UPDATE: Damage to Sonnetheil House

The owner reports that there was 7 feet of water in his 21st @ Seeley neighborhood. Even though his house sits several feet above street level, there was still over a foot of water on the first floor causing damage to: kitchen appliances (to be replaced), rugs & furniture (being cleaned), original parquet flooring (narrow parquet and lathing warped, floors buckled - most likely not salvageable), walls (converted from plaster to sheet rock can be repaired), period wall paper (will need to be replaced), elevator (apparently undamaged), floor tile in first floor bath (damage unknown)outside a/c units (total loss), Carriage House (ground floor kitchen and bedroom to be gutted and replaced). Insurance claim: denied. He had hurricane insurance (damage from wind). The bulk of his damages was caused solely by flooding. Many of the houses in the neighborhood were at or closer to street level and were far more heavily damaged.

Going Silent - OOPS, CHANGED MY MIND

Don't totally ignore the following previously expressed sentiment - it gets lonely around here. "It appearing that no one is reading this blog, I see no point in continuing it further. Too bad. In the ramble of personal observations there is some real information of interest and importance. I'll not remove the blog because at least the links have merit. If you've stopped by, thank you for your time and interest. If you'd like to leave a comment saying at least you've dropped by, I would appreciate it. One always hopes one hasn't totally wasted one's time."

Post Hurricane Ike

On Saturday, September 12th I was asked to show up at the EOC to input data regarding evacuees who were already in the 2 then-open shelters in Arlington. I got there about 8:30 and left at 1:30 in the morning. Around noon on Sunday the CERT coordinator called to say Arlington was opening 2 more shelters and to see if I could help register Beaumont evacuees who were in transit from Tyler. Their previous shelter had been an abandoned Wal-Mart crammed with almost 1,500 evacuees, limited rest room facilities, no showers, mold & mildew, an unscreened criminal element and fights aplenty. We were really concerned a second move would be too much for some of them. Instead, many said they felt blessed to get out of there and find themselves in a large Lifestyle Center at Lake Arlington Baptist Church. The first thing many did was shower! And say repeated "Thank You" 's. I am scheduled to volunteer on Monday, provided that a shelter has a need. Some will be open through next week. After that those that are unable to return home will likely be moved to a long-term shelter or find a FEMA approved hotel or motel room. Unfortunately, even if they get free housing for a month, they lose the benefit of free medical care and dinners available at the shelters.

UPDATE on Sonnenfield House: My daughter was told the owner was evacuating ahead of the storm, but when I was looking at the after-Ike satellite photos, I spotted what had to be a red vehicle in the drive way. Unfortunately, he stayed one night too long and woke to find his truck already flooded and ended up having to ride it out. The house sits 6 blocks from The Strand. The Strand was flooded and impassable on Thursday. While the huge storm surge created by winds and a monster-sized storm crashed against the Seawall everyone expected to protect them (to a certain point, anyway), the surge itself flowed into Galveston Bay, around the island and flooded the unprotected harborside - something apparently unexpected, particularly that far in advance of the storm itself. Flooding caused a backup in the storm sewer system and it was bubbling up through the neighborhood storm drains, which caused a good part of the mid-island flooding. Further, the waves crashing against the seawall dumped tons of water on the roadway which then flowed down and into the neighborhoods as well. The first floor of the carriage house (garage with apartment on top) was destroyed. The house, despite sitting up several feet above ground level, had 2' of water in it. Needless to say furniture, carpet, equipment, drapes were all damaged as it had not been moved upstairs. Owner believes since the water went down almost as quickly as it came up, some of that can be salvaged. The original hand-laid parquet flooring buckled from the water in the wood. It can be salvaged and relaid. Wall covering on the first floor will likely have to be replaced. I'm not sure whether current owner replaced the original lathing and plaster with sheet rock when he remodled, but in any event lower portions of the walls will likely have to be cut out and replaced. The house has huge storm shutters. Because the winds were less than expected and it has weathered much higher wind speeds, it is likely none of the glazing nor stained glass was damaged. I have no information what damage was done to the filigree/gingerbread that covers the exterior of the house. One tree fell but missed the house. Owner's wife was somehow able to get on the island on Monday, 9/15, and evacuated owner and 2 neighbor families. He apparently has already returned to the island to assist in debris removal and clean-up.

Link to photos of Sonnetheil House: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/566801016kobbIG

This satellite photo taken 9/17 shows the location of the Sonnentheil House. For a larger image click on the photo. To see a large 1.4MG .jpg of this entire area of Galveston, including part of the Cruise Terminal, The Strand, and with the neighborhood highlighted (Sonnentheil House and Carriage House is lower left):

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2260477070099778304Ucmaec

Link to NOAH with incredible post-Ike satellite photos of the Texas Gulf coast. Double click image for full-size image. These are 3 to almost 4MG's so may take a while to open. Because the photos are angled you will see all white at fist. Scroll down or all the way right to begin viewing the images.

