Dang, This Is As Bad As It Gets.

[Sunking]

Being in Telecom and Electric Utilities all my career I have been to a number of natural disaster recoveries. Up to now Hurricane Katrina in NOLA was the biggest and worse mess I have seen. Well Katrina was minor street flooding compared to what is happening in Houston. Been on the outskirts of Houston for 3 days now and just now able to go in and get started. That is if you can find gasoline. Gas shortages are so bad, Dallas, Ft Worth and all the way up to the Red River are running out.

It is quite over whelming with no end in site. I could be here for weeks, and I do not know if that is long enough. Massive power outages, very limited phone service, no gasoline, food, fresh water, toilet paper, nothing. Even though we are not suppose to carry weapons, many utility workers and relief workers are forced to carry weapons. If anyone sees a utility truck or service vehicle of any kind is in danger. People know you have gas, food, money, water, and toilet paper. We have to ride with a partner. One to guard the the truck and the other do the work.

It is Hell on earth folks on the Gulf TX coast. Never been fearful for my life in a storm area. I have not been this concerned since I was in Desert Storm back in 1991. Complete chaos and havoc.

Please do your part to help these people. It is not about me or what you think of me. It is for people in need of help. You do not have to come, donate and give all the spare change and blood you can. Donate whatever you can to your favorite charity. Or just use your cell phone and Text HARVEY2017 to 91999 for a $10 donation.

Here is a link to Red Cross for direct donations. Do something please. Give blood and/or donate money.

God Bless

SK

[Mike90250]

Thanks for the front line report. Be safe, guard the truck and TP

[Gdwats]

Done. Thank you Sunking, from all of us and them.

[jflorey2]

Done. Thank you Sunking, from all of us and them.

In case anyone is looking for other places to contribute -

My company has set up a matching fund for people who contribute to Harvey relief efforts, so I did a little research on which charities/organizations out there make the most sense.

Red Cross is the obvious choice, and I still think they do good work, but with the recent scandals over so little of the money actually getting to the people who need it they aren't my first choice any more. https://www.redcross.org/donate/hurr...mpmedium=aspot

The one I ended up going with was the Greater Houston Community Foundation, a charity set up by the mayor and one of Houston's judges. You can contribute here: https://ghcf.org/hurricane-relief/

Some other ones I think are good options if people prefer:

Americares - emergency health services https://secure.americares.org/site/D...225.1503959485

Center for Disaster Philanthropy - medium and long term rebuilding http://disasterphilanthropy.org/

Feeding Texas - food bank support https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/harvey-food-relief

Global Giving - local relief and funding https://www.globalgiving.org/project...y-relief-fund/

Save the Children - family oriented relief and support https://secure.savethechildren.org/s...a/sd/donor.asp

There is also apparently a big need for blood, since the need for blood has picked up a little (not a lot fortunately) but all the donor centers in Houston are closed. Red Cross is again an option, but most cities have local blood banks that perform a similar service (and blood is fairly portable.)

[bcroe]

IL and no doubt many other states are taking action to help out. Bruce Roe

[Sunking]

Out of TX, Hello Tampa Bay FL. Wow is all I can say. At least FL will not take near as long.

Seen something in TX I have never seen before, lost causes. When doing storm recovery utilities use great big maps to help engineers and technicians see the whole picture and note problems so we can dispatch crews in an efficient manner. Telcos and CATV does the same thing. Well this time I seen things on those maps I have never seen done before and this is my 9th Rodeo. Well hopefully you might be curious what I seen.

Blacked Out areas with a big black X. Those Blacked out area are areas that will not be restored or rebuilt anytime soon if ever again. Harvey stayed so long in some areas, wind damaged large area. I mean cleaned buildings off the foundations and deposited them in the Gulf and local lakes, ditches, and low areas. There is nothing to restore service to. Even the local goberment has abandoned those area for the time being. TDOT and local highway authorities are not even sending crews in to clear the roads, only highways.

Anyway folks lot of solar panels around in huge piles along the coast from Corpus to Lake Charles. Take all you want, they are free. The owners have no use for them anymore.

A ghost town was born.

[max2k]

Out of TX, Hello Tampa Bay FL. Wow is all I can say. At least FL will not take near as long.

Seen something in TX I have never seen before, lost causes. When doing storm recovery utilities use great big maps to help engineers and technicians see the whole picture and note problems so we can dispatch crews in an efficient manner. Telcos and CATV does the same thing. Well this time I seen things on those maps I have never seen done before and this is my 9th Rodeo. Well hopefully you might be curious what I seen.

Blacked Out areas with a big black X. Those Blacked out area are areas that will not be restored or rebuilt anytime soon if ever again. Harvey stayed so long in some areas, wind damaged large area. I mean cleaned buildings off the foundations and deposited them in the Gulf and local lakes, ditches, and low areas. There is nothing to restore service to. Even the local goberment has abandoned those area for the time being. TDOT and local highway authorities are not even sending crews in to clear the roads, only highways.

Anyway folks lot of solar panels around in huge piles along the coast from Corpus to Lake Charles. Take all you want, they are free. The owners have no use for them anymore.

A ghost town was born.

Wow, glad you made it out safely.

For those who might decide to go and pick up some 'free' equipment- is there procedure to ensure this won't be considered looting? Given state of affairs there those abandoned areas might look just like the next town which is not abandoned so I presume without some 'guidance' map / local authorities awareness it would be too adventurous.

[Sunking]

Wow, glad you made it out safely..

THX

For those who might decide to go and pick up some 'free' equipment- is there procedure to ensure this won't be considered looting? .

Well Max that was just Tongue-N-Cheek humor. Looting would be going into say a store or someone's house (still standing with walls, roof, doors and windows) under mandatory evacuation. Don't think anyone is going to have a problem with anyone picking up a busted mangled solar panel off the beach, street, ditch, or embedded into a wall. I would call that clean up and salvage operations. You cannot Loot a house or building that is not there anymore other than the foundation. All the panels I seen were twisted and mangled with no glass.

But yes folks are picking up storm debris that has value. Copper, Steel, Glass, Aluminum, you name it. If it is recyclable with a $$ associated with it is being collected. You can make some serious money with a truck load of aluminum and copper.

However looting is and I imagine is still going on. Thaty is why we carried guns. At least I did when outside the compound. Either that or you needed a security guard. Desperate situations require desperate actions. I cannot count the number of cased of batteries, food, water, and toilet paper I gave away. Even gave away quite a bit of gasoline when I left. We had 6 Jerry Cans full of gas and gave it away. Refilled them while going to FL.