I Don’t Like Ike

The mother of all hurricanes just mowed down Houston early this morning. My power went out at 8:30 PM and has yet to return. Thanks to my ex-wife, who loved to buy candles of all kinds, I had no lack of candle power.

And the best thing about having no electricity is that you get to barbecue every night.

I’m writing this from the Fort Bend Democrats Rosenberg headquarters which not only has power, but TV and internet. We are operational and even better organized than ever.

Now when I was listening to my portable radio this morning, a simulcast of the local ABC affiliate, the news anchor got a call from a big FEMA director in Austin. He was calling, he said, to reassure southeast Texans that help was on the way. “Good,” I said to no one. Then the news anchor asked what I took to be a reasonably easy question, maybe to give this guy a break. He asked:

“For all these people in the flooded areas, trapped on their rooftops, is there a special signal that they should be giving the search and rescue helicopters as they do their over flights of these stricken areas?”

The director hesitated, covered the receiver, and then came back:

“I’m going to hand the telephone over to the Coast Guard commander here at the emergency response center who can better answer your question.”

After a few seconds the Coastie comes on the phone and they introduce themselves to each other, the anchor now clearly flabbergasted that the question got referred. He repeated his question:

“For all these people in the flooded areas, trapped on their rooftops, is there a special signal that they should be giving the search and rescue helicopters as they do their over flights of these stricken areas?”

Said the Coastie:

“Well, ahhh, they can wave their arms or a flag or a towel.”

Now I don’t know about you, but that little exchange gave me the same warm fuzzy feeling that Hurricane Ike did when it destroyed my backyard fence. Another example of FEMA’s out-of-the-box thinking.

Another reason why Texans should hate the regime that they so joyfully voted into power.