And Yet Even More FBISD Schools Will Open Monday!!!

Three more schools now have power and will be open on Monday 9/22.

Update: Sun., Sept. 21, at 6:45p.m. As of 6:30 p.m. today, Missouri City Middle School, Briargate Elementary and E.A. Jones Elementary have regained power and will be open for students in the morning. Please see below for other campuses that regained power today to be able to reopen on Monday, Sept. 22.

More FBISD Schools Have Power--To Open on Monday 9/22!

5:52 pm - Even more FBISD schools will be open on Monday!!!

Update: Sun., Sept. 21, at 5:15 p.m.As of 5:00 pm today, the following campuses have regained power today and will be open for students in the morning: Dulles High, Hightower High, Progressive High, the Technical Education Center; also Dulles Middle and First Colony Middle; and Dulles Elem. and Lexington Creek Elem.

A Few More Schools Open in Fort Bend ISD

Here is the message per the Ft. Bend web site as of 4:42 pm on Sunday. I will check back later this afternoon to see if any other campuses have regained power.

Update: Sun., Sept. 21, at 11:00 a.m.Three more campuses have regained power and will be open for classes in the morning, Sept. 22. Students should report to class at: Sugar Land Middle, Arizona Fleming Elem., and Lantern Lane Elem. Other campuses are expected to regain power later today. Please check the website late this afternoon to see if your campus regains power and will be open for class tomorrow. All district campuses with power will open for classes at their normal time on Monday, Sept. 22. If your campus is not on the “no power” list (scroll down to see below), then your campus has power and you should report to school on Monday. Campuses with NO POWER are: Briargate, Dulles, E.A. Jones, Lexington Creek, and Ridgegate Elementary Schools; also Quail Valley Middle, Missouri City Middle, Christa McAuliffe Middle, First Colony Middle, and Dulles Middle Schools; also Dulles High, Hightower High, Progressive High, and Willowridge High Schools.

Hurricane Ike Recovery - Getting Tedious and Hot

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
First of all, how about some good news for us? That area of disturbed weather in the eastern Caribbean is moving to the north-northwest and all indications (models/steering environment) strongly suggest that the system will move over Puerto Rico and toward the Bahamas...very likely even missing the east coast. It is getting better organized and will probably become a tropical depression today.

Other than that, nice and quiet in the tropics!

Still, it is warm/hot and muggy again. And now, the return to power has slowed because the work is becoming more small scale as power is returned block by block. As I write this, the Sunday report is not yet available. The latest report from Centerpoint Energy is that as of noon Saturday, 54% have power.

Here is the link:
http://www.centerpointenergy.com/staticfiles/ike/outages.html

Here is some more good news...looks like that back door cold front may arrive a few days early...around mid-week. Don't get too excited...it just looks like we'll have a slight dip in humidity. But hey, that's better than no dip. Also, I don't think it will be quite so hot. Sunday through Tuesday will be the warmest days of the week. Today's highs will make it to 90 in spots.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
Today's word is air conditioning -- aire acondicionado pronounced eye-ray ah-cone-dih-see-oh-nah-doe. Oh, I love that term...just rolls off the tongue.

AND MORE
BIG UPDATE FOR SCHOOLS IN FORT BEND ISD

Several campuses still have no power as of 12:30 pm on Saturday. So the plan is NO SCHOOL for these sites. But you never know if there could be a change today, so be sure to check the Fort Bend ISD web site: http://www.fortbendisd.com/

Here is the list of schools which will NOT be open on Monday.

Campuses with NO POWER are: Arizona Fleming, Briargate, Dulles, E.A. Jones, Lantern Lane, Lexington Creek, and Ridgegate Elementary; also Sugar Land Middle, Quail Valley Middle, Missouri City Middle, Christa McAuliffe Middle, First Colony Middle, and Dulles Middle; also Dulles High, Hightower High, Progressive High, and Willowridge High Schools.

