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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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November
2008
Volume
15
- Number 2 |
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The Return of
Electricity and School Openings
After Hurricane Ike. By: Maha Alnammari On
the early hours of September 13, 2008,
hurricane Ike made its landfall over Galveston, TX. The aftermath of
hurricane
Ike was brutal; a lot of people lost their homes, lives and beloved
ones.
Through the path of hurricane Ike through Texas, damages sustain were
beyond
imaginable especially in Galveston; many areas where declared
uninhabitable. A
lot of communities where flooded, suffered power shortages and failed
to offer
its citizens the basic means of a living. Power shortage was one of the
main
aftermath affects of hurricane Ike. In
the Recovery period after the landfall of
Ike the state starts focusing on getting back electricty. Center Point
Energy(CPN) – the company that provides power and electricity for
Houston
metropolitan area- had to asses the damage caused by Ike. “Hurricane
Ike mowed
down 50-foot-tall trees and caused massive damage to the company’s
27,000-plus
miles of distribution electric wires”. Therefore, CPN had to bring in
more than
11,000 workers to fix these damages. Because of these sever damages 93%
of CPN
customers lost their electricity. Within a week some areas started to
get it
electricty back and that is as ealry as September 14, but unfortonatly,
some
had to wait till September 30. CPN,
myfoxHoustin.com and the Public Utility
Commission of Texas kept track of the electricty outage to infome the
public
and give them information. For example, Jefferson county lost 100% of
it
electricity on the 14th of September effecting 111,780
customers. By
September 25 Jefferson's electricy was back. Galvestion still suffred
from
13.04% outages until September 30. These
websites kept track on a daily basis of the precentage of outages and
the
number of customers effected. Within
almost two weeks after Ike's landfall CNP was
able to restore 95% of the electricity. The other 5%
“customers [were] unable
to receive
electric service due to damaged electrical equipment or flooding”. In
the early days after the downfall of
hurricane Ike it was too early to assess the scale of damages caused,
but one
thing was for sure; students where going to be the ones who suffered
the most.
Due to power shortages and severe damages “some schools had to remain
closed
until September 23, 25, and 29, and in some situations they were closed
till
further notice” according to the Texas
education agency. Several schools on the TEA list were closed
indefinitely
due to extensive damages. A lot of parents had to make judgment calls
concerning their children education. They could wait until schools
reopened;
which may take a matter of days, weeks or months, or parents could
simply
re-enroll their kids in different school districts. The TEA website
kept the
teachers, students and parents updated constantly on the schools
reopening
situation. According
to The Chronicle of Higher Education
news blog the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston has
suffered USD
710 –million in damages and other costs related to hurricane Ike. State
law
makers drafted a rescue plan to avert threatened layoffs, of which the
university was considering.
References
http://media.myfoxhouston.com/news/ikezipcodereports/index.html http://www.puc.state.tx.us/webapp/public/apps/emr/ByCounty.aspx http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7619389.stm http://www.centerpointenergy.com |