We just drove over from the Sharpstown area to check out the townhouse in midtown.
The townhouse was fine — no flood or structural damage. Electric was off when we were there, but it has been off and on through the day (we know from calling and the answering machine picking up, or not). Frozen goods were still frozen well, so I don’t think power has been out much.
Damage we could see from Southwest Freeway was minor — some debris, and a few billboard signs blown off, but not much beyond that.
From Kirby to West Alabama and the Icehouse, there were a few downed limbs, but not much more damage. That area had electric. The Icehouse also had electric, and hadn’t suffered any appreciable damage. Callie’s brother sold most of his stock yesterday, and it’s not clear that he’ll be able to get resupplied and open today, although he does expect to have ice. How ironic that one of the few Icehouses in Houston that really WAS an icehouse back in the day may be selling ice again later today.
Electric around the southern edge of midtown was out, from Elgin beginning a little before main to roughly Jackson. But some parts of midtown did have power, as we could see from the traffic signals, so I wouldn’t think it would take too long to get that part of town back online.
We’re back in Sharpstown (we’ll move back to midtown later), and discovered two businesses open — a Mexican carniceria/fruteria around Beechnut/Club Creek doing BRISK business, and a liquor store on Beechnut near Braes Bayou that seemed to be doing slower business.
Incidentally, the bayous we checked out have little water in them, so KTRK has probably reassigned Deborah Wrigley to a more interesting beat.