For Galveston, the phased return plan has been scrapped. Now residents will be allowed to come back on Wednesday. Starting on Wednesday at 6 am, those whose homes are "habitable" can come back to stay. Others can return, but they will have to leave.

Well stay cool everyone and be safe!
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Post Hurricane Damage and Other Developments

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
I am posting the latest Centerpoint Outage map as usual...this one as of 8 am Saturday, showing 47% without power (which means 53% have power). So, more than half have power!!! We have passed the halfway mark! The new color coded map is great, showing by zip code, when power should return to a majority of residents in that zip code.

Here is the link so you can check it all out in detail.
http://www.centerpointenergy.com/staticfiles/ike/outages.html

What I noticed from a quick review of the zip code map is that every zip code within Beltway 8 should have power by Thursday, September 25th, except for the zip code 77027 which will take longer. Again, these are projections from Centerpoint. And, the majority of the Sugar Land/Galveston area will be up by Monday, 9/22. That is when school starts in FBISD. Remember that Centerpoint is only 1 of 4 companies supplying power in the area. I hope you will forgive me for not talking about the others. I focus on Centerpoint as it affects the largest population.

There are some interesting before/after Ike aerial photos for Galveston, Bolivar Peninsula and High Island available through the USGS web site. I am including a 2 locations at right with the map showing the path of Ike. For Bolivar, I am showing the picture from point #2 (on the map) and for Galveston I ams showing the picture from point #5 (on the map). I believe that Galveston photo is showing the Balinese room--a structure of historical interest which has had to be rebuilt before. The after photo shows no structure at all, but you can make out the remains of the pier. See the hotel on shore? I think that is the Galvez. If this is wrong, please let me now. See the link below for more photos:

http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/ike/photo-comparisons/bolivar.html

Weather will be hot (according to whether you have electricity) and humid for the weekend and coming week. Everyone needs to slow down and drink lots and lots of water. Please take someone in who does not have electricity. We might get a weak push of drier air through a backdoor cold front toward the early part of the coming week...around the 28th or 29th but even this does not look very promising.

The area of disturbed weather in the eastern Caribbean is getting slightly better organized. Steering environment looks like it will push it toward Florida or the Bahamas. This could become a tropical depression in a day or so.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
As I spoke to one friend in Sugar Land who is still without power, he said his irritability is directly correlated with the length of time without power. It is extremely hard to be patient especially as it gets hotter. So patience is our word for today...in Spanish it is paciencia, pronounced pah-see-ane-see-ah. We need lots of paciencia right now!

AND MORE
HISD is now planning to phase in the return to school according to which schools have power. They may use generators in some capacity for the others, if the return to power takes too long. They are thinking about having 7 days of makeup and/or possibly making the kids go an extra hour each day for a while. Of course, there are criticisms and concerns. So, we shall see what they ultimately decide.

I know that the requirement to make up days can be waived if there were fewer than 2 weeks missed. But after 2 weeks of missed school, some days have to be made up. It is at the discretion of the school districts to decide if they want to use the waiver or not.

I hope that those of you who have a broken weatherhead on your home (that is where the line drop brings power into the house) know that you have to have a the weatherhead fixed before power can be returned. The power companies can not do this for you. In fact, usually a permit is required to make the fix. But that requirement has been waived in Houston. You will need a certified electrician to come out and fix it.

Galveston is considering allowing a phased in return to the island. But there are huge concerns about health issues as water, power, sewage are nearly nonexistent. If the phase-in is implemented, residents will be allowed to return to the least affected areas first. Stay tuned for more developments on that.

I hope that everyone who has lost power has cleaned out their refrigerators. Phillip Free suggests you put a layer of foil with about 20 pieces of charcoal in the fridge. He did that before he left town. He wasn't sure if this would help get rid of odors after the stink sets in. But he said it would be worth a try. I would suggest that if you left food in your fridge/freezer and you are still out of town and you know there is no power, you have someone clean it out for you and put in some charcoal no matter what.

