Now that Ike has ripped through Houston, lots of people are asking me what the future - both short term and long term - holds.
Right now there's a 9:00PM to 6:00AM curfew in place in Houston. This has caused us to work up a new schedule. We've split the 24 hour span into 3 shifts, allowing the third shift to begin prior to the curfew and end just after it.
I received word from a couple of the guys back there that my car is just fine, as is my apartment.
At this point, I have 2 concerns:
- What am I going to do about all the food that is now rotting in my fridge and freezer? If I were there, I could have removed it early in the game, but now it's just sitting there.
- Is anyone going to try to screw with my car, since it has a full tank of gas and is parked downtown?
I'm going to call the leasing office back at the apartment to see if someone can go empty my fridge for me. It makes me very sick to think about, because I stocked my freezer with meat over the last few weeks, and now it all has to be thrown out. It's going to be pretty expensive to replace too, but I guess I'll just have to take it a little at a time. :-/
The word on how long we'll be here is sketchy. The one group that is here will be heading back Wednesday. I imagine if we don't go back then, we will sometime between then and Friday.
After 7 hours on the road from Houston to Dallas, we finally arrived around 7:30PM. The company took care of travel - via a Ford Explorer, rented from Avis - and lodging - The Hilton Garden Inn. Food is being taken care of by way of me paying with my credit card, for which I will be reimbursed after presenting receipts upon return to Houston.
The current guess is that we will be here thorough Sunday, working our normal schedule until the point where Houston is knocked offline. By that, I mean the office has been closed due to evacuations and such, and those who remain are working from home. If and when the power and/or internet goes out, we will be thrown into the schedule to help relieve where necessary.
I am in the process of powering down my equipment at home, remotely, simply because I don't want flickering lights to ruin my hard drives. Aside from that, my car was left under the office at Bayou Place in Houston, and it's just a waiting game from here-out.