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IMAGES/ike_c25885932.htm

Hurricane Ike

Though I'd been expecting to hear something from the Arlington EOC either for assistance with EMST or CERT, no news at all, other than that the National Preparedness Month push at 3 local superstores had been cancelled. I don't believe that any of the Arlington shelters are being activated. Nor have I heard or seen any requests for volunteers from the Red Cross on this side of the Metroplex. There are calls out from Dallas, who has already found it necessary to add 400 beds to it's 1000 bed shelter at the Convention Center, and from Austin. The City of Fort Worth is accepting evacuees. Because of probably flash floods and potential tornados as it moves through this area (depending on where it makes landfall), RACES is on standby. The latest report is that the line has shifted a bit further west putting Tarrant County closer to the center of circulation means a higher liklihood.

Update: Not 10 minutes after I originally posted this I got a call to see if I am available to monitor the Tarrant County Repeater at 146.94 and/or 442.400. I've been listening off and on and haven't heard any traffic, but I understand buses are headed this way. Update: I listened from home and there was essentially no radio traffic. I never was called to go in.



My DD decided 6:30 this morning would be a good time to call and ask if I had a different phone number for her Dad in Houston to offer a safe place. She's been unable to reach him, which is no surprise - long story. She was able to contact a friend who fully rennovated and restored (a lot of his own carpenter's handiwork) the Sonnentheil House, one of the homes that survived the 1900 hurricane. He had already evacuated. Since the Strand (which is already flooding from the harbor side of the island) and the Gulf are each only 4 or 5 blocks in opposite directions from its location on 21st street, with a 20' storm surge it's probably a given that the lower floor of his home is going to be innundated, which will be a horrible shame. The trees have likely weathered far worse winds. If you'd like to see additional photos, including an outstanding stain glass window on the stair landing:

http://community.webshots.com/user/LoneStarStitcher

Debrief on CERT Shelter activities

Monday, Sept 1st: Gung ho with energetic good intentions and ready to assist, several CERT volunteers rapidly deployed as soon as we got the call to show up at the large Salvation Army facility in Arlington. Living only 5 minutes away, I was the 2nd to show up from CERT about 11:45 noon. Four buses were on their way from some parish south of New Orleans, which would stop in Mesquite for medical attention and to be registered, then sent on to Arlington - or so the story went. In addition to us, there were numerous citizen and other former Salvation Army volunteers. Way too many. The Salvation Army set up cots in their gym for 194 guests. The Guests were to be admitted to the facility through the chapel where they would register, have their ID's checked and be given bracelets to identify them as being an individual allowed to be in the buildings. Following that they were to be taken to the gym where they would be assigned a cot and could take showers. A separate dining room was to feed 50 at a time.

Hours passed and no one knew where the buses even were. In addition to a dozen police officers and some firemen/EMT's, there were news crews from all the major affiliates and a couple of the local channels. One even did a live broadcast at 5. But no Guests had arrived. At 6:30 we were told to stand down and go home. Which is when I discovered I'd locked my keys in the car while juggling McDonald burgers and drinks at lunch. I managed to wave down the last volunteer just before he left the parking lot. He was kind enough to drive me home for the extra set of keys I normally carry in my purse.

I never heard from Tarrant County RACES who had emailed a plea for radio operators to handle shelter communications in the rest of Tarrant County. Arlington decided not to use radio communications after all, but judging by how difficult it was to reach anyone in charge (meaning paid employee) at the Arlington EOC by phone, I think that was a mistake. I would have liked to have been there to see what it is they were doing.

Tuesday: I was up at 6 waiting for email from the Arlington EOC. After 8 I called the CERT coordinator to find out what assistance was needed and was told he would have to call me back because the paid employees were in a meeting. An hour or so later he called to say the buses were in Dallas and soon on their way, and he would let me know. I was thinking maybe an hour. So I did some chores then sat by the phone waiting , and finally just dozed off. When I woke just before noon, I discovered that instead of calling there was yet another email asking who was available. So I called only to find out 2 buses had already arrived and they already had enough CERT volunteers at the Salvation Army. I was told to show up around 4 to relieve them. Ok. I was preparing to leave when I got a call to tell me to wait until 6. I asked about a large church who was expecting 4 buses. I was called back several minutes later and told me to go there instead. When I arrived, I was told I could not enter their shelter area until I had had the Red Cross background check. I showed them my city ID and explained I had already had one. I got a blank stare, so I called the EOC only to find the volunteer coordinator somewhat befuddled and side-tracked. When I was told the background check would only take 2 minutes, I told the EOC volunteer to forget it, Then I discovered background check required personal information typed into a website. As soon as I hit send, I was allowed in to the shelter area. I got an email Friday saying it had been completed and I could view it online. It was, of course clear. I've never even had a traffic ticket. What they are really screening for are persons convicted of crimes against children and violent felons. It was apparent as soon as we walked into the shelter it already had an abundance of volunteers. I asked their shelter manager what specifically I could do. He answered "uhhhhhhh?." So I asked if they really needed additional volunteers. "No." They had in 3 buses and had been told the 4th had already turned around. The coordinator commented he didn't know if they'd even need a shelter more than 1 night. So I left and drove 5 minutes to the Salvation Army to see if anyone needed a break. It was just after 4. There were many people just standing around waiting for something to do. The CERT volunteers had already departed.