Be safe everyone!

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Watching Tropics after Hurricane Ike and Pondering

HURRICANES AND WEATHER

First of all let me tell you that the area of disturbed weather in the eastern Caribbean is slightly more active. Right now, there is enough shear to keep it from developing but in a couple days, that will not be the case as it moves generally westward. Early model runs show a variety of paths but it is too soon to guess what the ultimate destination will be.

46% of the Centerpoint customers are still without power. This is a huge concern as our nice break from the humidity is almost gone. It will be warm and muggy especially starting Saturday and continuing through the upcoming week. If you know someone without power, take them in! Highs will reach 90 in some places as early as Sunday. Rain chances are slim. And now it doesn't look like a cold front will reach us at the end of the coming week. So warm and muggy will be the story for a while.

Fort Bend schools are set to open on Monday, even with about half of the area still without power. To the right you will see the outage map I have been showing, but I am also putting up the figure which shows outage percentage by zip code map. Of course it is quite tiny. So here is the link, so you can make it big enough to read. I know HISD has had to postpone plans to reopen their schools. Less than half of the schools have power so far.

http://www.centerpointenergy.com/staticfiles/ike/outages.html

And if you want to see the projected timeline for returning to almost full power, see the following list (which is also on the web site).

CenterPoint Energy announced today that based on damage assessment data obtained over the last few days, the company projects the following timeline, indicating approximately 80 percent restoration per region:
The following zip codes are estimated to have substantial power restoration by the end of day on Friday, September 19:
77065, 77094, 77095, 77354, 77355, 77356, 77362, 77375, 77377, 77382, 77384, 77418, 77420, 77423, 77429, 77430, 77433, 77434, 77435, 77441, 77444, 77445, 77447, 77449, 77450, 77461, 77468, 77469, 77471, 77474, 77479, 77482, 77484, 77486, 77488, 77493, 77494
The following zip codes are estimated to have substantial power restoration by the end of day on Monday, September 22:
77024, 77031, 77032, 77039, 77041, 77042, 77043, 77050, 77055, 77072, 77077, 77079, 77080, 77082, 77083, 77084, 77092, 77099, 77336, 77338, 77339, 77346, 77357, 77365, 77373, 77386, 77396, 77459, 77477, 77478, 77479, 77511, 77515, 77534, 77577, 77583
The following zip codes have sustained extensive damage, and will therefore have a restoration timeline that extends beyond Monday, September 22:
77002, 77003, 77004, 77005, 77006, 77007, 77008, 77009, 77010, 77011, 77012, 77013, 77014, 77015, 77016, 77017, 77018, 77019, 77020, 77021, 77022, 77023, 77025, 77026, 77027, 77028, 77029, 77030, 77033, 77034, 77035, 77036, 77037, 77038, 77040, 77044, 77045, 77046, 77047, 77048, 77049, 77051, 77053, 77054, 77056, 77057, 77058, 77059, 77060, 77061, 77062, 77063, 77064, 77066, 77067, 77068, 77069, 77070, 77071, 77073, 77074, 77075, 77076, 77078, 77081, 77085, 77086, 77087, 77088, 77089, 77090, 77091, 77093, 77096, 77098, 77379, 77380, 77386, 77388, 77389, 77401, 77422, 77459, 77489, 77502, 77503, 77504, 77505, 77506, 77507, 77510, 77515, 77517, 77518, 77520, 77521, 77530, 77531, 77532, 77534, 77535, 77536, 77539, 77541, 77545, 77546, 77547, 77550, 77551, 77554, 77562, 77563, 77565, 77566, 77568, 77571, 77573, 77578, 77581, 77583, 77584, 77586, 77587, 77590, 77591, 77598

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY

I thought that since school begins Monday for FBISD, we could learn the Spanish word for school--la escuela, pronounced lah s-quell-ah. Thank goodness, the kids will return soon to la escuela.

