Hurricane Ike

[editor]

Harris County Toll Road Authority to Resume Toll Collection

Reprieve Granted in Response to Hurricane Ike Ends Saturday

HOUSTON - Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and county Toll Road Authority officials

decided today that traffic conditions now warrant the resumption of toll collections on

the Harris County Toll Road system. Therefore, drivers should be prepared to begin

paying normal tolls with cash or EZ TAG this Saturday, September 27, 2008.

Emmett authorized waiving tolls beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, September 10,

to assist the evacuation of the southeast Texas region prior to the impending landfall

of Hurricane Ike. In the aftermath of the storm and with the declaration of the

Houston-Galveston region as a disaster area, tolls continued to be waived. "The toll

road's capacity was needed to help with traffic management efforts," said Toll Road

Director Gary Stobb, "while traffic signals on surface streets suffered from storm

damage and/or loss of power, as well as to allow passage for service providers,

emergency responders, and citizens returning home."

With power now restored to more than 75% of Centerpoint Energy customers, and

more and more traffic signals coming online by the hour, officials have agreed to

resume normal operations on the Harris County Toll Road system. With the City of

Galveston re-opened to residents today, free access to the toll road system provided

a means to divert some of that traffic around Houston rather than through it.

Signage will be placed throughout the system, at toll plazas and in EZ TAG stores

notifying the public that the toll waiver will be lifted Saturday, September 27, 2008.

Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority Resumes Tolls

FORT BEND COUNTY, TX - Fort Bend County will resume collecting tolls on the WestPark and Parkway Toll Roads at 12:01 a.m., Thursday, September 25, 2008. "We have incurred $640,000 in lost revenue to date. This is 10% of our annual debt service. Fort Bend must avoid forcing the use of tax dollars for payment of toll bonds or for operating the system," said County Judge Bob Hebert.

[Highrise Tower]

This is what I meant by yesterdays rant.

CenterPoint misses reconnection deadline

11:49 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"HOUSTON – As of Wednesday night, CenterPoint had restored power to 78 percent of their customers. Only 500,000 remain without power, but some of them may not get their lights turned back on until November."

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/kho...e.ac0eda4b.html

Novemeber huh. Surely that's not 610 South, 59 South, I-10 West customers. That has to be out in the burbs or out by the sea land.

[musicman]

i can officially say i have the power. when i rebooted my computer i got the blue screen of death

i will say depending on what crew is in your hood different approaches are taken.

1)in my hood, they were working ot get the hi voltage line up first, applying power and then worrying about transformers later

2) in my parent's hood, the were working to get the hi voltage lines/transformers/downed lines to house up and then applying power

[tmariar]

i can officially say i have the power. when i rebooted my computer i got the blue screen of death

Good for you! And bad for you - sorry about the computer...

[musicman]

my parents were telling me that tree crews in their area were sitting in their trucks for 45 mins or so. my dad went out and asked them what was going on. they said "we're waiting for ch 45 who are supposed to come out and do a story on us trimming trees". my dad told them that "he was going to call ch 13 so they can come do a story on them sitting in their truck" LOL

[ricco67]

This is what I meant by yesterdays rant.

CenterPoint misses reconnection deadline

11:49 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"HOUSTON – As of Wednesday night, CenterPoint had restored power to 78 percent of their customers. Only 500,000 remain without power, but some of them may not get their lights turned back on until November."

http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/kho...e.ac0eda4b.html

Novemeber huh. Surely that's not 610 South, 59 South, I-10 West customers. That has to be out in the burbs or out by the sea land.

Centerpoint was wrong to put out a "schedule" of the potential end of the restoration and simply put up "areas of higher priority due to damage" or whatever.

The thing is that people need to stop being it's "all about me" and realize you're not the only one (except for Red) to not have power. There are still hundreds of thousands of people that are in your same boat and you have linemen from all over the country working like madmen for 16hr days.

Heading back to my apartment from the grocery store, I saw *8* crews working on a single street within 2 blocks of each other to replace poles and brought in equipment to replace at least a blocks worth of cable due to severe tree damage.

Even though I only got power yesterday, I'm not bitter about the experience.

Do I wish I had power sooner? Yes. The cold showers sucked.

Do I blame anyone for not getting power sooner? No. I realize that my area was severely hit and knew it was going to take time.

Basically, get over it. They will come to you when they come to you.

On a side note, I was talking to a retired lineman who was DYING because he saw what was wrong with his neighborhood's line and knew if he just had a special tool he could restore power, but knew enough of the business where he couldn't do it without protection.

[Highrise Tower]

77035 & 77096 (Willowbend & Westbury)

CenterPoint friend told me this:

They tried to cut the electricity on last night.

When they did it blew a bunch of transformers and started a big fire.

