Friday Night Television Watching

Watching the Weather Channel and news this Friday night to watch the Harvey Hurricane track https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-harvey-forecast-gulf-coast-texas-louisiana.  So far some positives:  evacuations of patients was handled smoothly, according to two Covenant Hospital https://www.covenanthealth.org/ nurses who took equipment to move a baby to NICU in San Antonio.  Governor Abbott has already declared 30 counties disaster areas, with an awareness that more can be added as needed, and President Trump has signed off on the request for Federal aide.  Another good thing, Governor Abbot in Texas has lifted the hotel/motel tax for the next 14 days for evacuees and first responders, saying this is a housing emergency.  The Texas Department of Criminal Justice https://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/announcements/announce_hurricane_harvey.html has an emergency plan in place.  The Texas Department of State Health Services has posted information about preparing for a hurricane http://dshs.texas.gov/ .  FEMA is staged, as is the Texas National Guard.  A former co-worker now living in Houston has posted on Facebook that she is safe, so far.

Lubbock is sending firemen, and others to assist the teams.  The South Plains Red Cross is on standby to send a truck and volunteers to help with rescue and clean up. 

Evacuations were ordered yesterday if not Wednesday.  Power companies have crews on standby to start working on restoring power as soon as it is safe.

Texas has its own power grid for much of the state http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2003/08/why_texas_has_its_own_power_grid.html, and but Lubbock is not in it, so  if there are some problems, we could be affected, although is very unlikely.  Nothing is impossible.  I am charging my phone and my laptop stays charged. I have lots of flashlights and batteries, but I probably need to get some more D cell and C cell batteries tomorrow.  I always have extra food at home, even for the kitties.  I might be low on bottled water, so should probably buy some of that, also.