Administrativia

Hawkeye media has a panoramic view of the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike just last month. And of course, a Google map of photos from the U.S.G.S. is also available.

If you live outside the Texas Gulf Coast region, you might not even be aware that a major hurricane came across Galveston and through Houston. Anderson Cooper pulled his pretty little prada boots up as soon as he could get out of town -- as did the rest of the corporate media. My only guess is that there was no great "hook"... the pictures from Galveston, Seabrook , Bolivar and even downtown Houston showed lots of devastation... but unlike Katrina, no bodies in the streets or riots in the Astrodome . Despite having more than 2 million people without power, billions of dollars in property damage (at the last estimate more than $15B), hundreds of thousands evacuated -- and whole villages wiped from the map -- we were as prepared as we could have been. And the response of local officials (Mayor White / Judge Ed Emmett) has been nothing short of phenomenal... kicking FEMA and Governor Goodhair in their collective asses as needed. (And letting the Shrub know he was welcome to ge...

Piles of debris on the side of the roadways will be a familiar sight in Houston for quite some time. (and yes, that's Cher in the background...)

Bumped this slide show of After-Ike images to the top... as I add more images to the photo album, I will periodically bump this to the top.

Here's the updated album of photos (A.I.) that I've taken since Monday. I've stopped taking pictures of piles of debris -- it's about all you see along every street and roadway. (I think one of the only positives of all this is how clean the city will be after the clean-up.)

More AI Links Houston Chronicle Where's power on? Find out - report in . Find gas - http://www.chron.com/databases/ikegas.html Open for Business -- find or report open businesses POD (Points of Distribution) Map - http://www.chron.com/databases/ikepods.html Latest School Schedules - http://blogs.chron.com/closings/schools/ Government & Other Links CenterPoint Energy -- Outage & Restoration Updates (updated twice daily) Metro Route Updates -- http://metroresponds.org/go/site/1527/ Houston Transtar -- http://www.houstontranstar.org/ (traffic & road closures) City of Houston -- http://www.houstontx.gov/ City of Baytown -- http://www.baytown.org/ League City -- http://www.ci.league-city.tx.us/ City of Port Arthur - http://www.portarthurpd.com/hurricane.html Galveston County -- http://www.co.galveston.tx.us/

It's funny how the national media's attention has pretty much moved on from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Why? The lack of drama? Not enough personal stories of utter tragedy? Lack of visuals? Or is the loss of Galveston and surrounding coastal cities & towns just not enough? How much more destruction in Houston would be "newsworthy"? I think there may be several factors -- along with disaster fatigue. First and foremost: the competence of local officials. Mayor White and County Judge Emmett have taken the lead on the recovery -- and the planning for this along with their particular competencies (and working relationship) have made sure that even the ongoing bureaucratic incompetencies of FEMA have been compensated for. Think about it -- as of today, the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in the U.S. was hit by a major hurricane (with an IKE rating higher than Katrina or Andrew) on Saturday. Within 1 week, the city is coming back to lif...

Usually, here in Houston, we don't get much of a fall -- or even a true winter season -- just several cold spells punctuating generally mild sub-tropical weather. The trees and greenery in the region tend to keep their leaves until mid-winter (February) and then drop the brown ones in favor of new growth. The piles of debris notwithstanding, the trees, shrubs and other greenery now remind me of winter... almost denuded in many places, certainly sparser... and although the weather is nice (cool and dry), the feelings of After-Ike relief are painted on a bleaker backdrop.