Now that it's summer and the storms are brewing here, it makes me think back to my experiences with storms... I remember Alicia totalled our vehicles from trees falling on top of them, then we were without power for 4 days in Houston heat... I remember Allison flooded our vehicles TWICE, the second time she totalled them BOTH. My grandma's house floated off the brick stilts and into the road with her IN THE ATTIC. (she thought she was going to die)... Man the aftermath was something else!!! That night we were up till 7am the next morning. (THAT WAS AN ALL NIGHTER STORM)
hmmmm... i remember when i was kid and still lived in houston, hurricane alicia came through and a huge tree fell on our house. sorry... my only experience.
I had to work during Alicia. UPS continued to work (not a surprise to anyone who has worked there) and I was midnight manager of PD3 - my guys were afraid to get in the trailers (and I don't blame them - those trailers were rocking). I drove home at 4am in a Chevette from Gulf Bank in north Houston to Fuqua in south Houston. I drove past Hobby to drop a friend off at his house and on the road we drove over something (up/down/up/down) - it was a wall from a building with a big window or door. At 7am the eye passed right over my apartment. Very cool - and memorable.
Hurricane Alicia, 1983. I had graduated college that May, and moved back in with my folks in Houston. It was the middle of the oil crunch and I couldn't find a job after I graduated. The day of the hurricane, I had tickets to see Simon and Garfunkel at the Astrodome. The radio announced that due to the impending hurricane, the concert was cancelled. Around 6PM I got a call from a girlfriend that she was throwing a "hurricane party" at her apartment. Got there around 8PM...30 people partying heavily. TV was on the weather channel with the sound muted and the music was cranked up over the stereo. Partied till about midnight. Hurricane was still off the Galveston coast. Said my goodbyes and got in my car for the 10 minute drive back to my folk's house. As I was driving back, I noticed "heat lightning" (lightning behind the clouds) off in the distance. Only thing was, this lighting was green. I chalked it up to too much booze. Flopped on my bed and passed out at 12:30 AM. Around 2AM, I was woken up by a terrific BOOM. Looked at the windows in my bedroom and they were buckling. The wind was howling. Went inside, and the TV was on (cable was out) and through the static, I saw Ron Stone with his tie untied telling us "Yep...Alicia is here". My folks were already up cooking breakfast, and asked me how much bacon I wanted. The eye passed over our house around 9AM. My Dad and I stepped outside and it was eerily calm. After about 5 minutes, my Dad said "let's get our butts back inside fast". 5 minutes after that...BOOM...the back end of the hurricane hits, and it didn't stop until late that evening. We had electricity while everyone across the street did not, so everyone across the street started bringing thir frozen food to people on our side of the street to store it in our freezers.
My grandparents house flooded pretty bad during Alicia, but nothing compared to the devastation Allison caused my family. This all took place in the Inwood Forest subdivision, one of the hardest-hit areas: By pure luck, I happened to be in Austin that weekend, where the weather was simply beautiful. I got up Saturday morning and headed to a StarBucks, but first I had to go to the ATM. It rejected my card, but I knew I had enough of cash in there, so I drove to another one, and another one, and another one. Finally, I called the 1-800 customer service number to find out what the hell was going on. I couldn't use my card because "Houston is under water," the lady told me. I immediately tried to call every member of my family, but I couldn't get a hold of anyone. The phone lines were down. I raced back to my friends house to turn on the news, but she didn't have cable and the local channels weren't showing anything at that momet, so I went to the internet to the Chronicles web site, where I saw that now-famous picture of I-10 were the big rigs look like toy trucks floating in a kiddie pool. After reading that and trying again to get a hold of my family, I finally got some news on TV. All reports were that the roads were closed. I was frantic. I didn't know what to do. I tried calling my family quite literally a few hundred times trying to get through. Reports of people dead had me really scared, but I did know at least that my grandfather was out of town. I still couldn't get hold of anyone. Finally, the phone rang the next morning (Sunday). Mom was in tears, but said everyone was okay, but that I "wouldn't believe the destruction." She was right. When i finally got home everything looked like a war zone. Allison: The Vehicles As I said, I was in Austin that weekend. Not to sound petty, but thank god I was, or I would have lost my car. My grandfather was out of town as well, otherwise he would have lost his car. My mom, however wasn't so lucky. She was coming home from work and going through water when the car stalled. She was forced to leave it to Allison's mercy and had to spend the night at Inwood Forest Country Club, about 1/2 mile from the house. The next morning, mom's car was completely