As it turned out, my services weren't needed. The shelters closed after 2 nights because all the evacuees were able to go back home. I was disappointed that after all that waiting that I wasn't able to assist anyone, but I grateful that those that needed services were able to return home so quickly.

GRATUITOUS PUPPY UPDATE: Sisal may have found a home - IN QUEBEC!!

Update One year Later: The pups were one year old on April 4th, 2009. They are all still with daughter. With Mom that makes 4 big dogs.

GUSTAV - Tarrant County Shelter Activation

From Tarrant County RACES with the latest information for this area- received at 11:36 p.m.

At this hour, we have reports on ONE shelter being activated. This shelter was brought online before the 8am expected opening, to receive evacuees that arrived by bus. The rest of the shelters are expected to be ready to open at 8am.
The flights carrying as many as 4100 evacuees are still expected to happen tomorrow.
Additional Buses are expected, with an uncertain number of evacuees.
Current Situation:
RACES Support has been requested for Four Fort Worth City Shelters, the TC Evacuee Hub, and the Fort Worth EOC. We currently have an open need for RADIO Operators for these locations as early as 8am on Sunday 8-31-08. TC RACES will start operations under ARES Mode before 10am on Sunday on the 146.940 repeater. Members do not have to check-in to the net, unless you are offering assistance at that time. Additional Nets\Frequencies will be added as traffic or logistics deem necessary, but 146.940 will we used as the primary net for the duration of our activation.
Anticipated Changes:
While we do not self deploy, we have been told to expect a request for TC RACES support for as many as 8 additional shelters in Tarrant County, and to coordinate\staff with any other participating EOCs.
Action Plan:
If you are able to assist with communications for Shelter Operations or EOC support, at any point in the near future, now is the time to step forward. TC RACES Membership is highly encouraged but not required to provide assistance. At this hour, we believe ARES Mode will be sufficient for the majority of this event.
If you are willing to help and assist, please do not self activate to any of the shelter or other locations. To offer your assistance, please email your information and prepare your go-kit. We will be calling volunteers as soon as we have an assignment available.

With all good intentions / Hurricane Gustav

My apologies. I had every good intention of keeping this an active up to date blog. Life has a way of ....

MAY SHELTER EXERCISE: In May the City of Arlington had a Shelter Exercise as part of a statewide hurricane preparedness exercise. To my surprise, I was assigned as NET control for radio communications between the field and the Office of Emergency Management. The photo is of me after I set up the radio Go Kit and antennaes on the sidewalk because the Fire Departments new Mobile Command Center had not yet arrived. I'd never done it on my own, but in the past I've worked with the television crew at church, took video production at UTA, and since I know how to set both the VCR and cable converter box clock wasn't any big deal.

Irish Hancock, seated, is head of the Arlington Office of Emergency Management. Fire Chief Silvius, was Incident Commander for the exercise. The AFD MCC has a lot of high tech electronics, ultra high speed internet connections and closed circuit television, and the walls are all white board material for floor to ceiling writing purposes. This was purchased with a grant, from Homeland Security I believe.

The Emergency Medical Unit modules (or pods as they are called) can be located, inflated and equipped with beds, medications and supplies in about 30 minutes. These are used for both triage and minor care only so that only the severely injured are transported to area hospitals so as not to overwhelm emergency rooms. These will be used in a variety of situations, including severe weather events, toxic or biological hazards, etc. The reason these were here was so that assigned hospital staff could get hands on training in erecting the EMU's. This part of the exercise was in conjunction with, but separate from the Shelter Exercise. These are 2 50' long Quonset hut shaped inflatable EMU's that are set up to form a T. It's quite amazing to see these go from roll of white "plastic" to field emergency clinic in such a short time!

