Traffic has been a horrific nightmare. It took me 2.5 hrs to get to my temporary residence last night. Every single shortcut or alternate route had lights out. Lights that were working days ago, are now down. Can't the city send some ppl out to critical intersections with lights out, and direct traffic? I've never seen the city traffic system as crippled as it was last night. TWO AND HALF HOURS to get from 610/San Felipe to I-10/Fry. Come on.
F her. That is what store clerks are for. Since when do shoppers have to do the clean up....even if it was their fault?
I Would smack this lady in her face!! http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080918_mh_teacher_MREs.8c4fa377.html Jacki Steinhauer is one of the lucky ones. She has no damage at her Deer Park home, she has power and she doesn't have to work since her school is closed. "Life is great after a hurricane when nothing really happened to your house!" Steinhauer says in her blog, "The Secret Life of an Uninteresting Teacher." The most recent entries brag about all of the free MREs she's been eating -- MREs that are meant for hurricane victims who have no food because they have no power. Some of those victims have no homes. The teacher has it down to a science, according to her blog: "I got Schlotsky's today for lunch and went again to the courthouse in Baytown to get my water, ice, and food. This time, there were different meals, but hopefully as good as the others. Then, i came home, emptied my trunk and then headed off for the Deer Park POD (Point of Delivery)." "I think that I am falling in love with MREs. They are pretty darn good. I went around 5:30 to go get more MREs and actually got another box of real MREs, water, and ice," Steinhauer wrote on Wednesday. "Right now, I have five cases of water, two 20 pound bags of ice, four 10 pound bags of ice, and four boxes of MREs." While stocking her pantry and frig with taxpayer-funded freebies, Steinhauer has become quite the MRE connoisseur. "Yesterday I ate meatballs with marinara sauce, almonds, wheat bread with cheese sauce, pretzels, and the orange punch. Today's meal was chili mac, applesauce, a pop-tart, wheat bread with cheese sauce, fruit punch, and apple cider," she wrote. "It is so cool that you put a little bit of water in the bag with the food and in about a minute, there is hot food. This is great. I don't have school and getting free food!" What Steinhauer probably didn't bank on -- in between bites of meatballs in marinara and chili mac -- is that nothing is really secret in cyberspace. Her blog began making the rounds Wednesday and commenters from all over the country are ripping Steinhauer to shreds. Many of the comments contain language we can't quote. Here are some of the cleaner ones: "You are a disgusting excuse for a human being. I can't believe you are taking advantage at a time like this." "That is just disgusting what you are doing. How can you live with yourself?" "You are taking away food and supplies that people who really need them should get. Talk about spoiled and greedy. Karma will come back and slap you upside your head for that." "Hope you choke on those MRE's." We spoke with Steinhauer by phone on Thursday. She said she took the free food, water and ice because she "has no money." She initially said she's out of work right now, but then admitted she's a teacher at Baytown's Lee High School and is still getting paid while the school is temporarily closed because of Ike. "But I spent my last $20 yesterday," Steinhauer said. She said she wasn't aware of the flood of nasty comments. Some of the commenters have threatened to turn the "uninteresting teacher" in for fraud. It's not clear if she would face charges. We tried calling the FEMA fraud hotline to ask, but the line was busy. The blog disappeared Thursday evening, shortly after we talked with Steinhauer.
Whoa! 2.5 hours? Yeah, I agree with you...who is in charge of the city traffic system? Transtar? I guess they're waiting for power to come on then fix the traffic lights. I didn't want to take any streets because I knew it would be a mess so I've been taking freeways after work to my house and parents'. Ugh, yeah! People like her are taking advantage of the situation. That's why I'm not going to ask for help from my company...they're donating 1 million dollars to employees who are in a serious financial situation after the hurricane. One of my co workers told me that a lady here called the hotline and told them she needed a generator and chainshaw and they told her to give her reciepts and she would get reimbursed. He told me to buy a generator (we still don't have power) and sell it to him after getting reimbursed. Uh, I don't want to take away money from people who really need it. We just have fence and some shingles damage and the power will go back on soon.
I got an MRE without the heater pack. I **** you not. I'm not complianing because I have other food but I'm just saying I feel sorry for people who receiving bad MREs when this lady is hoarding good ones.
Damn, they shouldn't have called her. They basically tipped her off. Seriously, if that blog was still up, this bbs could have totally exposed her. I'm willing to bet someone here knows exactly who she is. She's a teacher at Baytown Lee. We could have started a thread with a link to the blog. Someone here has to know who she is. Too bad that blog is gone. EDIT: The article mentions her name..... Seriously, can someone report this hillbilly butterhog to the authorities?
That thought crossed my mind, but then I realized I'm far more thankful they are extending the police to patrol and keep order rather than direct traffic. It's annoying, but not nearly as much as looting would be or fights breaking out at gas stations. They're doing what they can. Also, I am noticing traffic light restoration at some intersections. Evan
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=214689588 her myspace page....have at it
I pity her for thinking MREs are pretty good. The food she normally eats must be pretty terrible. Btw, what could she possibly do with all that ice?
Common courtesy? Respect for other people? Sorry to hear how some of you aren't holding up well, or are having to deal with the assholes of the world. I hope things improve for everybody. Hang in there.
Traffic is a mickey fickey at one point it seemed like I was going backwards.They need to open up the HOV lanes to ease some of the gridlock. Gridlock..gridlock.
Yeah I'm in the same boat. My apartment is in one big-ass building, continuous throughout with four floors and all internal stairways. Well, half my building is powered, and the other (guess which one I'm in) won't have power till Tuesday at the earliest. My parents' home (where I've been living the past week) has no power either still, and it 88% of our zip code is supposed to have power already. I really hope someone's head at Centerpoint, if not the entire company, rolls for this one because it truly is a sign of gross incompetence. People on the radio are attempting to quell the masses by saying "think of those worse off than you, be thankful for what you have" but honestly, it has nothing to do with that. It comes down to what you can reasonably expect from a civilized society, and power and water are first and foremost among them. I spent an hour and a half driving home yesterday, and that would have been fine with me if I did not see at least on three occasions this scenario: you've got an intersection with no lights, full-on rush hour going on in the east-west direction with cars going back beyond the eye can see, and then in the north-south direction one, two lines of cars tops. And it's the cars in the north-south direction that are CUTTING in front of the cars in the other direction, moving ahead of their turn and screwing the hundreds stuck in the other lane in the process. What kind of people are these??? Honestly, this is just another piece of the trend I've noticed the past decade of our politicians throwing money in the gutter rather than spending it on our infrastructure. Count that falling bridge in Minnesota among them. The infrastructure spending makes no headlines, and there are no special interest groups to support them, but the money recirculates into our economy. Instead we take all our money and spend it on rebuilding IRAQ'S infrastructure. I'm voting against all incumbent politicians from here on out. They clearly don't get the message.
Anyone know how the traffic is looking so far today? If it's as bad as it was yesterday (only took me an hour from the Galleria to Eldridge/Westheimer), my girl and I are just going to stay in this area and have dinner/drinks.
Not sure where you are at, but I'm looking out of my office window at 610/59, and it's already a parking lot. Typical Friday traffic + lights out + 2:30p = argh. I was on 290/610 earlier (12p) and it was already backing up.
