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Sunday, September 21, 2008

FEMA MRE's like manna from heaven?

As you know, Hurricane Ike left South Texas and South Louisiana in a terrible mess. I was reminded of manna** from heaven when FEMA showed up Tuesday, four days after Ike had come, with MRE's, water, and ice. Now they have blue tarps to put over holes on rooves.

Well, we didn't get any MRE's ** on Tuesday when they showed up. Hurricane Ike taxed FEMA's capabilities once more. They had run out. I would have liked to taste one but we did still have a little food we were keeping on ice that we could eat.

We did get four bags of ice. I think they still had a little water too, but our MUD** # 18 came through with flying colors one more time. They were running on generators as no one up here had electricity.

You might ask why we didn't just go to the Kroger store? Only problem was that they were closed as their power was also out and all their food was spoiling. Ditto for all stores of every kind 150 miles from the coast, all the way from New Orleans to Freeport, Texas.

We didn't go back for ice Wednesday but hightailed it to Katy to stay with our daughter's family. They didn't lose electricity and had just gotten their cable TV, Internet, and telephone back on Tuesday night.

We were ready for water loss. I drew a bath tube full of water to flush toilets and wash with and had saved up a dozen gallon jugs for filling with water.



Was I worried that someone would break in and steal my drinking supply? No way, Adi was standing guard. Only nine of them are in this picture.
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Did we eat good in Katy? You can bet your bippy, the Jim Bunch always eats! Billy cooked; we had steak, twice baked potatoes, salad, macaroni and cheese, and bread.
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** Notes:
MRE: Civilian Food Rations: Complete (Meals-Ready-to-Eat) link

MUD in Texas stands for Municipal Utility District for populations living outside city limits. We pay taxes (about $1500 a year) and then a monthly fee for sewer, water, and garbage pickup. Entergy provides our electricity, we heat and cook with propane gas.

Marna: "The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.' " Exodus 16:31-32

Update: Things are not nearly all up and running. In Houston 2400 intersections have non-working traffic lights tonight so traffic is a mess when it flows. There is a curfew at night.
Tonight 54% of the customers in the Houston area had their power restored, last night only half had.
I don't have statistics on destroyed and unlivable homes yet. Many have not been able to get in to see their homes yet either.


10 comments:

  1. Hi Jim, glad to see you survived the storm which is the main thing, good thing you have a guard dog to look after the place too! Bob.

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  2. Now. How many Omers in a Ephah, again?

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  3. Even in a time of crisis, the Jim bunch finds a way to eat. Priceless.

    One of the biggest pains during the recovery after Andrew was mail delivery. We had to go to the post office at a designated time and pick it up. If we missed our appointed time, we had to wait until the following week.

    I feel better knowing you have Adi. No one will get past that menacing face.

    Hang in there and keep us posted.

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  4. Hi Jim.
    Glad to hear thing have settled to some extent.
    If you guys had said that food was
    a problem that would have been another disaster for the Jim's bunch Ha!! Ha!! Stay Well.

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  5. Dear Jim,
    Am I glad to see you all up with a blink in your eye.
    Adi guarding the water..
    I wonder how Adi took it when the storms were howling at worst?
    I sure had her in my prayers too.
    Why should God not care about animals. He has created them too.
    I see you have built your house of stone, just like big brother pig. Well then the wolf can huff and puff, your house sure can stand it.
    Hopefully things turn into normal before too long.
    From Felisol

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  6. Jim, I heard that Entergy was down for the count. I hope you get your power back soon.

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  7. Bob (dreadnaught), I like your new blog. Yes, but Adi is more photogenic than she is guarding.

    Doug, you tell me. I lost my NIV Study Bible which would have told me. Google could. (The ephah is ten omers.)

    Fred, the Jim Bunch doesn't miss many meals. Not nearly all of them make the blog!
    I remember now that you guys had to deal with Andrew. It isn't fun, is it?
    Ditto above on our photogenic dog.

    Gwen, thank you for checking on us. I didn't take pictures of what we were eating her while 'camping.'

    Felisol, I thought of that parable about building on the rock. At friendswood we lived in a low place that flooded. We had this house built on a hill. :-)
    God is there for the good and bad, he makes the rain fall on the good and the bad.

    T.F. and Lucy, Entergy did well by us, we got power back Wednesday night late. We stayed in Katy until Friday night.
    ..

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  8. Gday Jim.. So pleased to hear from you and know your safe, Hahaha I think that Guard dog "Adi"would lick you to death and give them a bottle of water..the Jim bunch eats again...

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  9. Hi Jim ~~Great to hear that you are doing well after all the destruction
    for so many and it will take ages to get everyone home and happy again.
    So glad the Jim Bunch were able to eat again. Good to have water with the generator's help. I was also sorry to hear that you and Mrs. Jim lost so much in 1979, so this wasn't as bad for you. Sorry about the small print on my blog - it had the underlines on the first part and then came good. Peter somehow took off the underlines and changed the font. I have magnifying glasses all around my house. Have you tried the trick of pressing Control and the Plus sign? that enlarges most texts, and of course ctrl and minus
    sign reduces it back. Take care,
    So glad all is well with you and the family. Cheers, Merle.

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  10. Jim ~ When I was in Vietnam in 69-70 we had the pre-cusor to MRE's they were called LRP's (pronounced lerps) which was short for Long Range Patrol Rations. We really didn't get too many of them though. We had mostly the old WWII type C-Rations, but if you are hungry enough... anything tastes good even C's and lerps.
    I hope all is OK there. We are still hearing the noises of nail guns around here from the June storm. It seems like it will be going on for months and months! ~ jb///

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