Below are just some of the many CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) members who participated and assisted in the Exercise. The particular job of these CERT members was to check in every person and vehicle who arrived on the site, including Police and Fire personnel. Name not on list or no valid ID, no entry. It was our first CERT community exercise, so we were learning as well. I am CERT trained and qualified but because I am a radio operator I end up providing communications while the rest will be assigned particular activities by the Incident Commander as needed. Each person involved was also supposed to check out through them. The obvious purpose is to make sure everyone has safely exited the site. However, on this day in this city park and due to the location of the parking lot off to the side rather than straight down the drive, and the lunch hour having already passed most people walked across the grassy lawn to their cars, and though a few followed the check-out procedure, it's definitely one of those things that needs to be worked on.

The shelter part of the "shelter exercise" was some distance from where I was located inside the Mobile Command unit. I understand it consisted of emptying and inventorying the trailers that carry the shelter supplies. There was some confusion about where the trailers were to park, and one ended up in a different parking lot. It didn't go exactly as planned, but one of the purposes of this exercise was to find out what was done right and what needed better preparation and execution. All in all it was a really interesting morning, and because I had never been a Net Controller before, quite a lesson for me as well. [Net Controller is the radio operator through whom all radio messages are relayed rather that one operator calling another direct. While that can be done, of course, in emergency situations it is critical that all messages be kept on one frequency so that they can be logged and everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Each operator contacts the Net Operator by stating his or her call sign (in situations like these it would be something like Shelter 1, or EMU 2 rather than the individual's radio call sign.) The Net Operator repeats back the call and asks for information, confirms it, then passes it along to wherever it needs to go. This was a fairly low-key exercise, so there was little radio traffic. Which is good since my only prior exposure to Net Control procedures is in participating in the RACES net during severe weather.

SPRING WEATHER:

We had some severe weather later in the spring, but since nothing comes immediately to mind, Arlington missed the worst of it.

RACES:

HURRAY!!! In June I was finally approved as a member of Tarrant County RACES. Some of the more notable things that RACES does is storm spotting in correlation with the National Weather Service, provide communications in emergency situations when non-RACES operators are banned from normal frequencies, provide communication assistance for local events such as Fort Worth's Mayfest, the Cowtown marathon, the Christmas Parade, etc. In Arlington the Arlington Amateur Radio Club and members of the Emergency Management Support Team provide radio communications for more local emergencies, Arlington's long-held and televised 4th of July Parade etc. Next year we'll be involved with the opening of the new Cowboy Stadium, a large Cinco de Mayo celebration, and upcoming in the future are perhaps a Final Four, and certainly the 2011 SUPER BOWL!!

HURRICANE GUSTAV:

As of the day I FINALLY post this, Hurricane Gustav has just crossed Cuba and is entering the Gulf of Mexico. I've already received emails from both Tarrant County RACES and the Arlington Office of Emergency Manage seeking dozens of volunteers for communications between various shelters and OEM's across Tarrant County. Resources, both human and material, are being marshaled and are awaiting deployment as soon as they know where Gustav is most likely to make landfall. The State Office of Emergency Management is coordinating counties and communities so that each can provide the assistance in a preplanned manner. DFW has been assigned 4100 evacuees. 1000 will be housed at the Dallas County Convention Center. The rest will be spread out across the DFW Metroplex. Arlington will have 4 shelters available; 3 run by the Red Cross and 1 by the Salvation Army. We were advised to get our "Go Kits" together (duffles or backpacks with personal items for at least 24 hours, together with radio gear, batteries, etc.), and to stand by for assignment. We expect to start shelter operations Sunday afternoon.

10:57 PM update. I just got an email from the Coordinator for Tarrant County RACES. I'm on his list for the first wave of volunteers. I need to forward a copy to Ben at the Arlington EOC so he can claim me first if he needs to and I can pull my name off Andy's, or at least make sure I don't need to be in 2 places at the same time. Maybe I'd better get some sleep!

But first ONE LAST UPDATE:

PUPPIES:

April 30th - Not quite 4 weeks old:

They will be 5 months old on the 9/4. Officially they are now doglets. Reggie, the gorgeous grey guy, was taken by daughter's next door neighbor who then moved back to California on July 4th with promises of photos and updates. Since she hasn't responded to email nor returned a single phone call, I am sick with the feeling that something happened to him and she just doesn't want us to know. Merida, the white one, will likely go to daughter's childhood friend and her family, though that's the one I would take if I could. Marley & Sisal look like they'll be staying with daughter. They weighed over 30 pounds at 4 months.

Photos taken 8/21. Marley - formerly a brown puff ball is now thin & lanky, loves to run and play, and can stand on her hind legs straighter than any dog I've ever seen. I think she'd be great at agility trials.

Sweet Merida, always the most laid back, and rambunctious Sisal who needs a young and very active family to keep him out of mischief.

** I know there are several errors in the above, left out words, etc. I'm too tired to edit properly. If you'll email or post a comment pointing those out, I'll correct and appreciate the assistance.