Ike survivors may wait weeks for hot meals, baths

AP, via Yahoo!:



Ike survivors may wait weeks for hot meals, baths
By ANDRE COE and CHRIS DUNCAN, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 6 minutes ago



HOUSTON - More Hurricane Ike relief was on the way for evacuees Tuesday as tens of thousands of people waited for food, water and ice, for the electricity to return to their homes or for their first hot meal and shower.

The number of distribution centers was to be quadrupled to 60 by the end of the day to deliver food, water and ice. Still, for some, the wait for a return to normalcy could be days. For others, it could be weeks.

"A good bath would be nice: have the fire department swing by and spray us down," said Carlos Silliman, 48, as he sat on a picnic bench in front of his Galveston Island home, where 18 inches of water flooded his garage and ruined a freezer full of venison. "I'm ready to have a cold beer and read the paper."

For most, such luxuries are far beyond the horizon. Many service stations have no gasoline, and some major highways remain under water. More than 30,000 evacuees are still living in nearly 300 public shelters, and roughly 2 million people in Texas alone are without power.

Ike's survivors have already walked for miles and waited for hours at supply distribution centers, gobbling up all that was offered: 1 million bottles of water, 1 million meals and 600,000 pounds of ice in just the first 36 hours after the storm passed.

It's not enough, and those dispatching truck after truck to distribution centers around the city know it. One such center north of Houston drew 10,000 people Monday in search of food and water. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_re_us/ike;_ylt=AoQGBaQwBmATzufdmDxjspdvzwcF

Only this time, it's much quieter.

It just so happens that FEMA sucks. They can't even get trucks with food to their PODS (points of distribution). It's not rocket science, for goodness' sake.

But, as I said, it's going to be awful, regardless. We are talking about millions of people - and many of them are poor and weren't capable of making adequate preparations. Then we have the dumbed down crowd who were too stupid to prepare. I can't tell you how many people I spoke to at the store early Thursday morning who didn't have a clue what they should buy and what they should do to prepare.

Never mind that you could turn on any local television station and get instructions on what to do!

:shrug:

and if you were prepared and actually have a radio and batteries, a couple of the local networks have been simulcasting on the radio "since" Ike hit. Plus, ordinary radio stations are devoting a lot of time keeping people informed about which stores and gas stations are open, where the food banks are located, etc.

they seem to do much better than we do.

I've seen entire electrical sub-stations completely destroyed after hurricanes. This isn't just power lines down. It's going to take time regardless.