[Ansteorra] IKE...OT a sobering moment

[Paul Gilbert]

Today at my office here is Austin, about 15 people assembled near 200 
traffic signal control heads (the big yellow things hanging on the poles 
with the stop/go lights on them) for the TxDOT Beaumont District office.

It was a quite a job and small compared to what is coming form the 
Houston area.

During the process, our division branch manager brought in two photos 
that gave focus and perspective to what we were doing and had happened.

The first was a sat photo of Gilcrease, Texas. A small town on the 
Boliver Peninsula about 8 miles from the Boliver Ferry landing.

It showed houses and a bridge, trees, etc.

The second photo taken yesterday afternoon from the TxDOT state plane 
which showed the same basic area.

The difference was that the second photo showed...there was nothing 
there....

Nothing there except muddy slabs, a broken up bridge, LOTS of water 
where there had been none and a few stripped up trees.

Other wise there was nothing there, ho houses, no cars....

Nothing but what is left when 100+mph winds and a 20 foot wall of water 
rolls thru.

It gave all 15+ people several minutes of pause before we resumed our 
tasks of assembling the items we had been given.

 From what I have seen of photos from that same flight and from talking 
with folks on that plane, there are several cities in that area that 
have simply ceased to exist.

I hope they got out....

Paul Gilbert / Baron Niklas Vasilevich


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Paul Gilbert, KE5ZW             H.E. Niklas Vasilevich
niklas at pbgilbert.net      CB,CSM,KGA,OTR,ORH,Crane,AoA
512-733-3035 Cellular             Kingdom of Ansteorra

            Society for Creative Anachronism

     Texas Dept. Of Transportation, Radio Operations
      Austin, Texas                  512-506-5141
                pgilber at dot.state.tx.us

                "The Eagle has landed"
  "Sable, a double-headed eagle, a bordure engrailed or"

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