totaled, and someone drove my mom to her house on a jet ski. This house was on Antoine. Allison: The Homes My mom's house was a townhouse, and sat a good FOUR FEET above street level. She had TWO FEET of water downstairs for well over 12 hours. All of the neighbors who had cars in their garages lost their cars. Trucks and vans got water into the cabins, but were otherwise okay. Power tools? Gone. Furniture? Gone. Anything was was sitting on the floor was completely destroyed. And this didn't even compare to my grandfather's house.... (....my grandfather was 90 at the time. Fortunately for him, he didn't let the devastation get to him, and he came out all right. Now 92, he goes dancing all the time, and when he's not dancing, he's off gambling in Lousiana. The guy has a better social life and more girlfriends than I do. Thank god he's okay after all that.) My grandfather's house had over five feet of water in it for nearly 24 hours. Family heirlooms and antique furniture, of which we had a TON, were all completely destroyed. His whole street was evacuated by boat, and everyone on that street who was home lost their car(s). Everyone on that street lost nearly every personal possession they had in their homes. It was several months before my grandfather could get back in his house. Fortunately I also have an aunt in Houston, and fortunately for my mom and my grandfather, her house didn't get flooded so we all had a place to stay. I continued to stay in the upstairs of my mom's house to protect it from looters. Fortunately, her place hadn't lost power. Slept next to a loaded shotgun and pistol. During the day, it was clean-up time. Family from all over the country came in to help, mostly at my grandfathers house because damn ya'll, that place was 100% destroyed. We worked 16-18 hour days for the first couple of weeks, but the whole process of tear-out and clean-up took much longer than that. My grandfather's house was finally finished a few months ago. Mom's house went a bit quicker because there was a lot less damage, relatively speaking. Eventually, the out-of-town family had to leave to get back to work. Eventually my mom and aunt had to do the same. I had just graduated from college and was at the time unemployed, so the responsibility of overseeing everything came solely to me. By the time everything was finished or close to finished, I had been out of work for so long that no one was interested in hiring me, and no one cared when I told them about The Storm. It took forever to land a job. The effects of Tropical Storm Allison were more far-reaching than most people realize. Well, the people that weren't here to witness it, anyway. Ironically, after spending months and months arguing with the insurance adjusters and contractors, I'm now an insurance adjuster, arguing with contractors. We are STILL going through boxes and cleaning some of the smaller items that were salvageable. After dealing with all that mess, we just didn't want to re-live that devastation, so we left a ton of things boxed up. And we still have furniture being re-built that isn't expected to be ready for months. Both my mom and my grandfather sold their homes after putting them back together, and moved out of Inwood Forest, where I grew up. They now live in the same neighborhood as my aunt, whose house did NOT flood during Allison. For me, it took so long to get a job that my bills piled up and piled up. I still live at home as a result, but I should finally be out by the end of summer. Tropical Storm Allison was, not including deaths of friends and family, the worst thing that ever happened to my family and myself. I never want to go through that again.
I was three months old during alecia. allison was fun. well, it wasnt fun, but yall know what im getting it. i;; talk about it later, because im too lazy to remember.
If you're referring to the old kite factory, then yeah. Gayla is/was about 1-2 miles south on Antoine from Inwood Forest.
I remember Hurricane Gloria in 1985, I believe. I was living in Connecticut, and the thing slowly made its way up the coast and hit Connecticut. The storm itself wasn't much of anything, but it downed power lines and knocked our power out for about a week. And in Storrs, Connecticut, when you lose power, you also lose water. It wasn't cool.
a twister spun off during hurricane alicia...took part of our roof off...we had to live in a hotel for 7 weeks while the contractors repaired our home. i remember being in awe of the storm...i was in 4th grade and we were all in an interior room...but i would peek around to look outside...absolutely amazing storm. tropical storm allison...some meterologists say it wasn't even a tropical storm by the time it made landfall...but it just sat over us. i was at work late that night...my back to the window in my office..my wife called at about 7:30 and told me the rain was coming down really hard...i looked outside and headed out immediately. visibility down to about nothing on I-10...i made it home, but I don't think I went faster than about 20mph the whole way out.
That reminds me that I did have power and water through the storm. When it was over, I let my reserve water out of the bathtub. Later that day I didn't have power or water for days. I had to melt my ice cube trays to get enough water to "wash" my hair. ugh.
