Hurricane Ike !

[lynca]

How is the FIRST community handling Hurricane Ike?

I'm in the middle of Houston right now, taking 60 mph winds and I still have power !

I know the Robonauts are the closest to the eye landfall of the storm. Hopefully everyone is doing well ! Please post your hurricane story or whatever interesting news you have.

[Pat Arnold]

My prayers are with everyone who is experiencing Hurricane Ike. From what is being televised, the flooding & power outages appear widespread in coastal TX & LA. Stay safe & let the FIRST community know of any way we can be of support.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by lynca

I'm in the middle of Houston right now, taking 60 mph winds and I still have power !

I think we've just found the winner of the "You know you've overdosed when ... " thread.

Teams in SE Texas, our thoughts are with you. Let us know how you fared when things clear up and you get back home.

And teams in the rest of TX, if you have any inspirational stories about helping out, tell us.

[ATannahill]

i am on the west coast of florida and we occasional get some heavy rain, i know a stop light was broken but i dont think it was because of Ike

[Andrew Schreiber]

People say I'm obsessed, but you are sitting in a hurricane and posting on CD.

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23Ike Theres an interesting way of following people's thoughts. My thoughts go out to you guys in the path of Ike.

Stay safe.

[JaneYoung]

As many of us know, IKE has been a force to reckon with and continues to cause problems for states beyond the coastal ones that have been impacted.

Here in Austin, the news stations have begun putting information out for how we can help and what we can do. Having worked with teams and schools that coordinated relief efforts for those impacted by Katrina, I've learned that money donated to the Red Cross is one of the best ways to contribute. If you check out the Red Cross information, you can specify the area you want the donation to help in. The Red Cross has been taking a wallop, itself, with all the needs pouring in this summer and now into fall - they would probably appreciate any monetary donations offered.

It is hard to watch the devastation and not want to jump in the car and head to Galveston or Surfside. My husband and I have many years of family history and memories of celebrations in both places. At the moment though, I would just be in the way.

[Schnabel]

On a lighter note, Ike came through my area today. I took my kite out to the local park and got some flying in. The only problem was that the mist coming down finally weighted it down to the point that it couldn't fly any longer. Ike's winds were nowhere near strong here, but just right.

[synth3tk]

Northern Ohio got hit with a nasty wind storm today. You could've sworn we had a fleet of tornados coming through. Up to 60 mph winds, downed power lines all over the area, trees uprooted, accidents here-and-there. One of the lines was under a downed tree and was sparking, but the fire department was already there.

Should be getting the rain sometime in the next 6 hours...

[bigbeezy]

i dont know about other parts of the country, but Ike has caused gas to be a nightmare. with the refineries being closed for so long, many gas stations are running out of gas. I talked to my mom the other day and she said in Orlando as well as many stations in Brevard County they have been rationing gas to 10 gal/visit. my roommate's friend said that in parts of GA its like $10/visit. I havent seen any rationing signs here in Tallahassee, but many stations are out of gas and today there was a 20+ car line at this one that some how still had gas. I believe Tally is almost dry as far as gas right now. Gas prices were getting rather nice at 3.65 here, haha ya 3.65 nice...but better, and now its gone up to 3.85 over night.

Makes you wonder what the country would do if there was a major problem and there was no gas...

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by bigbeezy

Makes you wonder what the country would do if there was a major problem and there was no gas...

Adapt.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Adapt.

Which would take months, if not longer, through which we would suffer at a standstill.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by bigbeezy

i dont know about other parts of the country, but Ike has caused gas to be a nightmare. with the refineries being closed for so long, many gas stations are running out of gas. I talked to my mom the other day and she said in Orlando as well as many stations in Brevard County they have been rationing gas to 10 gal/visit. my roommate's friend said that in parts of GA its like $10/visit. I havent seen any rationing signs here in Tallahassee, but many stations are out of gas and today there was a 20+ car line at this one that some how still had gas. I believe Tally is almost dry as far as gas right now. Gas prices were getting rather nice at 3.65 here, haha ya 3.65 nice...but better, and now its gone up to 3.85 over night.

Makes you wonder what the country would do if there was a major problem and there was no gas...

i guess everything is relative.
try paying 4.60/gallon for gas for super. I guess the good news is they are saying on the local news that it will drop 3 cents this week.

[ComradeNikolai]

Originally Posted by synth3tk

Northern Ohio got hit with a nasty wind storm today. You could've sworn we had a fleet of tornados coming through. Up to 60 mph winds, downed power lines all over the area, trees uprooted, accidents here-and-there. One of the lines was under a downed tree and was sparking, but the fire department was already there.

Should be getting the rain sometime in the next 6 hours...

I'm in northern Ohio as well... and I just got my power back on about 10 minutes ago thanks to the storm; about 10 hours without power, and it wasn't fun. I was sitting outside on my covered deck for the first two, though, so that was fun; it's sheltered on two sides, so there was no wind affecting me there, and I got to watch the forest behind my house get a serious beating.

The roads around me got some serious trees down, and one major road (4 lanes) was barricaded in a few places for trees. It seems major to me, since I've never seen such winds before, and it makes me realize that I don't know how bad a hurricane must be.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Cory

Which would take months, if not longer, through which we would suffer at a standstill.

Sounds like fun! /sarcasm

Looks like alternative power (for transportation & every other area) should be a top priority of the next administration that takes over the White House, whoever & whatever party that may be.

Sometimes it takes a disaster to cut through beuracratic red tape a little quicker and get things done, but then again sometimes disasters make the red tape even more prevalent.

Whatever the case, let's hope it's a seamless transition over an extended period of time so we don't have the standstill you speak of.

Originally Posted by waialua359

i guess everything is relative.
try paying 4.60/gallon for gas for super. I guess the good news is they are saying on the local news that it will drop 3 cents this week.

Why on earth would you buy super?
Please tell me your vehicle that uses or needs that is not your "daily driver".

[Andrew Schreiber]

Here in Flint we had a ton of rain. And a ton of price gouging, prices for regular jumped ~40 cents in 12 hrs. Also, some of our roods our flooded, nothing around KU though, being on the Flint River has its perks I suppose.

Best wishes to all those teams NOT reading this due to power outages.