Monday, September 08, 2008
01:05 pm: First warning message from UH about Hurricane Ike.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
10:25 am: Announcement - University of Houston Closes at 5 p.m. September 11, 2008
02:00 pm: Project Demo
05:00 pm: Decided not to evacuate.
05:30 pm: Bought hurricane supplies, stores ran out of supplies.
10:00 pm: Reached friend’s place at Holly Hall Apartments (Shelter 1) for pre-hurricane party.
Friday, September 12, 2008
12:00 am: Tequila starts flowing, all ten of us start playing Counter-strike.
06:00 am: Tequila and CS stops, whiskey and loud rock music start.
10:00 am: Everyone falls asleep/leaves.
04:00 pm: Woke up.
05:00 pm: Curfew announced in evacuated parts of Houston from 07:00 pm.
Decided to stay with friends during hurricane, rather than at home.
06:00 pm: Reached home, packed and went back to Shelter 1.
09:00 pm: Four of us cooked food, stored water in bathtub, and satisfied ourselves that we are prepared.
Winds picked up, sky clouded over. We start following news channels, storm trackers, etc.
09:30 pm: Five more friends came over. We cooked more food, assembled supplies. Had dinner.
Rain starts falling. Clearlake area flooded.
10:30 pm: Found duct tape, so taped up windows and covered them with blankets to avoid flying shrapnel in case windows break.
11:10 pm: Power goes out. We lit up one large candle that we had. Talked about ghosts, calling spirits, and other campfire-style conversations.
Winds howling and whistling loudly, house shaking. Rain falling horizontally.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
01:00 am: Started playing Dumb-Charades.
Kept opening the door a crack and peeking out. Trees flailing about wildly, Metal roof panels flying off. Ceiling and walls developed slow leaks. Galveston Island decimated. Cell phone reception extremely poor, but available.
04:00 am: Hurricane Ike passes exactly overhead. We don’t notice.
05:30 am: Bored of charades, we decide to play cards. Then we realize storm is passing.
06:45 am: Rain stops, winds slow down. Everyone falls asleep.
10:00 am: We wake up, examine the house. Everything is ok.
10:30 am: Quick breakfast, and we leave to check out the city.
Walls, fencing broken, roof panels lying around. Chimney tops, ventilator units fallen off.
10:45 am: Reached bridge over Highway TX-288. Stopped because of parked cars.
Entire Highway flooded under 6+ feet water. Feels like we’re on a bridge over a river.
Broken traffic signals, fallen trees everywhere.
11:15 am: Reached University.
Fallen trees and electric poles blocking most of the streets. A carpet of leaves on everything we could see, like a green blanket of snow. Found 12 feet of water under IH-45. Traffic lights barely above water.
12:00 pm: Reached Downtown
Entire central downtown blocked off by police cars and we were ordered to go back home. Saw many broken windows on a few sky-scrapers.
12:45 pm: Dropped off friends at Shelter 1, and went to check out my apartment.
Roommates alive, everyone else also safe. 3rd floor of almost all buildings blown off. This complex suffered the most damage I had seen until then. Few small leaks inside my room, and some water had gotten in from the front door.
05:00 pm: After a lot of discussions, plans and cancellations, decided to go with some friends to College Station until electricity is restored. (Initial estimates range between 1 day to 6 weeks).
05:30 pm: Reached Shelter 1. Decided to move with friends to nearby Harvest Hill Apartments (Shelter 2) which miraculously still had electricity.
Cell phone reception horrible, Networks congested, extremely low water pressure. Shelter 2 was like a Indian Students’ refugee camp with some 15 of us living there, and another 10 or so coming to cook and eat.
10:00 pm: Cleaned up, had dinner, got in touch with everyone, exchanged information. 15 of us start playing Counter-strike.
Sunday, September 14, 2008.
06:00 am: Stopped playing, fell asleep.
03:00 pm: Woke up, got ready. Found out grocery store was open, so went and bought food.
06:33 pm: University to reopen on Tuesday morning. Attendance optional for this week.
10:00 pm: Cooked, ate, and started playing CS again.
Monday, September 15, 2008.
06:00 am: Stopped playing, fell asleep.
03:30 pm: Woke up, ate, went home to see how things were, and then came back.
09:00 pm: Ate, found out electricity had been restored at Scotland Yard Apartments (Shelter 3), where one of us lived.
10:00 pm: Moved to Shelter 3, settled down, and started playing CS. Again.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008.
07:00 am: Stopped playing, fell asleep.
12:00 pm: Woke up, went to university to get some food. Came back, cleaned up, watched movies, listened to music, chatted. Usual time-pass. Created this blog and entered old posts. Decided to go to the university next day.
10:00 pm: Ate, and went for project meeting. (Life getting back to normal).
11:00 pm: Realized Holly Hall Apartments (Shelter 1) had lights. So packed up and went there.
11:10 pm: Found complete darkness at Shelter 1. Power was out again.
11:20 pm: Came back to Shelter 3, and then.. guess what? Right – started playing CS.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008.
05:00 am: Stopped playing, but stayed up talking.
07:00 am: Fell asleep.
02:17 pm: Woke up. (Too late, so no university today).
03:30 pm: Moved back to Shelter 1, cleaned up the place, and settled down to wait for power to get back at home. I hope its not going to be too long a wait. Oh and wrote this entry.
Edit:
Saturday, September 20, 2008.
02:58 pm: Power comes back to Catalina Village(home).
Monday, September 22, 2008.
08:10 pm: Moved back home. Finally it ends.
