The News From Flooded Houston

Hello to Members and Friends this is capable of reaching at this time:

If you have been fortunate enough to have power in your home, sleeping in your own bed, eating warm food and are not camping out some place consider yourselves very lucky.

The Center received its power on Sunday afternoon but we are not through with the aftermath of Ike! The Center did sustain considerable damage although no broken windows, no missing copper roof. The 100 mile per hour wind blown rain found the tiniest wall opening or crevice causing wet carpet on the first and second floor extending into the rooms about twelve feet and on the third floor puddled water spots, loosened insulation. Thanks to a very small but a good crew of volunteers, display cabinets were emptied, moved and three wet vacs did their job. Board member Fr. Paul Chovanec stopped by in early a.m. Monday to check on us and did not quit water vacuuming until 6:30 p.m.! At 3:00 p.m. we sent Bill looking for food which he could not find, everything closed, when Henry Hermis returned our call and brought us all nourishment while making a professional assessment (he is a forensic architect). On complete drying, it all must be put back together before the upcoming Saturday Wedding event. Replacing the artifacts will be a challenge but it will be ready! The Center had one downspout taken off with gutter drains bowed out from all the weight of the water. Most all shrubs and trees were bent over and propped back up.

Our home and yard were covered with leaves and broken limbs, our freezers and refrigerators had to be emptied, debris and leaves stopping up the storm drains resulting in our entire street of homes flooded. We since 2001 have all tile floors so we were able to roll up most of the rugs and raise them before they got wet. Our neighbors with carpet all have piles of wet carpet in front of their homes. All in all we received over five inches of rain during the hurricane (the rain gauge ran over so we do not know exactly how much we received) and over five inches the next night causing the flooding.

We learned:

Three hours of emptying our small freezers and refrigerators then cleaning and opening to air made us resolve not to have that much stored food items ever again (the last time was Allison). We found items that we had totally forgotten.

That you really should have a battery radio, flashlights to find the matches to light the candles, to find clothes in the closets, draw up some water to flush the toilets (though we did not lose water as some did) and some drinking water for several days following and fill up your automobiles. The only news we had was via telephone from my brother in Seattle.

Our children got out their smokers and barbequed quickly their meats, fish, etc (They did not have power either) so we had plenty to eat before it spoiled, in fact they fed and still are feeding many neighbors.

We do hope that each of you were spared with a small damage that you can handle or are not too greatly inconvenienced, and are safe and well.

We all have our stories to tell and they aren’t finished yet.

Czech Center Museum Houston.