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Directron.com Recovers from Hurricane IkeHere is our blog coverage on our experience during Ike. Original blog was published on our user forum. You are welcome to leave comments, pictures, and info there.Hurricane Ike Blog / Watch: | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 |
And these branches...
This one completely blocked me from going to the office. I got off the car and tried to move the tree. It was too heavy for me. I had to go to the other side of the street, driving in the wrong way to get around this block. Luckily there weren't too many cars driving at this time. Ike was still blowing and the city was still under curview. :(
Traffic lights? What traffic lights? These were hanging there vertically by the power cords. They were swinging by the wind...
The power lines were down from across the street.
This tree in front of our office has seen many hurricanes. It has lost many of its branches from Rita and now Ike.
Oak trees are very strong and they rarely lose their limbs from hurricane. Look at this big oak tree right in front of our main entry. It's still standing strong there.
I drove to Lilly's house to pick up her, Bin, and Aiping to help the warehouse on Saturday morning since the phones were dead. I noticed these scenes in their backyard... there is no back door any more.
They had "visitors" from their neighbor...
I am typing this post in the office Finally, some "normalcy." Office Internet, network, workstations, voice mail... things we depend everyday, are back. Well, not quite everything yet. I still don't have lights or Internet connection in my office. Electricity to ceiling lights is missing in a couple of warehouses. Emails are not quite normal yet. But we are thankful for the amazing speed of recovery. CenterPoint, the big electricity supplier in Houston, must be working really hard in the last three days getting the power back. So far they have recovered power to more than 500,000 who lost. There are probably 1.5 million people to go. They brought in people from 27 States including Canada. Nevertheless, we would not be surprised that some people may not get electricity until one month later. There is no good way to tell who has it and who doesn't. Sometimes neighbor has it, but you don't. Sometimes one block has it but not the other adjacent to it. I guess it all has something to do with the power grid. As I am typing this message, Lee and Jacob are replacing the power supply to one of our servers. That power supply survivied Ike, but decided to give up after a few hours of coming back. Restarting the server must have put some stress to the power supply.
A customer called my cell phone this afternoon. They have water damage to many of their computers. They need help counting the damaged computers, printers, and projectors, moving them out, and starting the process of getting them replaced. We'll send 5 people there at 8am. In a way, we are still in the "search and rescue" phase of Ike recovery.
People helping people When natural disaster strikes, human responds. There are many signs of people helping people during the aftermath of Ike. Large grocery stores are offering free ice and other supplies when demand for them are high. People who have electricity are letting those who don't to store their food. Those who have running water are asking those who don't to come in to take shower. I went to Katy to pick up a WAN PC card to try Internet access from Carter. Katy is further west to Houston and was little impacted by Ike. When there, I noticed that the line for gas there was very short. There were only two to three cars in each line. I got in and got a full tank of gas. I also filled up a gas bottle I left in my car that I didn't get a chance to fill up before Ike and I have been driving around with it in the last four days. I called Adam, who lives in Katy to tell him that. He brought two big gas bottles from the office yesterday after work, filled them up at Katy last night, and brought them to the office today. Many co-workers thanked him for doing that!!! Yesterday, Vicky also saw a gas station with very short waiting line - like two or three cars. She was very happy to find that out and pulled her cell phone to get ready to call all of her friends and coworkers to get there to pump up, the guy in front of her told her that the gas truck was supposed to be there by 4pm. She looked up her watch. It was 1:30pm.
Many people helped us I like the phase I created, "ecommerce without electricity" to describe our experience in the last two days. Well, in theory that may not exactly true. Our next-door neighbor, Arabia Shriner, has had electricity since Saturday. I suggested Jason to talk to them to see if we can "borrow" some of it by connecting some long extension cords there. They are super nice people and agreed to allow us to do that right away. We use the electricity to power some lights in the warehouse and the showroom so that it's not too dark there. By that time the essential parts of our online business - order processing and shipping are already operating elsewhere, so we didn't need to use that borrowed electricity for that. So technically "ecommerce without electricity" was valid. We received assistance from countless people during this difficult time. UPS rep Joe and driver Tony. Carter and Neal, long-time customers, offered the WAN PC card. Pete helped guarding the building with his guns. Lenovo reps helped us locating Thinkpads with built-in WAN. Of course, all the hard-working associates.
Bad stories by UPS drivers I happened to be in our shipping area when three UPS drivers showed up at the same time near the end of the day. I chatted with them and they started telling me Ike stories from other customers they visit daily. Several of them had total losses because their roof either gave in or flew away. Two of them have to move because their building is no longer feasible to stay. It will take 6-12 months to get a new roof in. One old couple who runs a printing company decided to close their business for good because all of their equipment and supplies are gone. After hearing these stories, I appreciate our blessings and good luck even more. Yes, we had roof damage, but it didn't give in. Yes, we had allot of water damage, but it was still controllable and limited mainly to one section in one of our three warehouses. These stories together with our experiences have certainly given us some ideas on how to prepare for hurricane in the future. Statistically, we should not have one like this for a long time. But then... people are already talking about global warming, ice melting. Maybe, we should move to a big mountain like Colorado. :) Then we'll have problems with snow storms...
Signs Houston is back to normal Let's have some fun to relieve some of the stresses we are having lately. These are signs that will tell us Houston is back to normal again: We are not quite there yet; but we are getting there slowly but surely. Can you think of any to add to this list?
What computers and hurricanes have in common? Let me know if you like this list or if you have something else to add. Smile
The images of the real damages to Galveston and Houston area are just starting to appear. I have been too busy getting Directron.com back working in the last three days. These are from Chronicle. These are before and after pictures.
These images make you to have second thoughts on owning a house on the beach.
We have to respect the mighty Nature...
and what Nature can do...
Can you find that Corvette in this pic? Hurricane Ike Blog / Watch: | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Original blog was published on our user forum. You are welcome to leave comments, pictures, and info there. |
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