Hurricane Ike

In my first ever blog post, I decided to give a first hand account of what your typical law enforcement officer goes through in preparation for a hurricane.

Thursday 09/11/08

Preparations are made to strategically be off-duty when the storm arrives. As it currently looks, the hurricane will be hitting on Saturday which means that it will hit on my Friday (having Sunday and Monday off) so currently I will have to deal with it. Prayers are made that it will stall and not come in until sometime after 2pm so I will already be off-duty.

Another option that I have is to get in the "red book" or the book that we are allowed to schedule time off. Normally the book is "closed" when storms are approaching or during things like the World Series (not like that will happen this year) and the Super Bowl (lots of advanced notification). For some strange reason, only one officer had put his name in the book to be off Friday and that left two spots for other officers. My buddy Marvin and I figured that we should jump on those spots and in the event the hurricane came in early! As it turns out, Marvin and I were able to secure the last two spots and he would be safe for the rest of the storm because he was already in the book for Saturday and then he is normally off on Sunday and Monday. Me on the other hand would have to come back in on Saturday and deal with the insanity that mass confusion brings.

Safely being home Thursday evening after a long day in court, I figured I was good to go as far as not having to go in until Saturday. Hopes were dashed when my sgt calls me and tells me that "all" time off has been recinded. Crap. Now I am faced with having to go in and drive around and look important while spending lots of taxpayer overtime money. Not that the money isnt good it's just that I somehow feel a little guilty wasting taxpayer dollars like that (does this make me Presidential?). After speaking with my Sgt I convinced him to call the Lieutenant and see if those with confirmed and scheduled time off were still required to come in on Friday....after all the storm isn't hear yet! I later got a call telling me I could enjoy my Friday but I was expected to be there on Saturday at 0600 and expect to be there until at least 1800 hours. 12 hours isn't bad considering some officers are having to be there 18 hours and even 24 hours at a time.

Friday 09/12/08

Friday is largely uneventfull. The day is spent at home picking up (I refuse to say "flying") objects that tend to dissappear during high winds and playing with the kids. Watching Geraldo getting slammed by high surf is the highlight so far on the news.

My bag is packed with extra clothes, dry socks, a camera, Bible, Computer, download cables...ect.

Friday 09/12/09 2040 hrs ---- Saturday 09/20/08 1035 hrs

NO FLIPPIN POWER! I was taking notes however and after "mobilization" I will try and catch up with the sights, sounds, smells, and utter stupidity of people during the "Great Storm."

Pictures

One thing is for sure...IKE did not discriminate between race, social class, parts of town, who had money and who didn't, republican or democrat. My friend and partner for a few days could not quit saying "SNAP!" every time we saw new and more amazing sites of damage. This picture is from a neighborhood where the average home prices are in the millions. For at least a half-mile, this was the scene along the curbs. This neighborhood also was without power for the longest in the area that I patrol but overall people coped as well as they could.

While this was generally the way most of the streets around town looked for a couple of days, Marvin and I were amazed that there were still people who generally did not have a clue. These are some of the same ones that amaze me day after day that the human species remains on the earth. For example: Driving through one neighborhood, which looked twice as bad as this street, after responding to a house burglar alarm we were flagged down by a man in probably his 40's and his father (looked just like him). Junior pulled along side of my patrol car as I was getting back in from placing something in the trunk and asked, "I noticed that there were a lot of you out here, did something happen?" I turned and looked at Marvin because for the moment I was at a complete loss of words...kind, gentle words which would keep me employed...Marvin looked at me with just as much shock and began to look back at me with that glare as so to say, "PG, be nice!" I turned back towards the MORON and restraining as best as I could from giving him a Billy Engval 'Here's your sign' remark said, "No, just getting something out of my trunk" and hurriedly got the hell out of that neighborhood.

The Storm Is Over

For 14 days straight, HPD was on "Full Mobilization" and therefore regular days off were cancelled, vacations were cancelled, and officers were ordered to work minimum 12 hour days. Naturally there were variations to the 12 hour days as some were ordered to work at noon Friday before the storm and were not allowed to leave until 6pm the following day. Personally, I did 13 straight days before getting the "allowed" day off which we started fighting for almost immediately. Not to shabby however since then next two paychecks had 53.75 and 32 hours of overtime respectively. Sweetie pie at home was thankful for that.

There were many amazing things that happened throughout this ordeal but the most impressive to me was the magnitude of the power of the storm. The destruction this far inland was nothing compared to what happened on Galveston Island or other coastal areas but to comprehend the power it takes to blow full size trees smooth out of the ground is at times mind numbing. Look at it this way....go stand next to a small tree and push on it and see if you can even make it sway...then think of a car or truck having an accident with a tree, who wins...the tree does. Now picture a tree such as this one and imagine the force it takes to push one of these puppies over! Marvin added, and wanted to make sure he got credit for saying it, "When the good Lord comes it don't matter who you are." (Marvin Smith). Of course Marvin also coined the phrase "No more funky bums" so he does have a wide swing of perspective.

Another of the amazing things that I observed was the curiosity of the people. The amount of people who started driving around looking at the destruction almost as soon as the "bad" part of the storm was over was mind boggling. Here we are without electricity to power the traffic lights and Joe Numb Nuts is driving around.

Sharing

Much praise and many thanks go out to those who helped feed our patrol division for a week and a half. Many of them are listed here but not all who were involved could be listed:

George's Pastaria

Lupe Tortilla

James Coney Island

Sam's Club

Lenny's Subs

Scholtskys

Kimberly Osborne

Pappa's (twice)

Souper Salad