Hurricane Ike Update From Alma Down In Port Aransas

I got an update from Alma tonight. She has not evacuated. She is prepared for high tides. Her account of today is good. Alma is a singer and a writer. She's good at both. If you want to hear Alma sing, go here. If you want to read what Alma's writes, scroll down.

The first refugees arrived here in Fort Worth today. Sandbagging is going on in anticipation of a lot of water in about 2 days.

Below, Alma's message from tonight, from the Texas Gulf Coast, awaiting Hurricane Ike's landfall. Towards the end of her message Alma thanks those of you who kindly offered her a place to escape to.

Dear Everybody....

Well, I woke up around 5:30am yesterday, got ready and as I stepped out the door, I laid down my laptop and grabbed Selena and threw her inside so I wouldn't have to catch her later. I walked to work, opened the door and damn...didn't have my laptop. So, I practically ran back home when I realized I had laid it down by my front door and left it there. I'm so nervous, I just left it there! It was still there. Most of Port A was still asleep. I was already tired and exhausted with worry so I called a cab to run me back to work. I didn't want to be totally sweaty before my day even started. The taxi driver (now we know they are a different breed subject to having unorthodox beliefs) was convinced that the storm was not going to hit here. Me, not being so sure, tried to convince him it was at least a possibility. He mentioned the Weather Underground as saying we were being fed misinformation by the press (he called it lies). I dunno... I've been thru a few hurricanes as a kid and they were scary and unpredictable. He said Ed at Moby Dicks was having a Hurricane Party that night. I dunno...I know that's the typical Port A mindset, but I'm not that much a "local" yet. I'm still scared. I don't wanna party.

All day as my boss, Joanne and I baked, frosted, and sold giant cinnamon rolls at half price (she figured the electricity would go down and they would spoil so we may as well sell them half price) people came in to get breakfast and coffee. The poorer of us were worried. The rich basta... I mean-rich folks would come in almost giddy that this storm appeared to be headed right for us...no big deal they would laugh. They had insurance. In the meantime, people like me were quietly freaking out. My boss had just unpacked her antiques into her new home. I had a broken car, a $700 electric bill forcing me to move, 3 dogs I am responsible for, and was in denial I would lose all the crap I own. It's mostly crap, BUT IT'S MY CRAP!.

I was already so worried and exhausted. As I baked and frosted, and waited on customers, my boss was out delivering/donating the giant cinnamon rolls to the Police Dept, City Hall, the Chamber of Commere and later in the afternoon, we tried to take a bunch to the Ferry Boat workers, but we were turned away by their security guard who said it was against State policy to receive gifts (this I know is a lie...this is policy only for the Port A Ferry guys all because I gave a newspaper to one of them and they were reading it on the boat in the wee hours of the morning and Mr. Howard happened to see him and he didn't like it...there were no cars on the boat but he just didn't like it). Anyway, I was a bit miffed because these are some of the most unappreciated workers I have ever seen. They work 24/7 in EVERY kind of weather. Should a Hurricane hit, they cannot go home and are shipped to safety on the mainland until just after the storm passes. They then go back to work to bring across rescue and infrastructure personnel back into Mustang Island. I almost cry when I see the skin on the ones that work on the "Death Shift" (from about 2pm to 11pm..the hottest part of the day and then they have to deal with drunk tourists who pee - yes they do - and vomit on the boats - don't ever walk on those boats barefoot...). I will fire off an email to Austin TxDot when this is all over and go over Mr. Howard's head. He's an inconsiderate basta...I mean...person who can't seem to get a grip on their staffing problems so they work to death the reliable workers they call in to work inhumane overtime. These guys routinely work 12 hour days in every weather and most inhumanely, the hot, brutal Port A summer sun.

Since we figured the food would rot when the power went off (we know this because the power sometimes goes off for no apparent reason and during silly little rain storms), my boss gave me a price and I benefited from some cheese and meat. And okay a little Champagne...I don't even really drink and may just take those back....But they also go to ruin if they get too hot.

In the meantime, a new "friend" from the Oceans of Seafood offered to look at my car. I was elated as no one had offered to do so before. He came by and chatted earlier in the morning, had some coffee and picked up my key. After my boss left for the day, I washed all the baking pans and normal day's dishes and since I hadn't heard from him, went across the street to see if he had an ETA. What had happened was that his boss had enlisted him to go board up his house in Rockport and he wouldn't be able to help me apparantly. He simply left the key there for me pick up, but never explained anything. He doesn't have a cell phone they said.

The workers at Oceans of Seafood saw me with 2 bags of cheese and meat and concluded I stole it. I could tell from the look on the face of the little girl who works there that still views me with mistrust in her eyes.... I explained (even tho it's none of their business) that Joanne and I had come to an agreemnt on price and I bought those things. I am certain they will be eager to report me to her (she's getting this email and I know she knows what's up). That's okay....they should tell her if they suspect thievery, it's just not what's happening here. So, I bought $5 worth of prawns (I got 2 meals out of it) and called a cab.

After I put all that stuff on ice in my ice chest, I came home and slept. Depressed, tired, and frustrated, I was not able to go on without some sleep. I woke up and called my sister, Clara, who said they still didn't know where this thing would hit and that they could lend me her husband's car. Thank God! They brought it over from Corpus around 7pm as I was throwing away a whole lot of paperwork from the Newspaper job and just crap I hadn't gone over.

After they left and after I threw a whole bunch of stuff away, I just couldn't deal with it any more for the day. I heard my pal, Luis the congero (he plays the congas) playing with new acquaintance Mark at the Tarpon Ice House 2 doors down. They sounded great! I decided to take a break from the worry and angst and go tell them they sounded GREAT!