They had fire trucks and stuff everywhere this morning.

So now they have to replace the transformers.

Edit:

Might explain this then?

09/24/2008 @ 5:00 AM CST- 77096- 40% without power.

09/25/2008 @ 5:00 AM CST- 77096- 47% without power.

[cottonmather0]

On a side note, I was talking to a retired lineman who was DYING because he saw what was wrong with his neighborhood's line and knew if he just had a special tool he could restore power, but knew enough of the business where he couldn't do it without protection.

Tell him not to come to my backyard or he'll just keel over for good. Literally, the line needs to be pulled out of the tree and the pole needs 2, maybe 3 nails to reattach the arm. The wire is even still attached to the insulator! It's only about 10-15 minutes worth of work to fix and we're going on two weeks now for someone just to come into the yard.

We would have been better off if the whole line had fallen to the ground!

[musicman]

you've also assumed that is the only problem. my neighbors across the street are on the same grid as me and have no power because of a bad transformer on their part of the block

[RedScare]

you've also assumed that is the only problem. my neighbors across the street are on the same grid as me and have no power because of a bad transformer on their part of the block

Not to be pedantic, and I am actually agreeing with you, but you are assuming that your neighbor is on the same grid as you. Besides, at least cotton can see some damage. My neighbors and I have inspected all of our lines, and all are up and attached. There is even power at either end of the 2 block stretch. Only the fuse on the transformers need to be reset.

Just the way it is.

EDIT: Oops, almost forgot my signature tagline. "Day 13 without power..."

[musicman]

Not to be pedantic, and I am actually agreeing with you, but you are assuming that your neighbor is on the same grid as you.

they are had a lot of free time last week to investigate.

[musicman]

looks like meyerland residents are protesting now on 13. centerpoint told some of the protesters that it may be 2 more weeks.

[tmariar]

Got my power back a couple of hours ago. Hope that's a promising sign for others in the Heights still without.

[musicman]

Got my power back a couple of hours ago. Hope that's a promising sign for others in the Heights still without.

congrats...mine has been going on/off several times this afternoon so keep your fingers crossed!

[rsb320]

congrats...mine has been going on/off several times this afternoon so keep your fingers crossed!

....not too much celebrating, now. I've found that kilz it every time.

Got news today that two friends finally got power. N. Mainish, near I-45 and Antoine, near SH 290.

RedScare, you sound kinda loopy. Don't you get up there and try and reset that fuse you speak of.

[flipper]

One of my friends in Post Oak Manor got power today. There was a crew working in Westbury section 1 today. No power yet in Willowbend/Willowbrook that I know of

flipper

[RedScare]

....not too much celebrating, now. I've found that kilz it every time.

Got news today that two friends finally got power. N. Mainish, near I-45 and Antoine, near SH 290.

RedScare, you sound kinda loopy. Don't you get up there and try and reset that fuse you speak of.

We've already debated it. Decided against it...reluctantly.

[cottonmather0]

Not to be pedantic, and I am actually agreeing with you, but you are assuming that your neighbor is on the same grid as you. Besides, at least cotton can see some damage. My neighbors and I have inspected all of our lines, and all are up and attached. There is even power at either end of the 2 block stretch. Only the fuse on the transformers need to be reset.

Just the way it is.

EDIT: Oops, almost forgot my signature tagline. "Day 13 without power..."

Yep, our pole is the last one on the line at the end of the block and everyone upstream has their power back. All that's left are the 5 houses served by this one pole.

[Highrise Tower]

looks like meyerland residents are protesting now on 13. centerpoint told some of the protesters that it may be 2 more weeks.

Figures, same thing I thought of. (I edited my above post... it was a rant)

I think most of SW Houston (S. Post Oak, W. Bellfort, Chimney Rock, Hillcroft, Willowbend, Bissonnet, Bellaire and so on) will have power 'by' October the 20th.

77035 and 77096 won't have power till weeks to come... yay

77035 as of 09/25/08 5:00 AM CST- 24% without power.

77035 as of 09/26/08 5:00 AM CST- 17% without power.

Making progress, I do have a feeling one of these days it will jump 30% up.

[musicman]

Figures, same thing I thought of. (I edited my above post... it was a rant)

I think most of SW Houston (S. Post Oak, W. Bellfort, Chimney Rock, Hillcroft, Willowbend, Bissonnet, Bellaire and so on) will have power 'by' October the 20th.

77035 and 77096 won't have power till weeks to come... yay

77035 as of 09/25/08 5:00 AM CST- 24% without power.

77035 as of 09/26/08 5:00 AM CST- 17% without power.

Making progress, I do have a feeling one of these days it will jump 30% up.

most zips would be happy with 17%. i know mine is 71% still out and others are more.

[Highrise Tower]

This is very true. I do sound like a jerk.

