Monday, September 15, 2008

Hurricane IKE - FEMA: Gas, food, water, and ice

I woke up this morning after a great nights sleep on the boat. The battery bank and propane stove let me listen to the latest news and make a breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee. Having refueled myself I gathered the motivation to head over to my completely destroyed office.

Opening the door the first thing that hits you is the smell. It was inundated with a little over seven feet of muddy, sewage filled, salt water. I think a few fish may have died in there. I couldn't bring myself to push through the mess yet and opened the doors, taped them off, and left for a few hours to let it dry out.


Once I pulled out of the marina I headed towards a gas station that got power back on early. Coyote's had just received a load of gas so I jumped in line. An hour later I was filling up my truck and our jerry cans that Gary and Lisa brought over from the house. With a new full tank of gas I decided to go check out one of the rumored FEMA PODs or Point of Distribution.


It was located on Nasa Parkway by Clear Lake Park and was pretty well organized. It took about an hour and each car drove away with two bags of ice, two cases of bottled water, and what they are calling MREs or Meals Ready to Eat. They should have a warning label on them.

Military MRE's are not bad at all. They even come with several sides, an entree, instant Gatorade mix, and a little heater so you can eat a hot meal. These things are zip lock bags with canned lasagna, peanuts, a nutri-grain bar, and crystal light. I guess anything is better than nothing if you are really low on supplies. Luckily, I've got lots of food left before we'll really need to resort to canned lasagna.


I am off to check on the office. It's a nasty job, but no one else is going to do it. I am looking forward to getting back to a sense of normalcy.

2 comments:

Jason said...

Holy crap, glad to hear you and your boat are OK. Heart breaking to see all the other boats sitting in the trees. Anything we can do from Seattle?

Overboard said...

Ah. Jerry cans. I miss them.