As noted before, the Houston Chronicle has stepped up very well in response to the storm crisis. Their coverage has been comprehensive and informative.
For example, here's a profile of the field crews working 16-hour shifts to do the massive job of repairing our electrical system.
At least for the moment, they are heroes. Women and men start to stutter and fan themselves — no joke — when they appear. Who would I most like to see in my neighborhood right this minute? No contest. Not the pope. Not Obama or McCain. I would like to see one lineman. Two dozen would be heaven.So, who are these guys in the tan shirts, blue jeans and work boots? They're cowboys of sorts, rough and tumble outdoorsmen patrolling power poles instead of a range.
How did local bookstores fare? Some had damage; some turned into refuges for their neighbors.
Up Bissonnet at Murder by the Book the buzz of a generator and a handwritten sign saying "We're open. Come on in!" greeted visitors. Rain blown through the walls and floor soaked carpeting there.Alan Farrington, husband of owner Martha Farrington, spent Friday night in the store "bailing water in the dark" and has the blisters on his hands — from hours spent wringing out towels — to prove it. He was too busy to be worried, he said, although the sound of an aluminum awning on a neighboring store being blown from its moorings got his attention. [...]
Blue Willow Bookshop on Memorial on the far west side... suffered no damage at all. Being in strip center with no trees can be mixed blessing, said owner Valerie Koehler: not good when you'd like some shade, very good in a hurricane.
Besides selling books to customers, she's been hosting people looking for an electrical outlet. "We've been charging everything from cell phones to razors," she said. Her store's wireless Internet access has attracted a different clientele. "All kinds of oil deals have been going down here," she reported.
And here's a terrific profile of the hardy individualists who are already rebuilding the "scrappy" township of San Leon.
While Galveston and other coastal communities have urged residents to stay away, the leadership of this town of 4,200 that juts out into Galveston Bay are telling able-bodied men and women to get home and clean up the town, home to an eclectic collection of blue-collar shrimpers and fishermen, beach bums and retirees."The gut feeling here," Miller said on Friday as he struggled to put out a newspaper in neighboring Dickinson, "is that we're not going to wait for help, and we're not going to beg for it."
San Leon boasts no local government (except for an honorary mayor, elected at the annual Where in the Hell is San Leon festival each April). The town has zero big-box stores, thrives on fishing and shrimping and proudly claims to have the largest golf-cart parade in Texas.
The hurricane rolled over this town last week and took with it people's livelihoods, their boats, their businesses and swamped much of the town from the Yellow Brick Road (seriously) to April Fools Point, in a thick sludge. [...]
For a town with such severe devastation, it maintains a sense of humor.
One couple used red spray paint to write FEMA YARD OF THE MONTH on the side of their damaged wooden cottage. Some had more stern warnings: Loot on this street, die on this street.
"We are the outlaws of Galveston County," said Scott Lyons, the assistant chief for the town's volunteer fire department, driving past a home with a fake coffin in the front yard and a sign that said: Looter Vacancy.
Lyons, 31, is also the town's unofficial honorary mayor. In between emergency calls, he grumbled about Galveston County's response to the destruction in San Leon. He said about 65 percent of the town of 4,200 stayed in San Leon during the storm, but many are still missing.
Meanwhile, life continues to return to normal here west of Houston. They've even started playing high school football again, and Katy ISD will re-open on Monday.
Remember, despite all the attention paid to FEMA and other government efforts, there are worthy groups that are working like crazy to help who could use some financial support:
• The Salvation Army - Texas Division
• American Red Cross - Greater Houston Chapter
• Houston Food Bank
• Houston Humane Society