Cleaning Up After Rita & Katrina: Hurricane Rita blew through Texas and southwestern Louisiana northeast of us as a Category 3. The four of us took an “African safari” of the city in the Land Rover last evening. Other than trees, branches and signs downed by the wind, greater metropolitan Houston suffered no major damage. Humble-Kingwood, our area, was the only one to that had sustained power loss, which was restored late last evening. Cable and internet services are still down and, therefore, here’s another post over a 28K connection.
Today saw us cleaning up in and outside the house. Chores included vacuuming, sweeping, collection of leaves and branches and the three guys putting up the blown-down fence. All while I wandered around the house in a Benadryl haze following a very violent allergy meltdown. Something in the post-Rita air has had me sneezing non-stop since 8AM. The dogs look at me like I’m possessed.
Once this house is back in order, D and I will hit the road to New Orleans for more damage survey and cleaning. Our landlady’s fiance is back and he confirmed that the large tree in our backyard fell in the storm. Thankfully, it did not fall onto the house, but knocked the rear garden wall into the neighbor’s yard. I hated that sap monster anyway.
The refrigerator will be awful. *shudder* Insects were found living in the one downstairs. Our landlady heard from some people that refrigerators left with food in them for more than two weeks will have to be discarded, while others talk about cleaning theirs out for reuse. I believe the operative phrase is “We shall see.” If insects thrive in an almost-bare refrigerator, I’m pretty sure evolution and a few mass extinctions have already taken place in ours upstairs.
Otherwise, life is back to normal in Kingwood, Texas and most will resume work tomorrow.
Pictures of Houston during and after Rita will be available for viewing just as soon as we have a faster intenet connection.
and then the great debate will begin — were the insects already dying out or did a giant meteorite do them in? you should send your refrigerateur to a science museum.