So, I walked over and OMG there were a bunch of people I knew just laughing, drinking beer, and grooving on the sounds. I was greeted by the barking of Hanna, the bar dog. It's how she greets all the customers there. She usta belong to one of the pirates but he drinks a bit and Hannah decided one day she preferred to belong to Paul and she's lived at the Tarpon Ice House ever since. My pal, Phyllis said I should sing and even tho I protested that I was in the middle of packing to evacuate, well, before I knew it, I had a guitar on my shoulder and was singing into the mic. So much for packing.

After I sang, Paul, the owner, was very nice and complimentary and said I should play there in about 2 weeks. I couldn't just leave after that and stayed and relaxed and drank 2 whole Shiner Bocks and laughed with Phyllis and my neighbor, Sara, and her boyfriend, Jack (it was his guitar I used) and grooved to the music and around midnight, staggered back 2 doors down and went to sleep. Yes, I staggered after 2 beers. I don't normally drink much of anything.

In the morning, the storm had veered and they were saying that it would hit just South of Galveston/Houston. So, my sister had decided to wait. I was very happy about that and found it to be good sound judgement. Sara was telling me that the last storm, they evacuated and after $500 later in hotel, gas, etc, no storm ever hit. I slept for a coupla more hours and got up and went to eat breakfast at Cancun Restaurant. I don't normally eat there. I prefer Taqueria San Juan because I think the food's better, but I was in a quiet mood and I end up visiting with the whole family, kids and all, whenever I go to San Juan and opted to go where I could just eat and be still and quiet. I got sick on their food. I knew I shoulda gone to San Juan...

After breakfast, I decided to wash as many clothes as I could so that I could take as many clean clothes as I could when I evacuated. The Wash Board (the nicest washeteria I've ever seen...immaculate and the water is scalding HOT) was boarded up and closed. I rode the Ferry (the first time in about 2-3 weeks) and the Ferry workers told me the storm had slowed to 8 mph and they didn't know where it was going anymore. Great. So, I went into AP (Aransas Pass) but they were under mandatory evac and their washeteria was closed, too. I went to Ingleside and found my other washeteria open. I don't know how many loads of clothes I did, ate some fried chicken at the Good n Crisp, and came back. I had a nice chat with a TxDot Ferry Guy I hadn't talked to before, bought more ice for all that meat and cheese and the little bit of champagne in the ice chest and drove down Beach Street to check out the beach.

The water is already up to the dunes. I managed to carefully park for just a minute amongst all the surfers. The Gulf was wild, the waves were beautiful and furious. The day today was obscenely beautiful. Just like 911 seven years ago. That, too, was a beautiful day in Dallas. Clear bright blue skies. I was driving to my temp job at Doctor's Hospital on Forrest when an incredulous DJ told us of a report from the wire about a plane going into the World Trade Center. I got to work and by the time I got to my worktable (I was posting payments for Lab Corp - it was a terrible temp assignment, but when you're a temp, you go where they send you). I would sneak to the bathroom just so that I could sneak into the doctor's offices and watch their TV and their reports of the terrorist attack. It was eerie at home. I lived under one of the flight paths at Love Field. Those planes were a part of my life. They were just 1000 feet off the ground when they flew over my apartment so that it was plunged into shadow everytime a plane went over and that was about every 20 minutes. There were no planes flying over for some time. It was a quiet reassuraqnce that things were returning to a somewhat normal when flights returned to Love Field. But I digress....

So, I am home now. I am going over to my sister's tomorrow sometime. We are out of that "cone" of Hurricane trajectory for the time being but that could change. I will put everything on chairs so as to elavate it as best I can before I leave. They are projecting 4-6 foot seas here and that's taller than me so I am taking no chances. I will take what I can't part with (tho the locals here in Port A insist we have nothing to worry about and I will lose nothing, they say). Yea... we'll see.

So, we did not go to the Ranch in Blanco. If we did, we'd be heading right into the thing. I will pray for my sister in Houston as they look to be on the Southern end of the storm according to the latest projections. I don't worry that much about her because she has an unbelievably nice house made of brick and she lives about an hour inland. It should make landfall sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. Port A is deserted. Everything is boarded up including my little "cottage". We are told we will get just tropical storm level winds. Hell, we see those during our thunderstorms.

On the way back from the beach, on Beach Street, all the restaurants are boarded up and closed except for the Beach and Station Street Grill. The Gaff, an un-air conditioned, pirate hang-out that's been here forever was busy with customers. The Stripes convenience store in front of my "cottage" was boarded up and closed, as was the IGA Grocery store. Luis sez it's all for real once the IGA boards up. I guess it's real.

So, I look forward to visiting with my sister and my adorable niece and nephew and riding this Ike out. My sister has a very nice house I feel totally safe in and I'm looking forward to the visit. And her delicious cooking. My sistah can cook I tell you! The traffic on the Ferry is light. Most boats have left the Port A marina. And the skies are so bright and clear and blue it's hard to believe there's such a storm out there.

So, that's the latest. We haven't dodged a bullet yet...

Many thanks to those who read my email posted in my long-time friend, Durango's blog. I so appreciate your offers of refuge. It does my soul such good to know there are caring people out there who would be so generous to someone they don't even know. You are good, kind people and you renewed my faith that people are basically good, especially when things get tough.

Me and Gomez, Viggo Mortensen (you can call him Viggo), and Papi Chulo (my boyz, the chihuahuas) are okay for now...we'll be headed for the mainland sometime tomorrow.

Thanks again! More later cuz it's not over.

love,
alma