Disaster Recovery News

This is an amazing yet sad story of a family that took the lessons they learned during Hurricane Rita to build a house that could withstand some of the toughest storms the Gulf of Mexico had to offer. Their house survived Hurricane Ike last week. But little else did. Read the whole amazing story by Jason Hanna with CNN.

Here is just an excerpt:

Warren and Pam Adams lost a house to Hurricane Rita in 2005, so it seems they’d be relieved to learn their new home withstood Hurricane Ike.

Appliances, furniture, and a grandfather clock were some of the many things rendered useless. Warren and Pam, two of the beach town’s several hundred permanent residents before Ike, spent part of Thursday salvaging what they could and lamenting the destruction of their friends’ homes.

More on flood damaged belongings and restoration.

They warned us this would happen. We are seeing the devastation of the pre-cursor to Hurricane Ike as flood waters poured into Galveston this morning flooding streets, homes and businesses. And Ike has yet to make landfall.

Over 200,000 people have evacuated the low-lying areas near Houston after the government officials announced yesterday that mandatory evacuation should be followed or there could be dire and deadly consequences. Now, Houston residents are told to stay put as it is too late to try to evacuate if they have not already done so. Those that have evacuated have avoided the potential of being stranded in flooded areas without the guarantee of rescue.

Houston officials are telling residents to stay put because it’s not safe anymore to try to hit the road to escape Hurricane Ike.

Galveston Island was flooded today by the storm surge caused by the coming hurricane, causing 22 foot waves to crash into the area.

Ike is expected to strengthen before hitting land late tonight (Friday) or early Saturday morning. Residents are all urged to follow state government requests to evacuate.

More on flooding in Texas

Property owners near storm surge zones know that having a proper emergency preparation and action plan is incredibly important during hurricane season. The following is some general advice given to those that may need to evacuate should a severe category storm come through and create a damaging surge near their home or office.

• Have a mapped evacuation route to an adequately distant safe location. Locations may be family members, friends, hotel or a public shelter.
• Designate an emergency meeting location that is a safe distance away but not too encumbered by the potential for traffic congestion.
• If you have a family member that needs special assistance, contact emergency management services now to register that individual and get important evacuation information.
• Prepare an family emergency evacuation kit that includes extra cash, prescription medication, pairs of glasses, water, flashlights and any other item that you must have on a daily or every-other-day basis.
• Plan for your pet too.
• Follow evacuation orders given by state and local officials. This will alleviate chaos and ensure that time is not unnecessarily wasted.

Home and business owners along the southern coast would do well to asses the threat of damage due to a storm surge to their property. A SLOSH model is what emergency managers use to determine which are residents should be evaluated first in the event of a major hurricane.

SLOSH stands for Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes. The test is a computerized model used to estimate the storm surge heights and winds. The data used in making such determination is collected from historical data, hypothetical situation analysis and hurricane predictions. The test takes into account the pressure, size, speed, track and winds in a given area. These tests are considered to be accurate + / – 20%.

Emergency evacuation teams use the SLOSH data as they are tracking storms and engaging in potential emergency response.

More on Hurricane Preparation