High stress for me this week (Architecture and no power.)

[rsb320]

Has anyone heard how many power people have been killed or how many traffic cops killed while directing traffic? Why is this not being reported?

[ricco67]

This is very true. I do sound like a jerk.

High stress for me this week (Architecture and no power.)

You know, I find it quite interesting on how people have been handling the stress with no power, loss of work, etc.

Looking at some of my friends, it is interesting on how they truly handle stress in their lives and was surprised (and disappointed) on how they handled the IKE aftermath.

[tmariar]

congrats...mine has been going on/off several times this afternoon so keep your fingers crossed!

....not too much celebrating, now. I've found that kilz it every time.

Yeah, I had the same thoughts...

My neighbors across the street from me still don't have power, nor did Red a few blocks away when I last checked. Crazy. Checked with some neighbors last night and will check with others today to see if they need any of my supplies. If they or Red don't take them today, I'll offer them up to others.

There was a new article in the Chron that addressed a bit better some of the questions I had above in my rant about superficial and anecdotal news coverage. I hope these kinds of questions continue to be asked and answered now and are not left to second-guessing later, for the reasons mentioned previously. I don't get the attitude some people seem to have (not so much here as in the Chron comments) that wanting more information from Centerpoint higher-ups is somehow a criticism of the job being done by the workers in the field (or of anyone at Centerpoint, really - how is asking for information a criticism? they are likely doing at least an ok job and may be doing an exceptional job, but we don't have enough information yet to know that) - as strange to me as equating questions about Iraq policy with a lack of support for troops. The public should be given the information it needs to evaluate the job being done by Centerpoint not just in the interest of those in our city for whom a lack of power is more than just an inconvenience, but also in the interest of the workers.

Separate issue - I'm hoping to do/give something to help one of the organizations like the SPCA or Humane Society tomorrow, in honor of getting power back. I'll check all the recent news updates and the groups' websites on what's needed where. But if anyone has any additional information along those lines, I'd be interested in hearing it.

[sunsets]

Just wanted to add I saw a bunch of linemen and trucks on 7th and 8th street just west of Studewood, so maybe that part of the Heights might come back on today. There was also a bucket truck with workmen in the side courtyard of Antidote, with a lot of hopeful-looing people standing around (Antidote's been running on generator, but it's keeping their wi-fi on).

[RedScare]

So, my dog wakes me up with her barking, that insistent, incessant kind of bark she does when people are in my back yard, like....oh, I don't know....maybe power company linemen! Guy tells me it will be just a little while. That was at 10 am.

On a more positive note, power is on across the street. Yes, that is correct. The people with the whole house generator now have power restored. A lesser man might blame it on my being agnostic.

[memebag]

On a more positive note, power is on across the street. Yes, that is correct. The people with the whole house generator now have power restored. A lesser man might blame it on my being agnostic.

I'm tellin' ya, it's the witchcraft.

[cottonmather0]

This was taken from my backyard around 1:15 this afternoon.

And it did indeed taken him about 15 minutes to fix the whole thing. Rather interestingly, he didn't bother replacing or fixing the arm that broke, he just stuck a new bell insulator thingie on the stub and reattached the wire. Then he reconnected some of the switches back from the transformer to the line (not sure how these work but they look like big springs) and popped it all shut and told us to go inside and see if the lights were on. They were and I offered him a beer which he graciously declined as it's probably best to be sober in his line of work.

This was not a Centerpoint crew, btw. These guys are with Dominion out of Virginia and they had crews all over Timbergrove today. I counted at least 8 different bucket trucks along with various pickups and other vehicles cruising the streets and pulled up in people's yards. Looks like they're getting pretty granular now with the repairs.

[Highrise Tower]

Somebody on the 'other' side of S. Post Oak & Willowbend got power today around 3:00 PM.

Other Side- by W. Bellfort and Chevron.

[RedScare]

So, my dog wakes me up with her barking, that insistent, incessant kind of bark she does when people are in my back yard, like....oh, I don't know....maybe power company linemen! Guy tells me it will be just a little while. That was at 10 am.

On a more positive note, power is on across the street. Yes, that is correct. The people with the whole house generator now have power restored. A lesser man might blame it on my being agnostic.

Cancel that 'power on' comment. House across the street caught fire 2 hours after power was restored. Brought down a garage apartment, and most of house. Burned power pole, transformer blew. Crews shut off power again.

Man, these Heights houses burn fast! Those of you still without power, go turn off the breakers to your major appliances and AC now! When power comes on, it often surges, and can overload the circuits. This house was completely consumed before HFD could even get here.

Photo from my front porch. Garage is directly behind the bungalow. This is after fire was largely burned out. When I first saw it, flames were a good 50 feet in the air.