AND MORE
Headed to HEB at Austin Parkway and Highway 6. They had almost everything, except ice cream and stick butter. The produce was fully stocked...very nice. I haven't checked out gas stations but I suspect that is somewhat better as I didn't see long lines at the HEB gas station. Target on Highway 6 in Missouri City was open last night. But they had almost no produce, meat. They had no dairy and only a few sparse frozen goods.

I've been thinking a lot about this whole experience...I know, so are you. Are we meteorologists now superfluous? For years, we've been telling you about what to expect with a hurricane. Now you know first hand.

And yet, it would have been worse (beyond the storm surge area) had the storm been stronger...which it could have been. Winds could have been higher and we would have had much more structural damage. The storm surge could have been worse, although the size of this storm made the surge as bad as a Category 3 or 4. But another 5 feet of water over the Galveston sea wall and I doubt many structures would be left. Still, is it a moot point as the mold will require most of them to be destroyed any way? If the storm had come inland more to the west, there also would have been more damage. More people would have left after the storm. And with such a huge population leaving, it would be a huge strain on other cities. Texas and Louisiana would be tremendously burdened. As it is, with most structures still good enough to shelter people, there is a willingness to return, even without power.

Next time, will more people run from the wind (when the advice is still to hide from the wind when you are beyond the storm surge threat)? Don't believe that it can't happen again. In the 1940s, there were 11 storms which hit the upper Texas in a span of 10 years. I will admit only a couple where strong hurricanes.

Well, we need to focus on what we have right here and now, which is enough...to recover and to help each other recover.

Be safe everyone.

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman

Our Tenuous Situation After Hurricane Ike

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
Centerpoint is reporting 43% with power as of noon today (the 18th). Their target for "substantial" return of power was today at 2 pm. They are making slow but steady progress...yesterday the number was 39%. I also have noticed that other power suppliers in southeast Texas are making progress as well.

In my area, the subdivision across the street and up a ways is still without power. As I drove down Highway 6 last night (looking for gas for my husband's car), I could see that several subdivisions and strip centers still had no power. Meanwhile, being able to get gas has been touch and go. As reported yesterday, I was able to get gas somewhat easily yesterday morning. But I went to 7 places last night trying to do the same for our other car. I had told my husband to take my car to work as it uses less gas and had a full tank. I went to many of the same places, but all were without gas. Finally, a little after 10 pm, I found one place that still had gas and wasn't dealing with severely long lines.

Grocery supplies are a little bit better here in the suburbs. In Houston, options are still very limited. I am warning my friends to stock up before getting home. I also told them to try to come into town with as full a tank of gas as possible.

Humidity is increasing. But there has been a merciful cloud cover on and off today. Did some more babysitting and we had a nice time at the park. I am concerned as there will be more humidity and higher temperatures in the days to come. Over the weekend, it will hit 90 in a few places. Although there could be a hit or miss shower, the next best shot at rain doesn't come until the end of next week as the next front approaches. That weekend should be pleasant.

In the eastern Caribbean (over the Lesser Antilles), there is an area of disturbed weather which has the potential to organize when it gets into the central Caribbean in a couple days. This one could become a depression. Of course, I'll keep an eye it for you. Maybe this will be Kyle. Checking out the long range steering environment, I am hopeful that it will be forced to move to another location besides here.

SPANISH WORD FOR THE DAY
Because the humidity is increasing, I thought we could do the word humid -- húmedo pronounced oo-may-dough. It sure is húmedo outside.

AND MORE
The mayor of Houston says residents no longer need to boil their water. And the Starbucks at Dulles and Highway 6 is open...my stepdaughter was so happy about that. If you had Starbucks withdrawal, raise your hand. I hope no one minds my silliness sometimes. There is just so much bad news...we need to remember normal things which made us happy.

Take care everyone and be safe.
Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman