisters and about 14 other relatives) are spread out from Houston to Pensacola. This is a family of about 20 who, until the evacuations, lived in the same neighborhood in New Orleans for about 30 years. His 3 sisters & mother are here in town, but are spread out over Houston & Pearland. I talked to one of his sisters and she doesn't know where she'll be in the next 24 hours since they just ran out of money for their hotel room. Most of the people I talked to didn't need low-interest loans to rebuild their homes (the only thing FEMA could offer them at this point), they need immediate funds to get them through the next few weeks. For housing. For food. For clothing. For daily necessities we take for granted.

On the more positive side, I just came from a pan-Asian community meeting with Mayor Bill White and it was heartening to see how the Asian community here has responded. Hong Kong City Mall has generously opened up their space as a gathering point for the Asian evacuees, the local hotel association (many of their members are Asian) has donated a number of hotel rooms for reduced rates or for free, BPSOS has been working overtime to feed and find housing for the Vietnamese evacuees, FACOST has doled out about $8000 (in hard cash) to the Filipino evacuees, the list goes on. Kudos to the residents of Houston! We're working hard to help our neighbors and their immediate needs and we're trying to help them prepare for their longer-term needs, but we need the federal government to get off their butts and kick into action! They can't allow the generous citizens to become disgruntled due to the overtaxing of energy and resources while we all wait for the government to do something!

Here, read this and talk amongst yourselves:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3335758

Shameful, appalling and inexcusable!

What A Long Week It's Been

It's been a long week!

This week was tech week for us. Always a stressful time, but even more so this week. One of my actors is a New Orleans native who has family from Baton Rouge, Diamondhead and everywhere in between. Luckily, all her family (immediate and extended) are safe and accounted for, but most of them have no home to go back to. Needless to say, she's been on an emotional rollercoaster all week. Three other actors have family members who just went into the hospital - two of them just this week. On top of all of that, we're all trying to get through tech. Tech was a sort of relief, however, in that we were able to divert our brains and focus even for just a little bit.

So we rolled through tech and had our first audience on Saturday. Everything was going fine until about 20 minutes into the show. I'm sitting in the booth with my light board operator when I hear a pop. I turn toward my board op and look at the breaker box thinking we blew a fuse. Our breakers that our lights are connected to use the old-fashioned glass buses that pop when they get overloaded (as opposed to the new switches that trip). About that time, my board op calls to me and I look at the main electrical meter box that's 2 feet from my board op's head (5 feet from me) and I hear more popping and sparks from the box. After kicking my board op out of the booth and telling him to stand by the fire extinguisher, I sprint (in my platform heels, mind you) to the box office where my director (who is also the artistic director is and tell them about the meter box. She and I sprint backstage, she runs on the stage and stops the show while I head back to the booth. Now we have sparks & flames emanating in short spurts and the booth is filling up with smoke. I can hear my director calmly telling everyone that we have to cancel the show due to an electrical problem, could everyone exit the theatre and their tickets will gladly be rescheduled. The audience claps (they were thoroughly enjoying the show), they were a little disappointed, but they were in very good spirits as they filed out to the lobby. My actors, having no idea of what's going on other than the loss of lights and the popping they heard, saunter into the dressing room and are milling about, trying to figure out what was going on. The dressing room door they came in is right by the booth, which at this time I'm thinking is going to blow any minute. So I hustle them out of the room and out of the building. When we got outside, we could see flames over the roof. The electrical line from the building to the utility pole burst into flames and then we saw flames coming from the transformer across the street. As the audience filed to the back where we were, I realized I had no phone (that was the first item came to my head), no keys and no ID. I ran back to the booth (with the box that is still popping), grabbed my stuff (sans dinner - which is STILL in there) and ran back out. My board op realized he left his iPod and rescued it later.

The fire trucks finally arrive. I guess the box finally shorted itself out, but the booth and dressing room are now filled with smoke. Let me just say right now that Houston has some of the cutest firefighters in the country, a fact that was not lost on myself or 2 of my actors. The electric company then came and disconnected the theatre from the power grid. After all of the excitement died down and the first fire truck left, we convened at a local pub. As we were animatedly discussing the recent events, we had to laugh at our immediate reactions as we were evacuating the building. My initial thought (after I took a headcount of cast and crew) was "my phone's in there! I can't call anyone!". My board op was concerned about his iPod and one of my actors grabbed her make-up case as she headed out the door. So we were in danger of being burnt to a crisp and we're concerned about our music, looking good and being able to talk to people. Well, it was funny to us.