Houston

Several of you have written to ask about my son, Adam Smith Palmer, and his family, who live just south of Houston. Thanks for your concerns.

He called us on his cell phone Saturday, about noon, shortly after Ike had passed. He and their family (including his visiting mother-in-law) are all fine.

The wind took out parts of their fence, their garden shed, and lots of shingles, but fortunately they had boarded up their windows. They have several leaks in the attic, one of which went through the ceiling, and now they have lots of buckets and pans in their attic.

When he called, they were without power and without water, and we haven't had any updates from them since then (suggesting they save their cell-phone batteries for other calls and uses). We surmise from the Houston Chronicle that they might have water again, now (plus they had laid in a good supply of water), and they had a backup supply of propane for their barbecue (which was okay). The map from the Chronicle is not clear on whether their neighbourhood has power yet, but we're guessing not.

The cleanup will not be quick and easy, and they will have to join the hundreds of thousands of others who need roof repairs. Presumably they will need tarps to cover the roofs as temporary protection, and we hope the big box suppliers are shipping tonnes of them into the area. Brian Ferguson tells me that a year after Wilma hit Miami, there are [update: were -- it was a few years ago] still some houses that have [had] tarps on them while waiting to have the roofs repaired. I sure hope it doesn't take that long for my son and his family.